SWINDON Robins team manager Alun Rossiter says he will seek the counsel of skipper Jason Doyle over the winter as he looks to put together a team capable of better fortunes in 2017.

The Robins’ 2016 Elite League campaign ended in heartbreak on Friday night as a crushing 58-35 defeat away at Lakeside Hammers saw their hopes of qualification for the end-of-season play-offs fall by the wayside with it.

With a top-four finish the ambition throughout the season, Rossiter labelled the year a failure in the aftermath of that disappointing finale at the Arena Essex Raceway.

Swindon have already began plotting for next season and have pulled off a major coup by tying down number one Doyle, currently second in the world championship standings in the Speedway Grand Prix series, on a contract for the next two years.

However, Rossiter says no decisions have been made on whether any other riders from his 2016 septet will be retained next year and he will harvest the thoughts of the Australian ace in the planning process during the off-season.

“It’s too early to say what we will do next year – we don’t know what the points will be,” said Rossiter.

“We have got to build the team around Jason and I will sit down with him. We know he is going to be back in on a two-year deal, so he will have some input on the team for next year.

“I know people are saying he has got a high average but we need someone who is going to bring in the points.

“We will build the team around Jason and he will be heavily involved in the team building with me.”

Rossiter conceded that the under-performance from his side hit him hard personally but accepted that over the course of the season, they were simply not good enough.

“Of course it hurts. You put a lot of effort and you put a lot of belief into it,” said Rossiter.

“We stuck with the same team all year. At one stage we were looking to make a change but we stuck with it and felt the boys could do the job but, unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.”