Scott Pendlebury and Nathan Buckley. Photo: Mal Fairclough
Nathan Buckley thought Scott Pendlebury was aloof. Pendlebury thought Buckley was a nutcase.
Buckley doubted the game meant enough to the talented midfielder because he seemed to float into his career like he skimmed through a game, rarely out of second gear.
He spoke about it in an interview and Pendlebury was perplexed. For a person of such passionate understanding of the game it betrayed a lack of insight from Buckley, he thought.
That was 10 years ago, Pendlebury's first year. The fading captain was trying to squeeze what was left out his body and he felt the self-assured teenager carried himself with confidence but not urgency.
It clearly rankled with Pendlebury, for he still raises it now.
"We are fairly different people, I always bring it up with him but when I first started he thought I was aloof. I think we just go about it in different ways," Pendlebury said, laughing, when asked about his coach and the observation that they are similar in a peel-the-skin-from-chicken meticulous kind of way.
"I asked him about it at the time because he said it in an article. He said he didn't know if footy meant enough to me. I said it did. He sees that now."
It explains Buckley's growth in emotional intelligence from player to coach.
"He is so different now. As a player he used to go psycho at training. I remember my second year he went psycho one night at me at training because I didn't kick him the ball in about the second drills we did and I thought 'this guy is a nutter'.
"As a coach, he is the polar opposite of that. He is just about teaching. He loves the game and the passion you saw as a player now he is trying to teach players little things."
Pendlebury acknowledges they are different people yet the similarities are greater than the differences. Pendlebury, like Buckley, is a football pragmatist: you work harder, you get luckier.
Pendlebury was a basketballer before footballer and he still thinks like a basketballer. He might even still think of himself foremost as a basketballer. The American game informs how he plays the Australian one but also how he thinks about plays and players.
"You get guys out of the TAC Cup that have been stars to that level and you saw it when I was there the good players go and do what you want and the others play a role. Basketball is never like that, you are all expected to play a role and two sides of the ball and that is what I found funny about football when I crossed over. There were certain guys that would do one side of it and the other guys would help them out.
"You have to run both ways to be a good player. It is not luck the ball lands in someone's arms – they have just run 150 metres to help out."
As a captain his frustration with teammates is not when they fluff a kick or handball – he cites there being 60 mistakes in an average game between both teams so mistakes are inevitable – but that when they do they do not work harder to atone for it.
"A skill error doesn't faze me. Nobody ever means to miss a kick or handball and there are ones out there and you think 'how can you not do that?' but what pisses me off more is when the player stops after that, they miss a kick and go into their shell and don't chase back defensively. The thing you can control in footy is your work rate. Not everyone is going to be Sam Mitchell-like, but you can work," he said.
In a frank and wide-ranging interview, the Collingwood captain admitted it was broken ribs from the first game of the year that prompted his shift to defence.
"It was also to help the defence out and organise down there, but it didn't work. Once my body was right it was straight back into the midfield. That is my position," he said.
Then in the week leading up to both the Carlton and West Coast games neither he nor vice-captain Steele Sidebottom trained during the week as they managed injuries. Of the other designated leaders Taylor Adams was injured, Nathan Brown dropped and then injured and Brent Macaffer was in the VFL.
"It was hard. With us five boys not out there the voice dropped away so we had to put more ownership on the players and the coaches needed to help us out a more at training with being more vocal," he said.
"But if we see something I expect anyone to just say it. If I see Crispy, not to single him out, but say he bolts hard forward and wins the footy but he didn't help us out defensively he might kick the goal and you say 'good goal but shit get back and help us out next time. You can't be doing that, the good sides will expose you doing that.' "
Pendlebury said the difference in the side in recent weeks was reflected in the fact Travis Cloke was not yet back playing senior football again.
"It's hard because he is such a big name externally – it's Travis Cloke and he is not playing senior footy – but internally he is treated the same as everyone else," Pendlebury said.
"He was not playing the role we needed him to at AFL level so go back to VFL like everyone else and work on your role. And the last few weeks he has been getting better, but that doesn't mean he comes back in because he is Travis Cloke. He needs to show the match committee he can do this 100 percent of the time like Coxy is doing and Darcy is doing and Jesse is doing and do it to a level better than them.
"We are in a good position now in the last two weeks because probably a month ago if Clokey played the game he did in the VFL at the weekend he would come straight back in because we were that bad. Now there is that pressure. Marley Williams is back in the VFL, Tyson Goldsack is back in the VFL where a month ago they would play half a game and be up the next week."
There is something of Buckley observing a young Pendlebury when the current captain observes young players across the competition. The accepted wisdom is it generally takes four years for an AFL player to understand what the game asks and how to manage themselves. Pendlebury resists the thought. He points to American Mason Cox, Darcy Moore and Paddy Cripps of Carlton.
"It depends how badly you want it? How badly do you want to invest everything you have got into your footy or do you still want to be an 18-year-old kid who goes out with his mates on the weekend and goes to 21sts here and there?
"Paddy Cripps from Carlton is a classic example. He is third year this year and already won a best and fairest in his second year. He didn't follow the script of it takes you four years to be an elite midfielder."
The pressure inherent in the game and the complaints from young players that the pressure is too onerous is something Pendlebury cannot fathom.
"It's our job. It's a delicate subject talking about pressure but there is a reason why all these kids want to play AFL, because they sit there for years watching it on TV and they love it and its everyone's dream job and we are fortunate enough to do it so if you don't want the pressure then enjoy the VFL.
"The young guys who come in talking about pressure are not understanding the opportunity they have got. For me I can't understand why players would talk about that, there is a reason they wanted to play AFL in the first place."
Fortunately after the season Collingwood has had, Pendlebury enjoys pressure.
