Like Luke Hodge as a Lion and Paul Chapman as a Bomber before him, Scott Pendlebury is going to be one of those AFL players who’ll look very strange in an opposing uniform.
The AFL’s all-time games record-holder, Pendlebury has given so much to the game exclusively in black and white stripes. So seeing him in red, yellow, pink, blue – whatever shade the Suns wear these days – next year will be jarring on the eye.
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It’s a four-year Gold Coast deal for Pendlebury – two more seasons as a player under the salary cap then two seasons as a coach under the soft cap. It’s a great move and a great deal for Pendlebury, but I wonder if the contract length is the best move for the Suns.
I genuinely can’t see Pendlebury playing for two more years. I don’t think he’s going to be able to contribute as a player when he’s 40 years old. When you consider the injuries he’s had in recent years, it’s clear he’s starting to slow down.
The only other team reportedly in the Pendlebury mix was Essendon. I know the Bombers want leadership, but would they have been as aggressive contract-wise as the Suns ultimately were?
Maybe it won’t be a bad thing if Pendlebury plays just one season as he’d make the full-time transition to coaching quicker.
The move also makes sense for the Magpies, because the reality is they wouldn’t have been interested at all to sign Pendlebury to any deal like the one he’s penned at Gold Coast.
As much as you’d like to think that loyalty lives for a player who’s done more for Collingwood than anyone else, they would’ve waved him off with happy faces with that four-year deal. There’s just no way Collingwood would have wanted that contract on their books.
Plus the time had come for Collingwood to move on without Pendlebury in the side.
This is the question for the Suns now: Can they turn an ageing champion like Pendlebury into the next Sam Mitchell?
Because what Mitchell did at West Coast is a brilliant template for him.
I don’t know if Pendlebury will be able to replicate it – and we won’t know until after the fact.
It’s not a prerequisite that playing lots of AFL games of footy makes you a good coach. I don’t think great players always make great coaches. And if you look at the top teams right now and who coaches them, Mitchell is arguably the only superstar player leading a coaching panel.
In saying that, Mitchell was the loudest and most instructive player I ever played against. I remember playing against him towards the back-end of his career, including the 2015 Grand Final. He was so good on the lip, but he was even better from an instructional point of view and an incredibly smart player.
