Somerset will be one of the favourites to win any West team of the year award going when 2009 is reviewed in a few months' time.

But that alone is not enough for director of cricket Brian Rose, who freely describes his team as 'the nearly men'.

Defeat to Durham on Sunday meant Somerset finished the season trophy-less. Second in the NatWest Pro40, second in the Twenty20, third in the Championship and quarter-finalists in the Friends Provident Trophy.

The domestic campaign – surely the longest ever – began on April 16 and ended on Sunday and there is still the inaugural Champions League in India to come next month.

Durham romped home in the County Championship, Sussex claimed two one-day trophies but Somerset were the only county to contest every competition.

Some quick mathematics reveals that in the three limited-overs leagues Somerset won more points than anyone with 39 – Lancashire (37), Sussex (35) and Warwickshire (35) were the next best.

Somerset did receive considerable reward for their efforts. Calculations reveal that domestic prize money totalling at least £257,550 will have arrived at Taunton.

And that doesn't take into account an estimated £300,000-plus for qualifying for the Champions League. But that was little consolation for Somerset's devastated players on Sunday evening after Durham won by two wickets with two balls to spare.

"I don't ever find it exciting to come second," said Rose. "We have put in a lot of hard work through the season and probably this season we have been the nearly men.

"We have come second in the Twenty20 and the Pro40 and it was disappointing to lose to Sussex in the quarter-final of the Friends Provident.

"We have had a tremendously hard season but the standard of play we have put in throughout most of this season has equalled any other team because we have been fighting every day."

As a captain of Somerset during the glory years when Ian Botham, Viv Richards and Joel Garner helped the county win one-day trophies, Rose knows all about the highs and lows.

"It is very hard to win. I know that from my own personal experience in the mid and early seventies," he said.

"It took a lot of hard effort and work even though we had some great players in the side. It didn't come naturally for Somerset sides to win.

"That's what we have to keep doing. The work doesn't stop – we have got the Champions League to come and we are going out there to try to win it and we have got next season to build for.

"This can be a building block for winning competitions in 2010. I am not disheartened by this season whatsoever, but there is a crossing line you have to go through. You can have potential but you have to cross the bridge. I hope the signing of Murali (Kartik, the Indian spinner) will address the imbalance in our side in some areas of our cricket.

"It has been a very good season. I think most Somerset supporters would recognise that. But next year we have got to come first."