Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury says being a father tops his football achievements
PIES skipper Scott Pendlebury has already scaled football’s highest peak. In an exclusive Q&A, he reveals how the Pies have turned things around, how Bucks has changed and why on-field success is no longer his no.1 priority.
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COLLINGWOOD skipper Scott Pendlebury may have already won a Norm Smith and a flag in 2010.
And this weekend he chases footy’s ultimate prize again.
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But he tells ELIZA SEWELL that fatherhood tops the lot — as well as discussing how the Pies have turned things around.
How has fatherhood changed you?
I love being a dad. Jax is amazing, Alex has been amazing. I don’t know what I used to do without Jax, it’s just been so much fun.
I love the fact that when I go home I’m just Dad. Every time I leave the club I’m so excited to get home to see him. I reckon I text Alex every day just asking how he’s going, what’s he doing today.
When I’m here I’m fully invested and then … I get in the car and I’m so pumped to get home and see Jax. He’s the No.1 priority. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, having a family. He’s 16 months old now, so he’s at a really good age. He’s getting a good personality and running amok at home.
What about sharing this week with him? Compared to 2010, it’s completely different.
Yeah, I know. 2010 I was 22, I just took it in my stride, not much responsibility really. It’ll be great to share the week with him, get him in the Grand Final parade in the car. It’ll be a great memory for me to look back on.
In your first eight seasons Collingwood played finals and then the past four years, nothing. How did it change you as a person and a player?
All I knew was finals. The first couple of years when you weren’t playing finals, it just felt so different. It was almost like you expected it, you take it for granted a little bit.
While the past four years have been certainly tough — the challenges that the football club’s faced have been huge — but last year especially we learnt so much from the year. We had a lot of close losses where ultimately we didn’t get a great result but we … were playing good footy, we just didn’t finish games off.
I love footy so much. I’ve tasted the ultimate once in 12 years. I know how hard it is to get and I’ve loved the journey every year, the stories, the things that come out of it. To be in the position we are now, we’re very fortunate. We’ve got a massive opportunity.
We know clubs chase high-profile players who are seeking that success; how hard were you chased by other clubs who said, ‘We’re closer to a premiership than Collingwood’?
I’ve never heard anything from another club. I’ve never ever thought about leaving this club. I’ve always believed we were on the right path. We’ve got good people and I think Pete Murphy and Geoff Walsh and the review they did was huge, just to validate we’ve got the right people in the organisation — let’s restructure it a little bit, back everyone in and this year has been a lot of fun. Everyone is enjoying it. We’ve got four more quarters to go to get the ultimate.
You played with Nathan Buckley in your first two seasons. What was that like and has it coloured your relationship?
We were at different ends of the spectrum. I think he was 35, I was 18, 19. My memory of Bucks was just the example he set as a player, just how hard he worked. He was an unbelievable player.
We’re different people but we get along really well. It’s great to see how he’s gone this year, it’s really pleasing. I’m incredibly happy for Bucks that we’re doing what we’re doing.
The heat last year, it was really on Buckley, did you feel that too?
I suppose the most I probably felt it was when I broke my finger and missed the last six or seven games. It was just that feeling of not being able to help.
The boys actually played some decent footy in that block of time, but not being able to be out there with the boys and not being able to help on the field to win games of footy to ease that pressure on Bucks, personally I found that pretty challenging at times.
Every day you’d come in and there’d be cameras waiting and the first question was; ‘Is Bucks going to be fired this week or not?’ It wasn’t great to be a part of that experience. There were some dark times, but we’ve all learnt, we’ve all grown from it and I think we’re flourishing at the moment
Did you ever question if he was the right man to coach?
Nah, I get along really well with Bucks and I know what he’s doing — a power of work. I think the big change that he’s made this year is just looking at the positives all the time, backing in players’ strengths.
I had faith in what we were doing. We had a really strong summer and then didn’t start the year great, but it shows the resilience of this group. Zip and two, everyone wrote us off straight away and as I said, we’ve got four more quarters to go.
You say Bucks has changed, what specifically has he changed?
I just think he’s relaxed a little bit. He looks at the strengths of the group and the strengths of the players, the coaching group around him, he leans on them a lot. Basically in the pre-season you didn’t see too much of Bucks in front of the group, it was all the assistant coaches. I think he’s letting everyone’s strengths shine. He’s still the head coach though and when he wants to pull rank he pulls ranks pretty quickly.
