Pure Footy: Stats gurus David King and Daniel Hoyne on the big trends ahead of the grand final

Scott Pendlebury won the Norm Smith medal when the Magpies last won a premiership – 13 years ago. Could he do it again? The numbers suggest he could.

Jordan De Goey’s preliminary final performance was eye catching, but it is the form of a veteran Collingwood star who may be keeping Brisbane’s coaches awake at night.

Former captain and 2010 Norm Smith Medalist Scott Pendlebury is the number one rated Collingwood player over the last six matches.

“He is Collingwood’s best performer,” Champion Data analyst Daniel Hoyne said on Pure Footy.

“What Pendles has been able to do, right now he is impacting the game both from a ball winning perspective and a ball use perspective.

His ability to impact the game in both phases is so strong.”

Hoyne said that while it was understandable that much of the talk had been around Pies playmaker Jordan De Goey, the form of Pendlebury couldn’t be ignored.

“This guy is a little bit of a watch at the moment because he is in ripping form.”

Scott Pendlebury has put the Lions on notice with a scintillating last six games of football. Picture: Russell Freeman/AFL Photos via Getty Images

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And in what shapes as one of the key match ups of the grand final, De Goey is likely to come up against the Lions’ go-to stopper, Josh Dunkley.

Hoyne said Dunkley’s ability to stick tackles will go head to head with De Goey’s ability to break them.

“He’s only had a tackle completely broken against him 12 times for the year, so one every two weeks.

“De Goey broke four tackles alone on the weekend. So his ability to win that pre-clearance contest break the tackle and then get out was something that was so significant.

“Is he going to be able to do that against a bloke who’s only been broken 12 times in 23 matches for the year?

“Not sure. That’s another fascinating match up to look forward to.”