"He was coach for my last season at NSW, and then he delisted me actually," Tremain recalls.

"He was the one that delivered the message. He did say to me, though, that he thought I was good enough to play and if I wanted to go somewhere else, he fully endorsed it."

It was an unexpected sliding doors moment for Tremain, who ventured south to Victoria where he established himself as one of Australia's domestic quicks.

That ultimately led to four one-day internationals for Australia in 2016, and a spot in the national squad for its Ashes tour of England two years ago.

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"It's still burned in the back of my memory having to leave but there was certainly a silver lining to it," Tremain said.

"Everything worked out well, you never really know if you stayed what your career could've been. I had a conversation even coming back here, your career will be different in NSW to what it will be in Victoria but it will still be a career.

"It probably opened up an opportunity to play more cricket which can only be a good thing. That being said at the time it was pretty difficult to swallow.

"Once we finally made the move and got ourselves comfortable, it all panned out."

Bayliss has taken over from New Zealander Shane Bond at the helm of the Thunder, looking to add to the western Sydney franchise's sole Big Bash title won six years ago.

He's inherited a squad largely similar to the one which finished third last summer, before being knocked out of the semi-finals by Monday's opponent, the Brisbane Heat.

"He [Bayliss] mentioned that we played quite a good brand of cricket last year and that it's not entirely his job to come in and change everything," Tremain said.

"It's more just to nurture what we're good at and what we were doing really good last year. I don't think he's going to come in and reinvent the wheel if he sees anything that he thinks needs enhancing he'll speak up.

"He gets everyone comfortable with their roles and let's them go hell for leather.

"T20 cricket is an interesting one. We played really good cricket and then we got beaten by the Heat in the final who were flying at the time.

"They turned their season around. They didn't start the season that well they just peaked at the right time."

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