THE pain of the seven-point elimination final loss to Adelaide will drive the Western Bulldogs over the upcoming pre-season, defender Shane Biggs says.

The Bulldogs had their chances to win Saturday night's game at the MCG, but were left to rue their inaccuracy in front of goal and their inability to capitalise on a fast start to the final quarter that saw them kick four of the first five goals to jump to an eight-point lead.

Speaking in a deathly quiet Bulldogs rooms after the game, Biggs toldAFL.com.au the players had been left feeling "really flat, really hollow" by the loss.

READ: Six things we learned from the elimination final

But after taking 14 finals debutants into the game – Biggs had played two previously with the Sydney Swans in 2013 – the Bulldogs drew a lot of confidence out of their fiercely competitive performance against the Crows.

"It definitely goes up a notch from the regular season and the pressure was hot, but I think we handled it well for a lot of the game," Biggs said.

"We were a bit wasteful and that was the difference in the end, I think. We stuffed round with the ball a little bit too, but we had really good patches and just couldn't consolidate the lead.

"On reflection, we will be happy with bits of the game and how we handled the pressure and how we got on top. We can see we can do it, we just didn't sustain it long enough.

"We'll get confidence from this, we've bonded well. The group's so tight you can see that on the ground and we just couldn't get over the top, but we're looking forward to next year."

FROM THE COACH: Loss should burn, hurt: Beveridge

For all of the positives the Bulldogs can take out of Saturday night's game and the 2015 season as a whole, Biggs said the club was not satisfied.

"Looking at the boys now, it's burning a lot, we're not happy to get to here and it's definitely not enough," he says.

"We know that and I'm sure the boys will put in a great pre-season."