GWS star Aidan Corr has left his “disappointed” Giants teammates behind on the Gold Coast, just one day after announcing he would not re-sign with the club.

Corr, who is tipped to join North Melbourne for 2021, quit the club’s quarantine hub on Tuesday and returned to Sydney.

Giants coach Leon Cameron today admitted he was “disappointed and shocked” by Corr’s decision to leave the club.

“As hard as that may be that’s what’s happened and from there we kicked into gear and he’s headed back home to Sydney,” Cameron said.

“I think timing is everything ... you’re in a hub and you’re actually living there, it’s not as if you’re in those normal set of circumstances that we’ve seen in the past.

“I think all of those taken into consideration, the players were disappointed. But equally Aidan Corr’s been a very, very good servant of our footy club.

“Aidan left yesterday afternoon. That was a disappointing thing to happen (but) he exercised his right for free agency. That’s the rules. He can make that choice.”

According to 7NEWS reporter Tom Browne, GWS delivered a “direct message” to its playing group in the wake of Corr’s decision to explore his free agency options.

“To paraphrase (the club said) if you don’t want to be here, then ship off,” Browne said.

“Told delivered very frankly yesterday in meeting with the playing group.”

Corr remains sidelined with an ankle injury and was not going to play in Friday night’s must-win clash with St Kilda.

The 26-year-old has spent eight season at GWS after arriving as pick 14 in the 2012 draft.

He told the club he and his partner would return to their home state of Victoria after playing 98 games for the Giants.

Corr’s immediate departure caps off a forgettable week for the Giants, who faced criticism over the decision to drop star captain Stephen Coniglio with their season on the line.

The move backfired with GWS falling to fellow finals hopeful Melbourne on Saturday night.

“I understand the captaincy holds a significant weight, so that decision last week was one of the hardest decisions for match committee to make – it’s not just myself, it’s the whole match committee,” Cameron said.

“But I don’t look back on it and say ‘I wish I would have changed that now’ because we got beaten by five points.

“When you win and lose in this business, when you win everything’s rosy and everyone thinks you’re fantastic and when you lose that’s the way it is. You’ve got to accept the criticism and we lost a game we should have won.”