Shattered Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury is lamenting a wasted opportunity, saying this loss is even worse than last year's AFL grand final.
The Magpies have suffered the biggest upset preliminary final loss in two decades, falling to GWS by four points on Saturday at the MCG.
A year ago, Pendlebury and his teammates fell to West Coast by five points in an epic grand final.
"I would say this is worse, because you don't get the opportunity to even get there," Pendlebury said.
"I would rather have my heart broken again next week if I was in it, than not even give yourself a chance to win it."
The Magpies paid dearly for not kicking a goal from early in the second quarter until seven minutes into the last.
They came back from 33 points down and had all the momentum, but the Giants were able to hold them out in a frantic finish.
It is the biggest preliminary final upset since Carlton's epic 1999 take down of Essendon.
"It's just a wasted opportunity. Whenever you lose a prelim, there's so much on the line,"' Pendlebury said.
"We don't get the opportunity to try and win it. It's shattering, it's a real hollow feeling.
"Next week is going to burn."
Pendlebury said GWS adapted to the wet conditions much quicker than Collingwood.
"Conditions lended themselves to territory, stoppage footy - they adjusted better than us for the majority of the night," he said.
"It's a little bit disappointing we took so long to get going and you could see once we got going, how much we dominated the game.
"We just couldn't convert at the end.
"Their third quarter, they made us pay more than we could make them pay in the last quarter."
Pendlebury had his moments, but Giants tagger Matt de Boer won their duel.
"It was a good tussle. It's an important role that he plays for the balance of their midfield," he said.
"Those conditions sort of lended themelves to that real grind - he knows where I'm going to be, I know where he's going to be.
"It was a good battle and he got the points."
Despite the pain of just missing out on another tilt at a premiership, Pendlebury was upbeat about the future.
"I don't think this group will go away - we've been really successful for the last two years, bar the last games," he said.
"I still think we're building a really good foundation of success, we have great people in the organisation, it's a great culture, it's a great place to come to work.
"But just right now, it's pretty hollow."
Australian Associated Press
