Disgusted, embarrassed and devastated.

Sydney co-captain Jarrad McVeigh did not mince words after losing Saturday’s AFL grand final by 63 points.

McVeigh promised his club would work out what went wrong and come back bigger and better.

But in the despondent rooms, the proud leader was personally affronted by a grand-final loss he considered worse than the one he suffered as a 21-year-old in 2006.

“They’re both devastating,” McVeigh said.

“We had a crack that day I guess. This is on another level.

“I’m disgusted. The leaders didn’t stand up, myself included.

“We didn’t give a yelp. It’s as bad a performance that we’ve had all year.”

McVeigh was still wrapping his mind around what happened at the MCG, where Hawthorn smashed them at the stoppages.

“It’s a grand final, to lose by 10 goals or whatever it was – it’s embarrassing for us,” he said.

“It’s hard to put into words what transpired … they showed us how to be hard on the big stage.

“We had 20 tackles in the first half, we usually do that in a quarter.”

McVeigh termed the one-sided contest a lesson to he and his teammates.

“Now we know … they’re not easy. They don’t get handed to you,” he said.

“It’s going to eat at us for a while. It’s really disappointing. To let your mates down is not something you want.

“We’ll come back and get better.”

Key defender Ted Richards lamented the fact the Swans were unable to wrestle momentum back at any stage of the game.

“I don’t know if we were rattled. Just disappointed, annoyed and frustrated,” Richards said.