When Matthew Wade left Tasmania as a 19-year-old intent on becoming Victoria's first-choice wicketkeeper, his father told him not to worry, home wasn't going anywhere. "You can always get on a plane and come back if you want to," Scott Wade said.
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That his son will do just that, eight years on, to captain the Bushrangers in a home-away-from-home Sheffield Shield final won't help the mood of an opponent that contemplated legal action over the choice of venue. Wade's history at the ground is enough to leave Western Australia feeling decidedly homesick.
"From the age of two, until he left for Victoria, he spent a good part of is life – summer and winter – at Bellerive Oval," Scott Wade said. "More time than he spent at home, I'd reckon."
The ground is home to his earliest memories, including playing cricket in the Clarence football changerooms with Jack Riewoldt, Ben Fagan (nephew of Hawthorn football manager Chris) and Josh Wright (son of former Sydney Swan Stephen). At 15, Wade made a century there that steered Clarence to a TCA grand final win, having looked plumb leg before first ball to Tasmanian fast bowler Brett Geeves.
It's his father's favourite sporting memory. "Andrew Dykes [now Cricket Tasmania's operations manager] said after the game, 'He probably doesn't realise how significant that innings was.' And it was. It set him on his way."
Rounding out the Bellerive CV, Wade was vice-captain to Sam Lonergan in a Tassie Mariners team featuring Riewoldt and Grant Birchall that won the national championships. "Bellerive's been a big part of his life," says Scott Wade, who as chief executive of AFL Tasmania could have watched the shield final from his office if a looming relocation to the ground had already been completed.
Matthew Wade said on Wednesday the Bushrangers would play the final anywhere, but admitted having had fingers crossed that Cricket Australia would give his old home the nod. His first-class record there – 655 runs from 13 matches at a smidge under 60 with three centuries –will warm him all the more.
"It's a lot shorter flight," said Wade, who remains close to childhood mates who still live in and around Bellerive. "Obviously it wouldn't be ideal to go to WA's ground, seeing as they finished second. They'd be able to stay at home and relax and wait for us to get over there. To go to Tassie is definitely our preference."
Victoria has won five of eight shield matches played interstate this season, including the two "home" fixtures in Alice Springs in the past month. Wade said they would "wipe the slate clean" and fly south knowing anything could happen in cricket.
He praised the improvement of Marcus Stoinis, Peter Handscomb and Scott Boland, who all received valuable experience in a team that finished bottom of the shield table last season, along with the competition's leading wicket-taker, leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed, whose 40 scalps have put him in the frame for the forthcoming Ashes tour.
To win a third shield title would be an enormous thrill, especially in his second season as captain. "I've won two and they're still up there with the memories I have playing cricket – team success is what we all play for. To be captain of a winning Sheffield Shield team would mean that little bit more as well."
