As the skippers gathered for the traditional pre-Sheffield Shield final photocall on Thursday, Bailey might even have been tempted to make it a Boag’s Premium as opposed to a XXXX Gold.

Not only do the two states have each other to thank for their last first-class title, but it was the Bulls who turned around Tasmania’s fortunes this season.

Two matches in, the Tigers looked destined for a third successive wooden spoon.

But whatever newly-installed coach Adam Griffith said in the Bellerive Oval rooms after Queensland’s seven-wicket win in November had a profound impact on his team’s season.

Since that day, their record reads D, W, W, L, W, D, W, W – the Bulls again providing the solitary blemish with a 206-run win at the Gabba in which injuries to pacemen Jackson Bird and Gabe Bell saw Matt Wade (3-13) and even Bailey add to their first-class bowling stats.

It is also worth noting that those rain-affected draws saw the Tigers well on top against Victoria and NSW while only South Australia came close to them throughout the five wins.

The Redbacks’ 16-run loss in Hobart earlier this month appears as a stark contrast to the Tigers’ other formidable winning margins of 142 runs, 10 wickets, 206 runs, an innings and 87 runs and the 156-run defeat of the reigning back-to-back-to-back champion Bushrangers which secured a final berth.

The 22 players taking to Brisbane’s Allan Border Field on Friday morning will include eight from the competition’s top-10 performers of the season.

Queensland quicks Michael Neser (37 at 19.70) and Luke Feldman (33 at 20.03) sit third and 10th on a wicket-taking table which has their Tasmanian counterparts Tom Rogers (average 17.31), Jackson Bird (20.22) and Sam Rainbird (27.91) clustered from fourth to sixth with 35 scalps each.

Meanwhile the run-scorers’ table finds Bulls teammates Marnus Labuschagne (758 at 39.89) and Matt Renshaw (686 at 40.35) sitting third and eighth while Jake Doran is the sole Tasmanian in fifth with 722 at 45.12.

That said, the Tigers batsmen have shared their runs around with Bailey (551), Wade (546) and Jordan Silk (416) all regular contributors while more than half of Alex Doolan’s 471 runs came from one unbeaten innings (247) at the MCG in November’s draw.

Fellow Test discard Joe Burns (635 at an impressive 57.72) also claimed an unbeaten double ton this season while Englishman Charlie Hemphrey (491 at 40.91) and Jack Wildermuth (478 at 31.86) have been the Bulls’ other principal contributors.

Since meeting in back-to-back finals in 2012 and ’13, when they each claimed titles on home soil, neither side has finished in the top three on the Shield ladder and both will desperate to add some overdue silverware.

Eleven years after helping Tasmania to its historic first Sheffield Shield title, the former South Launceston combination of Bailey and Griffith are respectively chasing a fourth as a player and first as a coach.

Both said this week that the opportunity had arrived earlier than they expected, particularly given their team’s poor start to the campaign.

However, victory in the Sunshine State this week would continue one successful trophy-laden career on the field, and hopefully launch another off it.