Mark Robinson: Collingwood champion Scott Pendlebury should be considered as Tasmania’s inaugural coach

All the talk is about Nathan Buckley coaching the Devils. But could Tasmania be courting the wrong Magpies champion? Scott Pendlebury, might be the one, writes MARK ROBINSON – and they need to act now.

Might Tasmania court – or is that courting? – the wrong Magpie?

As curiosity grows about whether the new Tassie team wants Nathan Buckley to be its inaugural coach – and we know Buckley is more than curious about the role – another Collingwood champion should and will be a consideration for the job.

His name is Scott Pendlebury.

Countless people will find reasons to say no to the proposition, and Pendlebury himself might be one of them, but there’s enough yeses for the Devils’ decision-makers to at least ponder.

Pendlebury is 36-years-old. When the Devils launch in the AFL in 2028, he will be 40.

Sam Mitchell was 39 when he coached his first Hawthorn game. Buckley was 39 when he started at Collingwood. Chris Scott was 34 and Brad Scott was 33. Justin Longmuir was 39. Damien Hardwick was 37. Adam Simpson was 38. Michael Voss was 33. And James Hird was 37.

In galaxies far far away, Robert Walls was 31 when he coached Fitzroy, Mick Malthouse was 30 when he landed at Footscray. Leigh Matthews was 34. Kevin Sheedy was 33. And Neale Daniher was 37.

Could Scott Pendlebury be the first Tasmania Devils coach? Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

The Voss and Hird failures at the clubs they played for – Brisbane and Essendon – and the pressure Buckley endured in first few years at Collingwood, which came about because of the bitter handover and Buckley’s rigid coaching style, are the red flags in an industry that has since devoured the notion of young coaches. Especially those who had never coached before.

But rarely, though, are Chris Scott, Hardwick and Simpson, for example, referenced as tremendous success stories. Not because they won a premiership, but because they had not coached a team before embarking on their AFL careers.

If they could, why couldn’t Pendlebury?

The ticks are obvious. He’s contemporary, respected and nationally exposed.

His knowledge of the game is exemplary. He is an on-field coach already.

And he wants to coach senior football.

The crosses can be overcome.

It’s 2024 and the Devils will be playing VFL in 2027, and hitting the ground in 2028. Pendlebury would need experience, be it as an assistant or line coach at a club not Collingwood and, preferably, would’ve coached his own team.

That was Mitchell’s pathway. He was an assistant at West Coast in 2018, was an assistant coach at Hawthorn in 2019-20, coached the Box Hill Hawks in 2021, and then accepted the senior Hawks job for the 2022 season after the succession debacle involving Alastair Clarkson.

Mitchell, who is already considered a brilliant teaching and tactical coach, had four years to prepare. If Pendlebury retired this year, he would have three.

Mind you, Chris Scott had just three years at Fremantle before he was appointed senior coach at Geelong, where he won the premiership in his first year.

Collingwood coach Craig McRae and Pendlebury. Picture: Michael Klein.

The relative successes of Craig McRae at Collingwood, Chris Fagan at Brisbane and Voss – the second time around – at Carlton adds legitimacy to the argument that with age comes experience. But what’s life without risk? Isn’t that sport anyhow?

If the Devils believed in Pendlebury, and if Pendlebury returned the favour, the development plan could be set in motion at the end of this year.

A season at the Sydney Swans would be perfect, or even the Lions, just to experience life outside the Melbourne bubble. There could be leadership and personal development courses at Harvard. Or a placement at a European soccer club. Or at an NBA team. He even could coach in the VFL or in the SANFL, as Clarkson did at Werribee and Central District.

You’d think being his own coach ahead of being coach of a start-up franchise would be desirable. Because, and despite having been a great leader and player, and harbouring a confidence if not arrogance of simply being Scott Pendlebury, he needs to experience the grit of coaching, if that’s the right word.

That’s making hard decisions on selection and on player sackings. It’s managing staff and dealing with families. It’s having an appetite for the work. It’s building and policing a culture. It’s absorbing the requirements – the media, the sponsors, the members – of being the senior coach.

Mostly, he needs to people manage. And that’s not always an easy task because the greats can suffer from “champions syndrome’’. The battle there is understanding and accepting that some players aren’t as gifted as you, or do not possess the same work ethic as you.

It’s delving and diving into emotional intelligence which, for a coach, can’t be totally experienced until they’ve had to do it.

Hawthorn senior coach Sam Mitchell. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

Michael Voss during his first stint as a senior coach. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty Images

Make no mistake, the Devils will not simply compile a list of candidates at the end of 2027, and get on with it. No, chief executive Brendon Gale will likely already have a preliminary list of names, which includes Pendlebury’s, and a recruitment plan that absolutely won’t be the Gold Coast blueprint. The Suns went with first-timers for every role, which proved to be a failure.

If Pendlebury was to be coach of the Devils, the organisation would need experience around him. That would be a senior right-hand man or head of footy, experienced line coaches, and a player welfare manager to help deal with issues beyond the boundary line.

The doubters will say the job would be too considerable for Pendlebury, and the pressure just too extreme. And they may be right – and maybe Buckley second time round is the ideal candidate.

But would the pressure on Pendlebury, if he was the coach, be any greater than what the youngest coaches in America’s NFL encounter?

There are nine coaches aged 40 or younger in the NFL and the youngest three are Mike Macdonald (36) at the Seattle Seahawks, Jerod Mayo (37) at New England Patriots and Sean McVay (37) at the Los Angeles Rams.

If they can land roles in the furnace of American football, we ask again: Why can’t Pendlebury in the AFL? He just might be special at it.

Originally published as Mark Robinson: Collingwood champion Scott Pendlebury should be considered as Tasmania’s inaugural coach