The 10 best players in the era of Collingwood Magpies champion Scott Pendlebury. Current players Marcus Bontempelli, Patrick Dangerfield and Max Gawn are also named
Idea
When Scott Pendlebury was drafted from Gippsland 21 years ago, I spoke to an official from a rival club to find out his bare-bones thoughts on the draft and how successful some clubs were.
“Collingwood was terrible,” he said.
It was an assessment that proved as wrong as calls for the sacking of Geelong coach Mark Thompson in Pendlebury’s first season.
The Magpies, as we know, selected a pair of Gippsland boys called (Dale) Thomas and Pendlebury at picks No. 2 and 5, getting maximum return down the ladder and generous rules that gave priority selection (No. 2) to teams that won five games or less, encouraging teams to tank.
Pendlebury’s career reflected his distinctive style of play; his influence was not as pronounced as, say, “Buddy” Franklin’s or “Dusty” Martin’s. He was a sneaky weapon, tearing apart the opponent with his masterful changes of direction and intelligence.
If he were a tennis player, you would say that he not only shoots but also plays a full point; He could see the entire area.
Today he stands as one of a very small group of footballers in the current competition who will (surely) be inducted as an official Legend in the Australian Football Hall of Fame someday in the future.
Amidst all the accolades, accolades and financial benefit, it is worth considering where Pendlebury’s career innings fit in the AFL’s pantheon.
In 2006, with West Coast and Sydney the leading teams and youngster Chris Judd the competition’s best player, Gary Ablett Jr. was soon replaced by Geelong flying out. and then began the time when he would be challenged by the highly unorthodox Franklin.
Unlike Dusty, Ablett Jr., Judd, Marcus Bontempelli and Buddy, Pendlebury was never viewed as the competition’s No. 1 player, although he was close to Ablett Jr. in 2013 and 2014; It is a quirk of his career that his Pendlebury peak coincided with his Collingwood recession; Four of the five best and fairest films were filmed from 2013 to 2016.
This observer sees only four players ahead of Pendlebury in the last 20 years.
Franklin stands out as the era’s generational forward and match-winner; a striker who defied the logjam and a flood of defensive numbers to surpass 1,000 goals; Buddy didn’t recover and fired intermittent spray shots. But he was a remarkable and durable champion who had people off their seats almost every week.
Ablett jnr, aka ‘Little Gary’, has the game’s best CV of the 21st century, with five most valuable player awards from his peers, a couple of Brownlows and a machine-like consistency of output (for which he resembles Pendlebury).
Was Ablett superior to “Bont,” the reference individual of the 2020s? By only a small margin and only 30 years old, eight years Pendlebury’s junior, Bontempelli still managed to overtake him.
Judd’s early years on the West Coast were extraordinary. Trevor Nisbett, longtime West Coast CEO and not prone to exaggeration, once said Judd was the best player he had ever seen.
Pendlebury’s career contrasts with Dusty’s, just as Martin’s career is starkly different from Kevin Bartlett’s marathon perfection.
Martin was by far the best player in the AFL from 2017 to 2019, when he dominated the September stage like no other player. On the eve of Dusty’s 300th, former teammate Shane Edwards described how winning Tiger teams gained confidence knowing they had Martin; To win in a tight game they just needed to get the football from close quarters past the centre.
Pendlebury’s quieter style was still highly effective at crucial moments; none more important than the two grand finals won by Collingwood, the 2010 replay (when Norm Smith was a medalist) and the 2023 thriller with Luke Hodge-style on-field directorship in the second half when the Pies won a classic.
Legend-hood candidate Joel Selwood is ranked 7th after Dusty, and this unfortunately applies to Carlton, Essendon and North Melbourne, where he was selected in the 2006 draft.
Not as strong as Buddy or as explosive as Judd, Patrick Dangerfield or Martin, Selwood’s aversion to defeat and hostility to competition were unmatched. He was dynamic whenever the Cats needed to stop the opposition’s momentum, and although he was combative, his outside play was undersold.
Ranked eighth, Dangerfield claims to be higher on this list given his longevity, tremendous pace and power, and his capacity to play forward as well as midfield. He was the leading AFL player in 2016 and wasn’t that far off from 2015 and 2017-19. The only flaw in his game was that his shots were much less precise than other champions.
The last two spots in the top 10 can be filled by 10 players.
I preferred Matthew Pavlich even though his career started at #9 in 2000. Pavlich was much more than an outstanding striker. He could win matches from midfield and excel from behind the ball.
He would be even more respected if he played for a huge Melbourne team. The ‘Super Pav’ has kicked 700 goals, a measure of how the Swiss army knife superstar has been selected in All-Australian teams in five different positions (once, by mistake, at full-back). Yes, he was playing great football before Pendlebury, but his 11 years in 2006 are still enough.
At number 10, there is another player, like Pendlebury, who has not yet entered his mid-30s. A loose unit and slow-burn superstar in his debauched youth, Max Gawn is the code’s outcast extraordinaire in this century and the best since Simon Madden.
Luke Hodge and Nick Riewoldt would probably make the list if there were a dozen, with some placing them in the top 10 or higher.
Nat Fyfe also had serious claims, given his two Brownlows, but he was unable to sustain his performance until his 30s, when the football gods brought him down with injury and his productivity waned.
Jonathan Brown was another gritty and battered superstar who was the closest thing to Wayne Carey in the 2000s, though his peak ranged from 2003 to 2008 or 2009.
Pendlebury’s capacity to stop the clock, both when in possession and throughout his 21 years in the AFL, is his trademark.
My top 10 players of the Scott Pendlebury era (since 2006)
- lance franklin
- Gary Ablett jnr
- Marcus Bontempelli
- Chris Judd
- Scott Pendlebury
- dustin martin
- Joel Selwood
- Patrick Dangerfield
- Matthew Pavlich
- Max Gawn
Scroll down for profiles of each of the top 10, including some of their most notable (though not all) achievements.
Jake Niall is a Walkley-winning sports journalist and The Age’s chief AFL writer.Connect with: X or email.
