But as the Bushrangers prepare to start their new red-ball campaign, on Friday at home to NSW, he has renewed belief he is the best man to take them forward beyond the looming expiry of his contract.

It has been four seasons since Victoria won the shield, its second in succession. Its decline since then accelerated last season when it won only one match and finished a clear last, due to significant problems with both bat and ball.

Victoria's depth problems, a factor in it not winning any of its five home matches, were most brutally highlighted in February when it lost a shield match in Sydney by an innings and 48 runs, when Glenn Maxwell alone scored more than half of the team's 404 runs across both innings. It sat among what the coach labelled "some really disappointing efforts which had people ... quite rightly questioning our skill, our want [to succeed]".

Shipperd is in his 13th season at Victoria, and 11th in the top job. While he is adamant he did not stew over those awful shield results throughout the winter break, he said he did initially confront them – and the possibility that after so long in the role his influence over his players was waning.

"I think you have to ask that question," Shipperd said. "It's about going back into the group and talking to the players and getting a feel for what's going on. I've had a number of senior players come to me and say 'Everything is going fine, coach, we're on the right track here'."

During the dominant 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons, praise for the Bushrangers was countered with criticism that their focus on winning was at the expense of providing players for the Australian team. Across those years eight of their players earned national selection.

The contracts of Shipperd and his fellow coaches were later changed to prioritise national selection over domestic titles.

In the past two years Victorian teams have been devoid of silverware in any format. The state has, however, had 14 players represent Australia, with Maxwell, Peter Siddle and James Pattinson among the players to miss significant tracts of the domestic season due to national selection.

Darren Lehmann was last year given the top Australian job after a decorated two-and-a-half-year period at the helm of Queensland and Brisbane Heat, which included a title in each of the three formats. While that appointment has been emphatically justified – Australia regained the Ashes and won a Test series in South Africa in his first year – only two players, Ben Cutting and Peter Forrest, made their international debuts during his domestic tenure.

Renowned for his competitiveness, Shipperd is understandably irked by the Bushrangers' paucity of wins in recent seasons. But he argued the selection of those 14 Victorians for Australia in the past two years was evidence they were not beset with problems.

"For those that might have questioned the work ethic, the processes, the culture of the place, you don't do that, develop that many Australian players, if those things are in question.

"From time to time that player churn will have a serious effect on your results in competition. It's not about turning a blind eye to that; it's about still trying to push up that next level ... to raise the bar to the level we're accustomed to," he said.

The 57-year-old also rejected the suggestion that, after four years outside the shield final, he may require a conspicuously strong result from his team this season to keep his job.

"Our process is not about me keeping my job. It's about me doing my job. Me doing my job is about me responding to Cricket Victoria's strategic objectives, which are the mirror of the Australian ones," Shipperd said. "I'm sure those who take the time to investigate will know that the work ethic, the planning, the strategy, the ability to communicate with players is all there and that we're heading in the right direction."

Victoria's biggest problem last season was a lack of penetration with the ball. While the gap for bowlers' wickets between first-placed Western Australia (181 at an average of 31.19) and fifth-placed South Australia (156 at 35.53) was only 25 wickets, the gap between SA and last-placed Victoria (118 at 42.39) was a whopping 38 wickets.

Recent knee surgery will sideline Victoria's fastest emerging bowler, Jake Reed, for at least the first two shield matches. Shipperd said if the Bushrangers can be competitive in the first half of the season they can look forward to finishing with a formidable pace battery also featuring Test pacemen Pattinson and Siddle.

"It's going to be a big challenge, having only two home games [at the MCG, due to the World Cup] ... but if we can combine and bond in the first half of the season, knowing maybe that Reed and Pattinson and Siddle can come and give us some back-end support, we'll be a really dangerous side come finals time."

* A relentless flow of runs in club and second-XI matches is expected to trigger a first-class debut for Ringwood opening batsman David King.

The left-hander, 24, has earned widespread praise for his consistency in Premier Cricket. Already this season he has notched two centuries, one of them for Victoria in a 2nd XI match against NSW.

King is likely to be confirmed as the opening partner for Rob Quiney for the Bushrangers' match against NSW, beginning on Friday at the MCG.