A drawn final won't necessarily be enough for home side Victoria to lift the Sheffield Shield trophy against NSW and both captains agree it's a step in the right direction.
All too often in the past, the home side's curators have turned out flat lifeless wickets with their team needing only to draw to be crowned champions.
But in a move announced before the season, Cricket Australia will trial the bonus point system used in the regular season for the final that starts at Junction Oval on Thursday.
The system is complicated but in a nutshell it encourages teams to score and take wickets as quickly as they can to earn points.
With the system in place, the Blues could be awarded the trophy even if the game is a draw if they have amassed more points for positive play than Victoria.
Travis Dean could be forgiven for cursing the timing of the one-year trial after the Vics finished well on top of the table, but playing for a draw hasn't been what his side has been about all summer.
"Every game we've played we've tried to win so it's not going to be any different," Dean said.
"I think there's going to be a result ... the wicket, I think, is going to produce something.
"Five days with 90 overs each day ... there's going to be enough time to get 40 wickets.
"It should add to the spectacle."
Without the incentive to produce a pitch geared toward helping batsmen occupy the crease, the benefit of the trial should be obvious when Dean and Blues counterpart Peter Nevill inspect the wicket on Thursday morning.
"I think you're going to see pitches that are just really good cricket wickets," Nevill said.
"The last thing you want is a wicket offering nothing to the bowlers and it's five days of watching people smack the ball around the park.
"It will make for a great contest.
"... The results speak for themselves with what's happened in Shield finals for a number of years now.
"The Shield that we won in 2013-14 was a draw, most of them have been, so I think this is a really positive step."
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