COLLINGWOOD hopes a thorough review of last year's heartbreaking Grand Final defeat to West Coast will help the club kick-start the long journey back to September in 2019.
The Magpies studied tape of the narrow five-point defeat to the Eagles upon returning to pre-season training late last year, acknowledging there were both positives and negatives to come from the loss.
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Dom Sheed's match-winning goal from the boundary, kicked with less than two minutes remaining, completed a stunning turnaround for West Coast after Collingwood kicked the first five goals of the game.
However, speaking as the club began its summer training camp in Southport on Monday, captain Scott Pendlebury said the group has benefited from having reviewed both what went right and wrong at the MCG in last year's decider.
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"As a group, when we got back in, we had a look at it," Pendlebury said.
"There were a few things that we wanted to learn from. While it is disappointing, you've got to acknowledge the game, how it went down and what we can learn from it.
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"We can't just wipe it, so we took a few learnings from it. There was also a lot of things we did right on the day as well to put ourselves in a position to win a Grand Final.
"We'll learn from it, but the journey starts again now. Just because we were there last year doesn't mean we'll get the right to even get back to the finals, so we'll have to earn it."
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Despite the nature of last year's Grand Final defeat, Pendlebury does not believe any of his teammates have spent the summer dwelling on what could have been.
"There doesn’t seem to be anybody that has dropped their heads or are still disappointed about the Grand Final," Pendlebury said.
"We'll get back to work. We know it's a huge journey, so we'll just try to rip into 2019."
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Injury-prone forward Jamie Elliott completed running drills throughout the club's session in Queensland on Monday, with Daniel Wells among a host of players on light duties.
The rest of the group competed in match simulation, as well as intensive running drills.
