Boxing, beers, and his unusual pre-game routine: The Scott Pendlebury you don’t know

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On Saturday, Scott Pendlebury will break the VFL/AFL games record when he plays his 433rd match. Four grand finals, two flags, a Norm Smith Medal, five best and fairests and six All-Australians have not prepared him for this occasion. And it’s not over yet, not even close. He still loves playing and wants to keep going for as long as possible. And when the time for retirement does come, look out for Pendlebury the senior coach, surely at Winx odds.

The build-up to the moment has been enormous, indicative of the respect the football community has for the No.10. Media duties, club functions, commercial promotions, family commitments, debate about whether his lead-in prioritised individual over team and Pendlebury’s overwhelming desire to use the moment to thank the people who made it possible for him to reach the record have dragged the Magpies champion out of his comfort zone.

Being yanked out of his comfort zone is the one part of that equation which excites Pendlebury. He has performed in big games throughout his career, but this occasion is new ground. The 38-year-old wonders: how will he handle being celebrated for his individual achievement in front of a full house at the MCG?

Pendlebury arrived at Collingwood in November 2005 with a unique high-performance mindset that was foreign to many entering the AFL then, due to his time with the Australian Institute of Sport basketball squad. He had not been missed by recruiters, taken by Collingwood at pick five, behind Marc Murphy (Carlton), Dale Thomas (Collingwood), Xavier Ellis (Hawthorn) and Josh Kennedy (Carlton). A quality crop indeed.

“Athletes drafted at the same time as me did not really have a concept of how to look after their body or how to look after themselves because in AFL everything gets done for you,” Pendlebury said. “The bus picks you up and takes you to training, you get a bag, you get a uniform whereas in basketball if you want to tape your ankles you need to learn to tape your ankles – you don’t have a trainer or any of that stuff.”

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Early in his time at Collingwood, senior players mistook his approach as aloof. They soon recognised the lad from Sale was assessing the environment, aware, despite his standout junior sporting years, the only way to become the best was to put himself in positions where he was no longer the best.

Collingwood were a good team to join with such a humble attitude. Teammates Nathan Buckley, Scott Burns, James Clement, Paul Licuria, Shane Wakelin, Anthony Rocca and Blake Caracella set high standards. As did coach Mick Malthouse, a formidable figure who Pendlebury admitted this week scared him.

Pendlebury thrived, overcoming glandular fever in his first pre-season and selection in Williamstown reserves (he would play Willy seniors after a late withdrawal) in the VFL’s round one of 2006, and would not make his debut for the Magpies until round 10; he was 18 years and 147 days old. Playing that day for the Magpies were Buckley, and Josh Fraser, all who have gone on to become senior coaches, as were his opponents Brisbane’s Brad Scott and Michael Voss. Pendlebury joined an elite group, kicking a goal with his first kick after marking a dart from Buckley.

Before his second season, with nine games under his belt, he chose Licuria as the best person to tack on to during his first full pre-season. He was fit and progressed so quickly through the grades he finished equal-second (with Tarkyn Lockyer), one vote behind Travis Cloke, in the club’s best and fairest. He was also runner-up in the Rising Star, behind Geelong’s Joel Selwood. The AFL Season Guide got it right when it reported of Pendlebury: “Elite players often seem to have more time than those around them, which is certainly the case with this young left-footer. The sky seems the limit for the 20-year-old midfielder.”

But he was far from satisfied. Pendlebury knew he had endurance, could find the ball, was an accurate, albeit not particularly penetrating, kick, an excellent decision maker who was able to find space to make good decisions and was “quicker than people gave me credit for”. But he told his older brother Kris, who played 69 matches with Collingwood’s VFL team, he was lacking in one area: “I didn’t feel physically like I could mix it with midfielders.”

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Kris was training at a gym in Spotswood with powerlifter and strength training expert Martyn Girvan, a generous giant who helps those who help themselves. Kris suggested Scott join him, and he did just that, turning up on the Monday after the season had finished. For the rest of his break, Pendlebury trained with Girvan six days a week in preparation for the pre-season.

“He was brutal,” Pendlebury recalled, “but the culture there was amazing.”

It was no place for weak minds but nor was it a place where brawn ruled over the brain. Surrounding Pendlebury in the gym were Melbourne Storm players and members of the Malaysian Cycling Team, including dual Olympic medallist Azizulhasni Awang, who became known as “the Pocket Rocketman”.

“They were incredible athletes. I was lifting weights with them, and I was the weakest by far,” Pendlebury said.

“Every day we worked out we redlined, but Marty was incredibly smart with the science behind what he got me to do physically. He was able to teach me things. There were days where I could not walk. Eventually, my body learned how to tolerate that work, and I hit a period where I literally felt bulletproof.”

Girvan says Pendlebury possessed three critical attributes: emotional intelligence, intellectual intelligence and physical literacy. He rates Pendlebury and Awang as the best two athletes he has worked with. That hard work and sweat under Girvan’s guidance was rewarded: Pendlebury remembered holding his own as he contested his first ground ball that pre-season.

