WA come up just short of fourth-straight Shield final

Western Australia (186, 347) toiled valiantly, with Hilton Cartwright (79) top-scoring and Joel Paris (45) leading a gallant fightback in the tail.

But playing what was likely to be his final Sheffield Shield match, veteran quick Peter Siddle denied Western Australia a win against the odds when No.10 Corey Rocchiccioli (20) clipped him to the cordon in the third-last over of the day.

The result means Queensland will lock up second place on the ladder and face South Australia in next week's final at Karen Rolton Oval after the two top-ranked sides played out a draw that finished there earlier on Tuesday.

WA's target looked a long way off when Siddle (4-68) dismissed captain Sam Whiteman without scoring on the second ball of the innings.

But two-time Test player Cartwright (79) led a fightback in the middle order that had the hosts daring to dream at 4-233.

Victoria captain Will Sutherland (4-79) rattled Cartwright's off-stump short of an 11th first-class century, leaving the hosts to regroup.

Cooper Connolly burst onto the first-class scene in last year's tournament final and emerged as Western Australia's last recognised batter to seal another berth.

Connolly (56) reached his half-century with a six over long on from spinner Todd Murphy, the man he replaced in the XI on Test debut against Sri Lanka last month.

But when he hit Siddle straight to Harry Dixon at cover, Western Australia were into the bowlers and still required 99 runs.

Campbell Kellaway leapt in the air for a spectacular one-handed catch in the deep that halted Cameron Gannon's fightback on 19 from Will Sutherland's bowling, before Paris resumed the push.

But WA were limping to the finish when he edged Sutherland to Blake Macdonald behind the stumps, with the hosts coming up agonisingly short.

Adding insult to injury, WA's loss has meant they will fall to the bottom of the ladder to finish the season, overtaken by Victoria.