Strathmerton aims to bounce back next year following grand final heartache

It was Strathmerton’s equal-lowest total of the season — a performance that Looby said left his outfit disheartened.

“Frustrated is the feeling now,” Looby said post-match in the rooms.

“We didn’t play well; full credit to Waaia, they didn’t allow us to play well. That snowballed into us making mistakes when we didn’t have pressure on us.

“I thought our pressure was good enough, but how we handled their pressure and their perceived pressure in the end ... you can’t kick the ball how we did today and expect to get good looks going forward.

“It’s a tough one at the moment, but that’s grand finals mate, we could play them again next week and we could get a totally different result.”

Looby quickly highlighted that himself and co-coach Tim Bramich were proud of the Bulldogs’ 2023 campaign.

“Just frustrated because we didn’t give ourselves the best opportunity,” the star forward said.

“We reflect on what a great year we’ve had, it’s not a failure of a year.

“We’ve come a long way this year from last year and we’ll be back again next year to give ourselves another opportunity.”