\n Updated\n <\/p>\n
\n Scott Pendlebury challenges his one-match ban for rough conduct at the Tribunal\n <\/p>\n
Scott Pendlebury celebrates victory following the match between Collingwood and Carlton at the MCG in round four, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
SCOTT Pendlebury’s exemplary record has seen his one-match suspension downgraded to a $3000 fine at Tuesday night’s two-hour Tribunal hearing.<\/p>\n
In what Chairman Jeff Gleeson described as a complex case, the rough conduct charge for Pendlebury’s collision with Josh Worrell was upheld, but the penalty downgraded due to ‘exceptional and compelling circumstances’.<\/p>\n
The Collingwood champion’s perfect record across 21 seasons saved him from suspension.<\/p>\n
“To have played 427 games of AFL football as a midfielder engaged in many thousands of contests over his career and to have never been suspended is clearly exceptional, when compared to the entire history of VFL\/AFL players,” Gleeson said in his summary.<\/p>\n
“This record is of itself a compelling circumstance, but we also take into account this was a careless act and certainly not at the high end of the careless range.<\/p>\n
“Pendlebury moved in such a way so as to reduce the force of the impact \u2026 it did not cause injury, and it was very much an in-play incident.”<\/p>\n
Pendlebury will now line up against Greater Western Sydney on March 27 following the Magpies’ bye this weekend.<\/p>\n
The veteran midfielder spoke extensively during 70 minutes of evidence with Collingwood’s lawyer arguing it was not a bump and therefore not rough conduct.<\/p>\n
The Tribunal even saw GPS data from the Magpies that showed Pendlebury decelerating once he realised there would be a collision with Worrell.<\/p>\n
“If I didn\u2019t brace myself, potentially we would have knocked each other out,” he said.<\/p>\n
However, the Tribunal did not accept that he was bracing or that he was contesting the ball.<\/p>\n
“Viewing the direction and way in which Pendlebury’s body moved \u2026 we are satisfied this was a bump,” Gleeson said.<\/p>\n
“Although the incident unfolded quickly, we are satisfied Pendlebury had time to, and did form the decision, to bump.”<\/p>\n
However, the argument for exceptional and compelling circumstances won the day.<\/p>\n
To aid Pendlebury’s case, Collingwood showed the three other players to reach 400 games this century \u2013 a time it believes relevant due to increased television coverage and scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Brent Harvey (12 games), Shaun Burgoyne (six) and Dustin Fletcher (20) were all suspended during their illustrious careers.<\/p>\n
Assuming he does not miss a game, Pendlebury is now on track to equal Harvey’s games record of 432 on Anzac Day against Essendon, and hold the record outright the following week when the Magpies play Hawthorn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Scott Pendlebury challenges his one-match ban for rough conduct at the Tribunal Scott Pendlebury celebrates victory following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85,83],"class_list":["post-546134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546134","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=546134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}