“We’re done”.

With those two words, Collingwood star Scott Pendlebury summarised the emptiness most of his teammates were going through.

The Magpies fell to Sydney by 26 points on Friday night, ensuring they will miss the AFL grand final after playing off for the premiership in the past two seasons.

“Just disappointment,” Pendlebury said after the loss.

“You work so hard to get to this point. It’s just tough because you never know if you’re going to get back here. We’ve got a lot of work to do.

“It’s just that hollow feeling. It’s weird because you’re still half expecting to go to the club on Monday – do recovery and train.

“But we’re done. We have to sit back and watch a game that we could have been in.”

Pendlebury was one of the Magpies’ best on Friday night, tallying 10 clearances, 10 tackles and 30 possessions, but that’s going to be scant consolation over the off-season.

“We fell short. It’s not what we wanted and we’ve got to live with that over the summer and use it for fire for next year,” the 24-year-old gun midfielder said.

“We’ve just got to keep evolving as a team. There’s no doubt we’ve got the talent, we’ve just got to bring that effort and attitude every single week.”

While some may view a top-four finish as creditable, Collingwood captain Nick Maxwell isn’t one of them.

“In the end, it’s a failure isn’t it,” Maxwell said of the Magpies’ season.

“Because there’s only one team that’s going to get the pass mark.

“I can’t say much more. I’m proud of the group and the way they went about it. But in the end we didn’t achieve what we wanted to do.”