AFL side Collingwood is standing firm on its controversial pre-planned strategy to rest veteran star Scott Pendlebury for an upcoming clash against ladder-topping Sydney, doubling down on its commitment to stage his historic record-breaking match in front of a home crowd at the iconic MCG the following week.
Head coach Craig McRae made the stance clear in the aftermath of the Magpies’ lopsided 54-point defeat at the hands of Geelong on Saturday night, a result that has left Collingwood’s 2024 season prospects hanging by a thread. Even with a critical matchup against competition leaders Sydney looming next round, McRae says the club will not waver from its long-held plan to hold Pendlebury out to set up his milestone game against West Coast on home turf.
“No, Scott won’t play next week, we’re unashamed in our plans to play him the week after all going to plan with his body,” McRae told reporters post-match. Over the weekend, Pendlebury tied the all-time VFL/AFL record of 432 career games, jointly held by retired Kangaroos star Brent Harvey, in the round clash against Geelong.
The veteran leader was captured sharing an emotional embrace with former Collingwood captain and coach Nathan Buckley after the final siren, a moment that underscored his standing as one of the club’s greatest ever products. McRae argued that prioritizing a home celebration for this once-in-a-career milestone is a fitting call for one of the sport’s modern greats, even amid a tight run of fixtures and a rocky season for the club.
“This is a plan we stick to, high-performance but also rewarding and celebrating one of the greats of our game,” McRae said. “We’re excited for what that looks like in a couple of weeks time, we’ll sit in this now and have a shallow loss, dust ourselves off quickly and get up to Sydney, put on a good performance for our fans because it wasn’t good enough tonight.”
McRae added that the club will name a full 22 plus interchange to face the Swans, and is fully focused on putting up a competitive performance that the club’s supporter base can be proud of, even without their veteran playmaker.
Beyond the Pendlebury plan, Collingwood is also facing fresh injury concerns: starting captain Darcy Moore was forced out of the Geelong clash before halftime after sustaining a concussion in a heavy collision with Geelong midfielder Oisin Mullin, ruling him out of contention for the Sydney matchup as well.
McRae conceded that the absence of both Moore and Pendlebury will exacerbate a long-running problem for the Magpies: poor performance in winning and defending centre clearances, an issue that was brutally exposed by Geelong on Saturday night. The Cats kicked six goals directly from centre bounce possessions, a stat McRae admitted is well below the standard his side needs to compete against top opposition.
“Six goals tonight (from centre bounce) is just not at a level against teams like Geelong, we can’t afford to have that,” he said. “The numbers balance around, it was pretty even, I think it was 13-apiece but it’s a little bit of inability to stop scoring out of that source.”
McRae also acknowledged that Geelong’s dominant performance exposed uncharacteristic flaws in Collingwood’s usually solid defensive system, marking the first time this season the club’s defensive structures have been tested so severely. Geelong recorded more than 20 marks inside Collingwood’s 50-metre arc, a sign that the Magpies’ defensive pressure was not up to its usual standard for the full 80 minutes.