{"id":632353,"date":"2026-04-26T16:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/632353\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T16:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:35:09","slug":"masterclass-on-anzac-day-encapsulates-why-unflappable-scott-pendlebury-is-so-good-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/632353\/","title":{"rendered":"Masterclass on Anzac Day encapsulates why unflappable Scott Pendlebury is so good | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The week in football was characterised in many ways by the absence of competence. There wasn\u2019t much competence over at Kayo, which had more crashes than Leslie Nielsen. There wasn\u2019t much competence in the umpiring on Friday night. There wasn\u2019t much competence at the AFL tribunal, with its barking dogs and house inspections<\/a>. There wasn\u2019t much competence, or basic decency, at its appeals board<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompetence porn\u201d is a term we hear a lot these days, mainly in relation to television and film. In a world run by people who temperamentally and intellectually aren\u2019t far from the sandpit, it\u2019s the craving for content that showcases craft and care. It\u2019s there in shows like The Pitt where doctors and nurses under incredible strain maintain both their excellence and (mostly) their sanity. The AFL<\/a> should poach primary charge nurse Dana Evans from Pittsburgh to run their score review system, or their tribunal, or the whole competition. She\u2019d ship it into shape in half a shift.<\/p>\n

Running with that, there\u2019s something reassuring about watching a sportsperson in full command of their emotions and their actions. Early in the Anzac Day clash between Collingwood and Essendon at the MCG, Scott Pendlebury dinked a nine iron straight out on the full. Maybe this was one of those signs that he was at the end of the road. We see those every now and then. We see him get run down from behind. We see him playing for free kicks more than he used to. We saw it on preliminary final day last year, when he was zipping up his tracksuit top five minutes into the game.<\/p>\n

On Saturday however, he made his mistake, he shook his head (his version of a tantrum, or self-flagellation) and he went to work. It wasn\u2019t the best game he\u2019s ever played. The quality of the opposition precluded that. But it was a game that encapsulated why he is so good, and how he is still going. Every one of his 43 touches had its own purpose, its own thought process behind them. Most of them were damaging. Nineteen of them led to scores.<\/p>\n

As Bombers coach Brad Scott reminded us, Pendlebury has played more games than three quarters of the Essendon team combined. Instead of chasing backsides all afternoon, they would have been better served getting out their writing pads and taking notes. They were out of sync, out of position and, after half-time, totally out of gas. He was constantly alert and present, like a soldier patrolling on point. He\u2019s so good at reading the opposition\u2019s minds, at anticipating what they do well and \u2013 as was invariably the case in Saturday\u2019s 77-point mauling \u2013 what they don\u2019t. At centre square stoppages, an Essendon player would be standing in the wrong spot and Pendlebury would point a finger or raise an eyebrow and shift the geometry of the set up. He spent the afternoon picking pockets, reorientating his team, and tessellating square metres of space. The Bombers were playing checkers, and Pendles was playing about 10 games of chess simultaneously.<\/p>\n

Magpies fans show their support for Scott Pendlebury. Photograph: Daniel Pockett\/AFL Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

This was a frantic game early, and Essendon quickly fatigued. They lost their dare, their composure and yes, their competence. Pendlebury\u2019s game was so orderly in comparison. He was never rushed, never caught, never fazed and never beaten. He was everything Essendon wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

There were other examples of excellence and competence across the Anzac round \u2013 from locomotives Kysaiah Pickett and Jason Horne-Francis, to the privates and lance corporals performing the New Zealand national anthem at the various venues. But it was soured by the events of the week, and the findings of the appeals board in particular. Will Houghton KC was swiftly removed from his duties. But the damage had been done. It had been insulting on so many levels. It was insulting to the broader gay and lesbian community. But it was insulting to the majority of the 1,300 listed players across the men and women\u2019s leagues. It assumed that they were living and playing with the same mindset as footballers in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

And it was insulting to the AFL itself. They\u2019ve been pilloried for their inconsistency and their shilly-shallying, especially with the Izak Rankine slur<\/a>. They were criticised for the way they initially dealt with Lance Collard. But they\u2019ve been desperate to be seen as leaders on this issue. And now so much of their work has come unglued. The existence of an independent appeals board is a good thing. But it relies on them living in the 21st century. And it relies on basic competence, a quality that\u2019s still absent in key aspects of the sport. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The week in football was characterised in many ways by the absence of competence. There wasn\u2019t much competence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-632353","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\/632353","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=632353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}