As debate intensifies over Scott Pendlebury's six-figure merchandising deals for his record-breaking 433rd game, attention has shifted to his future and whether financial considerations will dictate his retirement path.
The 38-year-old has yet to announce if he will continue into a 22nd AFL season with Collingwood. Away from the Magpies, Pendlebury is in his fourth year as an assistant coach at Haileybury under Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd, while also dipping into media as a guest commentator for Channel 7.
Two years ago, Pendlebury openly declared coaching was his passion, stating it is "definitely the path that I will go down, it's just whether I jump into it straight away." However, he also expressed doubts about committing to a relatively low-paid assistant role.
"I think from speaking to a lot of people in the industry, it's probably not as attractive as it once was, say 10-15 years ago," Pendlebury said at the time. "To be brutally honest, I think financially, with the (reduced) soft cap, it's taken a massive hit. A lot of these guys (assistant coaches) are doing a power of work for not much reward. So, that's probably why guys aren't going down that path."
He added: "And you look at the amount of people that have gone into the media because, probably financially, it's paying a lot better than doing the assistant coaching hours that these guys put in. But then it comes back to your passion as well, and my passion is in coaching. Even coaching the school footy kids that I coach, and I love doing that and turning up for training and working with Lloydy as well, and guys like that."
According to The Agenda Setters' Tom Morris, Pendlebury has "cooled even further" on the idea of joining an AFL club as an assistant coach. "It would now be a huge surprise to people around him if he coaches at all," Morris reported. "I think he wants to get in media and have other business ventures, but at this point coaching's not on his radar."
Port Adelaide premiership player Kane Cornes, who has experience with both media and coaching paths, said Pendlebury will be "excellent at whatever he does." However, he lamented the possibility that clubland might miss out on Pendlebury's expertise. "It's a shame for the game. It's alarm bells once again for the AFL," Cornes added.
The Agenda Setters host Craig Hutchison suggested a rare option: "He'll be a senior coach, just not by (being) an assistant coach (first). That's what will happen." Morris noted that "no one ever does that any more," while St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt and veteran journalist Caroline Wilson questioned the prediction.
"No, Craig, he can't. Who's doing that? Who's taking that punt?" Riewoldt said. Wilson asked: "As a senior coach out of the media, after what happened with Michael Voss the first time around (at Brisbane) and James Hird (at Essendon)?"
Hutchison argued that a year or two in the media, combined with school coaching, could still set Pendlebury up for success. Wilson countered: "You think Haileybury's a good training ground to go and be the senior coach at Carlton, do you?" Hutchison replied: "He'll find a different path ... I think Scott Pendlebury has the ability to be a senior coach without being an assistant on everything you've seen and heard from him on and off the field in the last five or six years."