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Girvan and Pendlebury began trialling ideas such as completing lower body speed sessions the day before a game. That had been unheard of, but it worked. “I have been doing this for a long time now. I do leg weights before a game, like a speed session the day before a game with bands, chains. We trialled that years ago. The thing I loved about Marty was that he was always throwing new things at me to try.”

Premiership teammate Ben Johnson ranks him among the top three toughest teammates when it came to playing with injury as well as, surprisingly, the best boxer at the club. In the 2009 qualifying final—a loss to St Kilda—after playing out the first half despite a knock to the leg, doctors told him he could not go back on because his leg was broken. Pendlebury had run up and back in the rooms to convince them to change their mind.

In 2012, he copped a knock to his leg early in the match against Gold Coast. He left the ground to have it checked before returning to gain 17 possessions and be subbed off at half-time. “I broke my leg in the first five minutes of that game,” Pendlebury recalled.

There were times even he could not continue. A calf strain finished his 2025 preliminary final less than three minutes into the match.He had not touched the ball. He watched Collingwood lose from the sidelines.

Pendlebury kept his emotions in check as he left the ground, but he hadn’t clocked off. Hours later, after his children had gone to bed, he wandered into his home gym and began doing isometric exercises, focusing on his calf.

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“My mindset has always just been that you always have to just deal with the facts and then get to work. It is what it is afterwards. I can’t change it but what can I work on so it doesn’t happen again,” Pendlebury said.

“I am pragmatic in that regard with sport. I was shattered. I would have been the most disappointed person on the ground that day because my team lost, and I didn’t have a chance to have a say in anything [but] contrary to what people might think, I would have felt better if we had won, and I had done my calf because at least I’d know I didn’t affect the result.

“Straight afterwards I was like, ‘well I can’t do anything about it but what I can do is get to work and start getting ready for next season’.”

While he would consistently add ideas to his program, he also shredded habits to free his mind for life away from football. He stopped wearing red jocks every game and having chicken risotto two nights before a game. His girlfriend, now wife, Alex taught him there was more to life than footy, and he became adept at knowing when the time was right to have a beer and switch off.

“The perception over time changes because people get to know you better. I am disciplined, and I know what to do, but I also like having a beer and a laugh with my mates,” Pendlebury said. “There is nothing better than when I catch up with my schoolmates or my close footy mates. You could put us anywhere in the world, and you are with those people sitting around having a laugh – there is no more authentic version of yourself than that.”

That aspect of his personality has been critical to his longevity. His family, now with two boys, Jax (9) and Darcy (6), has kept him grounded and the influence of teammates, who were different from him in many ways except their desire to win, was significant. The more laid-back Dane Swan made a huge impression on his midfield partner.

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“I have a great relationship with him, and he would never know it but to have him a few years older to see what he did and how he did it was a great lesson to me,” Pendlebury said.

“It takes all types in a team. If you had a team full of me, you are not going to get anywhere. I have had chats with guys I played with along the way where I have said if I was in your position this is what I would be thinking about doing but if that does not work for you well, then don’t do it.”

Through 2018, and in that grand final loss—his 277th game—he had been troubled by a debilitating back problem. After the nerve impingement required post-season surgery, he had to find ways to manage the issue, his curious mind forever on a quest to get better.

“I thought I might only have one year left if I couldn’t sort my back out. There is so much information out there online. You have to filter through the crap a little bit, but it is also a great resource. Twenty years ago, you didn’t get to see what Kobe Bryant was doing because the internet wasn’t as advanced as it is now. I can get to see what LeBron does or Ronaldo does. You just learn,” he said.

A stretching routine combined with Pilates led to sprint training and a realisation the tank was more full than he feared.

He learned to manage his body while leading a diverse range of personalities as the Magpies bounced back under coach Craig McRae in 2022.

Suddenly Pendlebury and precocious father-son recruit Nick Daicos became a better double act than Simon and Garfunkel. His poise stood out in a series of close finishes before his pièce de résistance came in the second half of the 2023 grand final when his on-field guidance and calmness under pressure brought the Magpies home in a famous win over the Lions.

Despite all the personal accolades, the premierships define his approach to the game.

“I do it all for the team because I want the team to win because there is no better feeling than the two grand finals I played in that we won. That is the best feeling you can ever get,” Pendlebury said.

As Pendlebury marches on, perhaps to eventually set a games record that nobody will match (although we did say that about Jim Stynes’ unbroken run of 244 consecutive matches which Collingwood teammate Jack Crisp broke last season), he is certainly not limping to the end, as his 43-touch effort on Anzac Day exemplified. The privilege all footy fans have now is to watch, and enjoy, a 38-year-old performing with the same guile, touch, timing, calmness and leadership he showed as a 20-year-old. The AFL Guide might have understated his potential back in 2008. There was no limit to what he would achieve and has achieved.

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