These are the words of Skipton Football Netball Club president Andrew Bodman after his side was ousted from the Central Highlands Football League senior finals at the weekend.

Bodman isn't letting the loss affect his confidence, instead telling The Courier it will help motivate his side to do more next season.

The eighth-placed Emus were largely considered as outsiders coming into its final match-up with Hepburn at the weekend, however Skipton remained in the contest for much of the game, leading the Burras in the third quarter.

The Emus would ultimately go down to Hepburn 81-48 following a big fourth quarter performance from the Burras.

Bodman says he was very proud of his side's performance on the pitch against Hepburn and stressed to his group the importance of its success.

"I think they performed admirably to maintain the pressure against Hepburn and stay in the game as long as they did," he said.

"I told they group while it's very disappointing to go out, in the broader scheme of things they had to be proud of the achievements that they'd made."

Looking forward Bodman is hoping Skipton can build upon its success in 2019 and propel itself up the competition ladder in 2020.

"I haven't got a crystal ball," he laughed.

"I know we've put in the effort as a club to take the next step... it was hard to get from zero wins to six wins and even harder to get from six wins to a finals appearance.

"No one aims to just make finals - no one writes 'eighth' down as what they want to achieve at the end of the year - you want to be better than that and (finishing eighth) only means something if it's a stepping stone to greater things in the coming years."

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