{"id":545929,"date":"2026-03-17T09:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/545929\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T09:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:47:09","slug":"magpie-great-pendlebury-avoids-ban-at-afl-tribunal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/545929\/","title":{"rendered":"Magpie great Pendlebury avoids ban at AFL Tribunal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood legend Scott Pendlebury has avoided the first suspension of his 21-year AFL career despite being found guilty of rough conduct.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Pendlebury’s proposed one-match suspension was downgraded to a $3000 fine at a two-hour tribunal hearing on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson stressed the 427-gamer great wasn’t saved from suspension by any so-called good bloke clause.<\/p>\n

Instead, the ban was downgraded to a fine under a ‘compelling and exceptional circumstances’ provision.<\/p>\n

Scott Pendlebury in action against the Crows..\u00a0Photo by Quinn Rooney\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

“We are comfortably satisfied that this provision applies to Scott Pendlebury,” Gleeson said.<\/p>\n

The Magpie great challenged a one-game ban for rough conduct from a collision with Adelaide’s Josh Worrell in Collingwood’s loss on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

AFL match review officer Michael Christian deemed Pendlebury’s actions as careless conduct, medium impact, and high contact.<\/p>\n

Pendlebury, who needs six more games to break the VFL\/AFL record for most matches played, contested the careless conduct aspect of the charge while accepting its other facets.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old told the hearing contact with Worrell was inevitable as they pursued a loose ball after a throw-in.<\/p>\n

“I just braced myself for a collision,” he said. “I felt that if I didn’t brace myself, potentially we would have knocked each other out.”<\/p>\n

Pendlebury thought nothing of the contact, nor knew he made contact with Worrell’s head, until cited the following day.<\/p>\n

“The first thing I asked was, ‘Is he OK? Did he get any concussion symptoms,” Pendlebury said.<\/p>\n

“Because I know how important the head is, and it has never been the intention in my career to ever try and injure another player.”<\/p>\n

Worrell, while felled by the contact, didn’t receive medical attention but Albert Dinelli KC, for the AFL, said Pendlebury opted to bump rather than brace.<\/p>\n

That suggestion was refuted by Collingwood advocate Myles Tehan, who described the charge as “borderline”.<\/p>\n

“We say it’s not even a bump case,” Tehan said.<\/p>\n

He said if the tribunal found differently, Pendlebury shouldn’t be banned given his “truly remarkable tribunal record”.<\/p>\n

“Pendlebury stands in a class of his own,” Tehan said.<\/p>\n

“Other than the four fines that he has accepted historically, he has never even been before the tribunal on a charge or faced suspension.<\/p>\n

“It is practically difficult to imagine a more exemplary record and it’s frankly difficult to imagine how it could not constitute an exceptional and compelling circumstance (to avoid a ban).<\/p>\n

“I should say this is not by any means a good bloke clause or a get of jail free card or anything of that nature.”<\/p>\n

Tribunal chairman Gleeson then interjected.<\/p>\n

“I might add, it never has been,” Gleeson said.<\/p>\n

“It’s misreported as being something to that effect from time to time.<\/p>\n

“But people who read the guidelines and listen to what the tribunal says will understand it’s nothing to do with being a good bloke.<\/p>\n

“It’s to do with whether the circumstances are exceptional and compelling.”<\/p>\n

After hearing evidence for 70 minutes, Gleeson and his tribunal members – former players David Neitz and Darren Gasper – returned their verdict some 50 minutes later, upholding the charge but reducing the penalty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood legend Scott Pendlebury has avoided the first suspension of his 21-year AFL career despite being found guilty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-545929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}