West Coast coach Andrew McQualter has expressed his desire for the Eagles to be the opponent when Collingwood legend Scott Pendlebury breaks the AFL’s all-time games record. The Magpies have indicated they want the milestone to occur in front of their home fans at the MCG, with round 11 against West Coast emerging as the likely date.
Pendlebury is set to equal Brent Harvey’s record of 432 games during Saturday night’s clash with Geelong. To ensure he reaches the milestone at the MCG, the former skipper may be rested for Collingwood’s round 10 encounter with Sydney at the SCG, allowing him to face the Eagles the following weekend. The milestone match could also become a standalone fixture, and the AFL has approved a special golden number 10 on Pendlebury’s jumper to mark the occasion.
McQualter, who grew up near Pendlebury, said his young team would embrace the occasion, which is expected to attract nearly 100,000 fans on Saturday, May 23. “I hope it’s against us, if I am being honest,” McQualter said. “It’s an incredible achievement for Scott. I’ve known Scott since he was a very young boy. He’s had such an amazing career, and I think it will be a special occasion to be a part of that day. And we should celebrate it; it’s something that should be celebrated. I hope our guys get an opportunity to play in that game because I reckon there will be a fair crowd to turn up.”
However, Collingwood’s plans to celebrate Pendlebury have drawn criticism, particularly from former Magpies captain Tony Shaw, who objected to the golden number. “I don’t like it. I know heaps of Collingwood people from my era who agree,” Shaw told 3AW. “To me, he deserves every accolade he can get, but I’d rather see something like a jumper designed for the occasion more than a gold number on the night. It’s a team game. I broke the club record. I wouldn’t have wanted (something like that). As a leader and someone who bases everything on the team, which Pendlebury does, I’m not saying he’s making it about himself; this is being forced on him. I’d be quite surprised if he would be comfortable with it. A gold number that says you’re different to everyone out on that field, I feel uncomfortable with it. It’s only an opinion. He deserves every accolade. A lot of my friends, ex-players and whatever, who are good football people, have said the same thing. There’s an awkwardness about it.”
Collingwood coach Craig McRae defended the club’s decision to go all out in celebrating their champion. “If we’re just considering that someone’s bigger than the team for that one day, can’t we celebrate one person?” McRae said. “It doesn’t mean he’s going to play outside the rules, doesn’t mean he’s going to play differently from our game plan. It doesn’t mean the team’s going to just try to give him the ball all the time. If it’s a jumper with a different colour, we’re probably reading a bit too much into it.” McRae described Pendlebury as a “living legend” and emphasised the significance of his achievement. “He’s about to break the game’s record, that’s so significant in our game. We’ll continue to celebrate this incredible player within our building, and not walk past it. You don’t get to have legends, actually a living legend in your building. What he’s currently doing is quite remarkable. We’re all seeing that we don’t want to walk past that.”
McRae and Collingwood also faced criticism from Channel 7 expert Kane Cornes for playing Pendlebury for most of the last quarter in the Anzac Day clash against Essendon before resting him for the draw with Hawthorn last weekend. The premiership coach explained that Pendlebury “wasn’t in a position to play physically” after a five-day break. “We’ve got a deliberate plan; Pendles hasn’t played too many five-day breaks in his history. That’s been reported around being selfish, I would have thought Pendles is probably the least selfish person in our team. But he wouldn’t have played last week; he wasn’t in a position to play physically.”
