As the Tasmanian Tigers prepared for the biggest day of their cricketing lives last week, their coach Salliann Beams held a secret.
If the team were to defeat South Australia in its first-ever Women's National Cricket League final, there would be no trophy to hoist victoriously into the air.
"When I found out a couple of days before, I didn't know how I could tell the players that potentially we wouldn't be lifting the trophy if we did make it, so I decided not to," Beams said.
"I didn't want anything distracting us because it's such an iconic trophy."
The Ruth Preddy Trophy is known simply as Ruth and is awarded to the national women's champions each year.
Ruth has never been to Bellerive Oval, so perhaps understandably, she got lost on her way to Tasmania.
"For some reason, Cricket Australia sent it but it got lost in transit and there was no communication where it was gone, so we literally had no idea," Beams said.
"We thought we were never going to see it."
Lo and behold, Tasmania romped to a nine-wicket victory and an inaugural title, thanks to twin tons from skipper Elyse Villani and local hero Emma Mannix-Geeves.
But post-match, the legendary Ruth was nowhere to be seen.
A celebration without a trophy was not going to fly, so a stand-in was whisked down to ground level from the Cricket Tasmania museum.
Ruth's replacement, an over-60s veteran's trophy that was bigger, shinier and capable of holding a larger amount of champagne, was not fooling anybody though.
"It probably would have been a lot nicer if it was there, but it didn't take away what we achieved.
"We were so built into executing the perfect game on Sunday and we did that, so nothing was ever going to dampen our spirits."
Ruth's late arrival did bring a silver lining for the victorious team: the perfect excuse to keep the party going.
"Now Ruth has arrived, the girls feel they need to celebrate with Ruth so I'm sure they'll find another day for celebrating," Beams said.
The trophy will eventually be sent back to Cricket Australia for safekeeping, but not before spending a few extra days in Tigerland.
