Doak's squad was forced to battle with a handful of injury setbacks throughout the campaign but he still managed to guide them to the GUINNESS PRO12 play-offs.
They were denied a place in the final by Glasgow Warriors, courtesy of a last-gasp DTH van der Merwe try, but Doak is confident that great progress has been made.
"The challenges the management faced this year will hold us all in good stead for the future," he told the Belfast Newsletter.
"It was a frustrating season at times but I still enjoyed every minute of it. We had a big injury profile at one stage and it was not just the number of injuries, but the players who were injured.
"We hardly saw Andrew Trimble this season, Iain Henderson came in late to join us and there was one stage during the European Cup that we could barely field 23 players for one of the games.
"We had to make big decisions at times. From the outside maybe people think it was doom and gloom at certain times of the season. We had to make decisions at times that were best for everyone concerned."
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