Scott Pendlebury lifts the lid on the day ‘Fly’ helped ignite the Magpies’ climb
The theme driving Collingwood’s flag push took flight at the MCG, and could culminate on the hallowed turf on Saturday. Scott Pendlebury takes Jay Clark inside the start of a golden run.
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Craig McRae baited the Collingwood hook on the last training session of last year.
The Magpies had just sweated through a gruelling two-hour work out at Olympic Park when the coaches began to direct players over to the MCG for more.
The annual Christmas present from the club’s fitness staff was waiting for the players on level 4 of the Shane Warne Stand.
But this was not just your typical quad-melting stair run on the last session of the year.
This was when McRae delivered the line that would help knit together their entire premiership push for 2023 at a time when pundits were widely tipping the Magpies to slide on the back of a string of nail biting wins last season.
Recalling a commuter he saw in an underground railway station on an overseas holiday in the postseason last year, McRae said Collingwood needed to “take the steps” to realise their flag dreams this year.
Not the elevator. Not the escalator. The steps.
There were no shortcuts to a premiership, the senior coach said.
Collingwood champion Scott Pendlebury recalled the speech which set the tone for the season.
“We had already done a fairly big session as it was, but we went over to the MCG and did a hell of a lot of stair runs for about 30 minutes,” Pendlebury said.
“And once we were finished, ‘Fly’ spoke to the group.
“He said ‘Let’s make sure we are not sitting here during finals next year’.
“Let’s make sure we are the ones out there playing, and the whole message was that to do that and to get there in September, we need to take the steps now.
“Just because we had made the preliminary final last year, nothing was given. We didn’t start on six points. We started on zero again.
“So, he said ‘Don’t skip anything’. Take the steps and understand how important it is to get this week (over Christmas) right and next week (over New Year’s Eve).
“Because you can’t win it (the flag) in December, but you can lose it.
“So, let’s get better every day and if we do that we are a really good chance to set ourselves for September.
“But we don’t want to be here watching from the stands, we want to be the guys out there in the arena.”
For a coach who has hardly put a foot wrong since he took the job in late 2021, McRae once again struck the right note for the playing group which jumped out to a red-hot 11-1 start.
And then, despite some wobbles and experimentation in the last month of the regular season, the Magpies booked a grand final berth with epic one and seven-point finals wins over Melbourne and GWS Giants in September.
And in the pulsating final few minutes of both finals triumphs, Pendlebury was right there in the thick of it, helping marshal a Collingwood team pinned down in the back line.
But the No. 10 was the cool head in the crisis. Directing traffic, pointing to the right spots, plugging gaps, going wide. Taking time off the clock.
That selfless team role often sweeping at the back of the clearances was largely designed to help release superstars Nick Daicos and Jordan De Goey.
That is the tip of the Magpies’ spear, the two game breakers.
And for Pendlebury, who will on Saturday play his 383rd game to join Robert Harvey on equal-sixth most games played, it has been a joyous campaign, watching his two superstar teammates flourish this year.
Even if it often meant covering off on their men as the two Magpie goal kickers charged forward.
“I will often say to those boys, you just tell me what you need from me, whether that’s a block or to be somewhere for them to find another gap,” he said.
“You guys go, and I will pick up the pieces. Whatever you need me to do.
“Occasionally, it means chasing both of their men at the same time.
“But that is the strength of the side, and I love world sport and you see in basketball you see the role players make the stars shine.
“You want to help bring their strengths to the fore.
“That is why it has been such a special group to be part of over the past two years.
“We value everyone at our place. Everyone’s roles get highlighted and the importance of it.
“That is why we are confident we can go out there and execute our jobs.”
That same team ethos was rammed home in the famous stair session, as it wasn’t only the players pounding the pavement in footy shorts on the top tier of the MCG.
It was the coaches, too. The support staff. The whole footy department was bounding up and down.
McRae has come up with lots of inspirational spurs in his weekly addresses, including some not-so-serious ones designed to take the tension out of the air before big games, but the steps theme was what helped build the platform for the Pies this year.
All from a person McRae saw take the stairs, instead of the elevator, at a London tube station.
“The thing with ‘Fly’ and his hooks is that they are a little bit different,” Pendlebury said.
“All coaches do it, but it is the way he (McRae) executes them.
“Taking us to the ‘G’. Some may think we are just going to get flogged on the stairs.
“But we do the steps and then he presents to us on why we are here, why we are doing it, and that is the thing – there is always a really good story to it and meaning, understanding.
“It’s not just sitting in meetings or putting on a motivational video and saying we are going to take the steps this year.
“You physically feel the pain in the steps and you understand why. The sacrifice of it.
“We were all in.”
De Goey endured a nightmare pre-season the year before dealing with the New York court case, before the Bail blow-up. But last summer he did all the work.
The Daicos Brothers grew with every session, Bobby Hill got the miles in, and Oleg Markov joined the crew.
And the senior leaders, such as Pendlebury, captain Darcy Moore and veteran ballwinner Steele Sidebottom and Co were empowered to take charge on field where they saw necessary.
In part, it is why Collingwood are the scenario kings, whether it is coming from three goals behind in the last term, or hanging on grimly for six minutes and 20 seconds like we saw in the one-point preliminary final triumph against the Giants.
“He has given us great freedom to make calls on the ground as we see them,” Pendlebury said.
“We don’t need to wait for him to put up a sign or talk to us if we see something. He just says just go for it; back your instinct in.
“As senior players, we feel like we are coaches out there as well because of how much we have put in to learn and now he has given us the freedom to execute.
“Knowing all that, I really feel like my job in the team, my position, is to let our stars shine.
“That is something I have really enjoyed if it helps guys like Josh and Nick, Isaac Quaynor or Darcy Moore.”
Whatever happens on Saturday, Pendlebury will play on again next season. And then maybe the year after that, putting him in reach of Brent Harvey’s all-time games record.
But for the next 48 hours, he will absorb the grand final excitement, before it is time to get down to business against Brisbane Lions, 13 years after his last flag in 2010.
In the grand final replay that year, Pendlebury enjoyed arguably his finest career moment winning the Norm Smith medal after falling ill the week before in the draw.
“I will certainly enjoy this week more than I did 13 years ago in 2010 (against St Kilda) and 2011 (against Geelong), just because of my age and I knew I probably had 10 more years of my career,” he said.
“You think you will just get back here at some stage and one more time at least.
“But I know that – as people like to say – I’m on the back nine, and I’m probably on the last three holes, so I will certainly enjoy it.
“This year my family gets to be a huge part of it because my kids (Jax and Darcy) weren’t there in 2010-2011.
“If we do win it, it will be a little bit sweeter for me because I am older and I have worked so much harder than 2010 to get back on this stage.
“I also understand and appreciate the passion for the game and love that it comes down to the journey as well.
“It has been so special for two years, it has already been a success getting back here. But there is one more game to go.”
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