Collingwood legend Scott Pendlebury is in line to be rested next week despite his herculean Anzac Day.
Pendlebury played one of the greatest games of his career against Essendon on Saturday, accumulating 43 disposals, 19 score involvements and two goals.
The display lifted the soon-to-be games record holder to a peerless four Anzac Day Medals, taking outright ownership of the tally he previously shared with James Hird.
But with a five-day break before Hawthorn on Thursday night, Pendlebury is “unlikely” to play.
“I won’t make that (decision) now, but I would probably think you’re unlikely next week,” Collingwood coach Craig McRae said alongside Pendlebury post-game.
“We’ve got a five-day turnaround, we’ll make decisions early in the week but we’ll see how he pulls up.
“We probably had a conversation about being a maybe, maybe not, he had a lot of time on ground which is great for today but not next week.
“We’ll assess that during the week.”
Pendlebury’s second goal sparked a “Pendles” chant from the Collingwood faithful.
Much like the supporters, McRae said he was “in awe” of the evergreen 38-year-old.
“He’s played many good ones, I know stats wise it’s one of the best,” McRae said.
“I was saying to the players on the bench and I openly share this because I say it inside our four walls: I don’t want to be older and greyer and not appreciate this man here.
“What we witnessed today was, you know, he’s a legend of our game and legend of our footy club.
“To do that at 38 or whatever he is, we have no barriers on age and no ceiling on performance. He’s remarkable, every time I watch him perform I am in awe.”
Pendlebury has been Collingwood’s Swiss Army knife for much of his 431-game career.
But he kicked his second goal after adopting the role as a deep forward late in the game.
The shift was made by Pendlebury, who wanted to grant a teammate’s wish and get one up on an old friend.
“It was actually Beau (McCreery) kept saying he wants to do centre bounce, so I just said if you want to do centre bounce just tell me and I’ll go forward,” he said.
“Archie Roberts, I actually coached Archie at Haileybury four years ago, we won a flag together.
“When I seen he was on me, I thought I’ll take him deep and the APS chat has lit up about that little match-up so I won’t let Arch live that one down.”
At one stage, Pendlebury was trying to get away from the footy.
“I feel like the way we played today set the game up, defend really well, I am happy to just be a cog in the machine that is our football club and our team,” he said.
“I was saying to Jordy (De Goey) there late, even when I was trying to get away from the ball, it still had a way of finding me, so it was one of those days for me where it just kept bouncing my way. At 38, you take those days.”