What about you have you changed? Did you have to change?
From when I started in ’06 to now, the game’s so different, the kids are so different, the way we learn is so different.
It’s really just constantly learning, the best way to teach, the best ways to lead the group. When to delegate, as captain when to stand up and go, ‘Righto boys, this is what needs to be done’.
A lot of our work as the leadership group is done throughout the week, educating guys, sticking to the coach’s message. At the same time we catch up with Bucks weekly and there’s challenges thrown our way, we throw challenges back at him. It’s a really healthy relationship.
It seems like you had a really big impact on Jordan De Goey. How did you help him?
I think a lot of credit goes to Jordy himself for doing the work. But it was just little things, like making sure we do weights together. Every time there’s a weights session, let’s organise when we want to do it, catch up and then we go work together.
He was doing weights, but then I think it was like, ‘right, there’s another way to do weights’. You don’t know what you don’t know and he got shown a little bit of a different work ethic in the gym and after a week he was all over it.
I found it really refreshing for me to have a young guy who, after a week, was enjoying the challenge, embracing it, wanting to challenge me and wanting to beat me at everything. I wanted to beat him at everything too.
Pretty quickly he beat me at everything and I couldn’t get near him. I think it just flowed with his footy. He was playing good footy, he kept investing more time throughout the week in the gym and how he trained and he kept playing good footy and it’s infectious.
Is that something that you’re proud of, his development?
Absolutely. I’m proud of Jordy for what he’s done. I’m proud of the club for the way we handled the situation earlier in the year.
Football wasn’t what we were trying to deal with, it was helping Jordy become a more well-rounded person and understand the opportunity that he’s got.
I reckon he would be appreciative of the club and how we handled that situation. It wasn’t a whack and leave him to his own devices, we all rallied around him and helped him through and he’s playing amazing footy.
You talk about the club rallying around someone. Travis Varcoe, what sort of impact has that trauma had on all of you?
No doubt it’s very challenging. You want to do so much for the guy but you’ve got to give him his space at the same time.
I think with Trav, you’re a person first and we understand that so you do what you need to do, what you need to do for your family, and football comes after that. If you’re right to play, play, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to.
He’s such a selfless player in the way he goes about it. He wants to give back. It was a tough time and it will continue to be a tough time. It’s still pretty raw and we’re just helping Trav as much as we can.
Trav, all the injuries — why are you, as a club and a playing group, so good at facing adversity?
Because guys have a holistic view of more than themselves. When they go down with an injury or whatever, their first thought is how can I help the rest of the guys.
Lynden Dunn, Darcy Moore, Jack Madgen, how can I help the guys coming into their role?
Goldy was sensational, probably wasn’t going to play all year but he was helping guys all the time, doing his work in the gym and he finds himself in the position he’s in now. It’s just about the guys continuing to give back.
And it’s hard for guys, you know. Dunny hasn’t played finals in his career, does his ACL and now the side’s in a Grand Final. It’s hard for him but he’s giving back to everybody and he hasn’t made it about himself and I think Bucks drives that from his attitude and it just runs through the playing group.
When did you realise or when did you think, yeah, we can make the Grand Final?
Um, when the runner came out on the weekend and said there’s 30 seconds to go. In all seriousness, that’s probably the first time I thought, gee we’re in a Grand Final here.
So you didn’t think at one point throughout the year, ‘we can make it’?
I thought we’re a good side and it’s possible, but I’ve just been so in the moment that I’ve enjoyed every game for what it’s worth, every day for training.
Even at halftime on the weekend, I’ve watched the game since and I was like we’ve got a fair gap in this game, but in the moment I was so wound up in ‘this is what we need to keep doing, we’re doing this well’, filling the boys with confidence, and it literally wasn’t until the runner came out and said there’s 30 seconds to go that I checked the scoreboard to think that’s a big enough gap in the game that we’re going to win.
Friday after the game and Saturday, it was just great to sort of enjoy it and relax and now we’re excited by the challenge we’ve got.
Why can you win it?
We’re playing a really good brand of football at the right time of the year. We’ve got a confident group. West Coast are playing brilliant football but I’ve just got belief in this group that if we do what we do we’re hard to beat. I’m full of confidence.
Originally published as Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury says being a father tops his football achievements
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