The captain said it was up to the players to work hard enough to make sure they were still in contention at the pointy end of the season.

"In the 11 years I've played it's always finals or bust, I think any club that sits there and says it's not, I don't know what they're playing for," he said.

Pendlebury recently spent time training with a group of his younger teammates at Falls Creek and said it had been one of the physically toughest challenges of his career.

"You get eight weeks off, but you start training straight away, that does get quite boring if you're doing it by yourself," he said.

"It was a great opportunity for me to jump in with all the young guys, to get to know them a little better."

There has been upheaval at Collingwood while the players were taking a break.

Head of football Neil Balme was demoted and later left the club.

Balme's replacement, Graeme Allan, quit after he was banned from football for a year for his involvement in the Lachie Whitfield saga.

Marcus Wagner is now doing the job on an interim basis and Pendlebury said the players trusted him in the role.

Allan has apologised for how he dealt with Giants player Lachie Whitfield, who went to stay with another club official, Craig Lambert, to avoid drug testers in May last year.