![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6c8c1aa4ad1909b3225d6a80371d7a8b88d4a653.png\")
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Updated May 7, 2026 \u2014 3:36pm,first published 2:35pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n In today\u2019s AFL briefing:Essendon have demoted Ben McKay, with the highly paid key defender having been in a form slump for much of the year.Collingwood coach Craig McRae says Scott Pendlebury is struggling with the attention of his looming record-breaking match.Bombers drop struggling defender McKay<\/p>\n Sam McClure<\/p>\n Out-of-form Essendon defender Ben McKay will line up for the Bombers\u2019 VFL team this weekend after being dropped by coach Brad Scott.<\/p>\n Two industry sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of team selection, said the Bombers had finally decided to swing the axe and demote McKay.<\/p>\n The highly paid key defender has been in a form slump for much of the year and has even been the subject of boos by his own fans.<\/p>\n Mason Redman, who played in the VFL, is expected to make his return to the senior side to take on GWS on Saturday.<\/p>\n McKay, who has failed to find his best form since his highly anticipated move from North Melbourne at the end of 2023<\/a>, was at times booed by his own fans in the Bombers\u2019 heavy defeat to the Brisbane Lions last week, which prompted legendary Lions coach Leigh Matthews to defend him.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s bad enough to get booed by the opposition. But getting booed by your own supporters, I reckon that is off,\u201d Matthews told Fox Footy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a really ugly thing from the Essendon supporters. Ben McKay had a bad game, but he didn\u2019t deserve that.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott took a slightly more pragmatic approach after the game.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t like it,\u201d Scott said. \u201cIt\u2019s an abnormal footy environment. But that\u2019s going to happen, and it\u2019s happened at other clubs, it\u2019s happened to other players, and you\u2019ve got to fight through it.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott had defended the 28-year-old against calls for him to be dumped after a poor performance on Anzac Day in which he applauded a teammate\u2019s spoil unaware the ball was still in play and resulted in a goal to Collingwood.<\/p>\n Related Article McKay kept his Lions opponent, debutant Cody Curtin, goalless but had little impact on the game, collecting just five possessions.<\/p>\n It was the fifth time in eight games this season where he finished with a single-digit disposal tally.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I mean, he played on an opponent, he didn\u2019t kick a goal,\u201d Scott said after the loss to the Lions.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, he did his job, from that perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cI said during the week, there\u2019s no point trying to shield guys away from the pressure cooker that AFL footy is, and so we\u2019re working with him.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott and his Bombers head to Sydney in desperate need of a win, sitting equal last on the ladder with fellow Victorian powerhouses Carlton and Richmond.<\/p>\n Despite President Andrew Welsh recently telling this masthead he hoped Scott would be the Bombers\u2019 \u201cnext premiership coach,<\/a>\u201d Scott is under mounting pressure to keep his job beyond this season unless he can turn the team\u2019s defensive woes around.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve lost six of their last eight to the Giants and haven\u2019t actually beaten the Giants in Sydney since 2018; a day when Jake Stringer kicked three and David Zaharakis was best on ground.<\/p>\n With Andrew Wu<\/p>\n \u2018Living legend\u2019: McRae hits back at \u2018selfish\u2019 claims over Pendlebury record<\/p>\n AAP<\/p>\n Collingwood coach Craig McRae has described Scott Pendlebury as the \u201cleast selfish\u201d person at the club, saying the veteran is struggling with the attention of his looming record-breaking match.<\/p>\n Pendlebury will equal Brent Harvey\u2019s mark for most games of 432 in VFL\/AFL history when he returns for the Magpies\u2019 clash with Geelong at the MCG on Saturday night.<\/p>\n The 38-year-old will then rest for Collingwood\u2019s trip to face Sydney at the SCG, before breaking the North Melbourne champion\u2019s 10-year-old record against West Coast in round 11.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got a deliberate plan; Pendles hasn\u2019t played too many five-day breaks<\/a> in his history,\u201d McRae said on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s been reported around being selfish, I would have thought Pendles is probably the least selfish person in our team.<\/p>\n \u201cBut he wouldn\u2019t have played last week, he wasn\u2019t in a position to play physically.\u201d<\/p>\n McRae insists Pendlebury deserves all the attention that comes his way after a glittering career that started back in 2006.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s about to break the games record, that\u2019s so significant in our game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll continue to celebrate this incredible player within our building, and not walk past it. You don\u2019t get to have legends, actually a living legend in your building.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat he\u2019s currently doing is quite remarkable. We\u2019re all seeing that we don\u2019t want to walk past that.\u201d<\/p>\n In his record-breaking match, Pendlebury is expected to wear a gold number on his jumper to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n The reports prompted derision from rival fans and even 1990 Collingwood premiership captain Tony Shaw.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cIf we\u2019re just considering that someone\u2019s bigger than the team for that one day, can\u2019t we celebrate one person?\u201d McRae said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s going to play outside the rules, doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s going to play different to our game plan. It doesn\u2019t mean the team\u2019s going to just try to give him the ball all the time.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s a jumper with a different colour, we\u2019re probably reading a bit too much into it.\u201d<\/p>\n Norm Smith medallist Bobby Hill had been training strongly and pressing his case for a return to the senior team following strong performances in the VFL.<\/p>\n But McRae insists Hill needs to further convince coaches he is ready for an AFL return.<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t play a full game last weekend, as much as we like what he\u2019s doing on the field,\u201d McRae said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s still got a lot of work to do. This is a long time that he\u2019s been out of the game. He\u2019s working towards that again.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of it\u2019s performance, some of it\u2019s around his ability to get through a full game, which he\u2019s not quite doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/50c93b864a1cf47f316e8cbd569ef31ae3421383.jpeg\")
Ben McKay was poor against Collingwood on Anzac Day. Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"St](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778132840_159_a922a3d404a39586e9c985df46b6eeb55fe99ef8.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Collingwood](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ac6add35b75139777c158acac719694ab6986038.jpeg\")
Collingwood great Scott Pendlebury giving instructions at training this week.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778132841_225_db8c7c0dff6586603f1b221dc49e6eb58ab66b4c.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773990913_58_6c8c1aa4ad1909b3225d6a80371d7a8b88d4a653.png\")
Sam McClure<\/a> is an award-winning AFL journalist and broadcaster.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated May 7, 2026 \u2014 3:36pm,first published 2:35pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-654884","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\/654884","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=654884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}