Cricket Victoria chief executive Tony Dodemaide, whose 93 Shield appearances places him eighth on the state's all-time list, agreed that it seemed somewhat anomalous.

"I was a bit surprised actually that that was the case. I would've thought, back in the day obviously, we had some fairly dominant periods from both Victoria and NSW, who won the bulk of the shields," Dodemaide said.

The statistical quirk can change this week when the Bushrangers face South Australia for the second year running in the Shield final.

While the unprecedented achievement would be meritorious in isolation, Dodemaide notes that there are several other reasons why this Victorian group deserves extra praise.

For one thing they have made finals under three different coaches: Greg Shipperd, David Saker and this year Andrew McDonald. Shipperd's contract wasn't renewed after the 2014-2015 season, while Saker left to take up a role in the national coaching set-up.

Then there's the fact the Bushrangers have barely played a game on home soil in the back half of any of the three seasons. With the MCG again out of play because of football, this year's final will be held in Alice Springs, a venue at which Victoria have regularly "hosted" games since 2015. This final is the second in three years the Bushrangers have had to play away from home despite finishing top. Last year they travelled to Adelaide to topple the Redbacks.

Dodemaide said there was a case to be made for this being the greatest Victorian cricket era.

"I'm sure there'd be plenty of arguments for those teams back in the day that I never saw, that you only read about," he said.

"But I still think this particular period, with the way the modern game goes, with all the transitions there, with all the movements of players, the incorporation of Big Bash and the three formats of the game, the movements of all the Australian players coming and going, I think it's an enormously significant achievement.

"Clearly there's a lot against you."

And with the Shield more marginalised, Dodemaide said he didn't think Victoria was given enough credit. "It is still cricket season. I understand that the sporting calendar's very crowded now, but I'm a firm believer that this has been a really significant period in Victorian cricket, and that these achievements do not get the recognition that they deserve," he said.

"Certainly we know that internally, and we celebrate that internally, but it would be good if there was a broader appreciation of that."

Recently there have been potential distractions. Glenn Maxwell's pre-season request to move to NSW was knocked back. Then there were Maxwell's critical public comments about captain Matthew Wade's decision to bat ahead of him in the order. And this year Wade and Marcus Stoinis have asked to move back to their home states - Tasmania and Western Australia respectively - for family reasons.

All three of those players are in India with the Australian Test team, but Dodemaide said the Bushrangers had maintained focus. "In the modern age of cricket we do see a lot of transition. The players are used to coming and going now," he said.

"It's well accepted that players do pick themselves up and go to play for other teams."