{"id":661335,"date":"2026-05-10T06:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T06:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/661335\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T06:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T06:46:18","slug":"afl-news-2026-collingwood-urged-to-stick-with-scott-pendlebury-milestone-plan-matthew-lloyd-exposed-comments-rory-sloane-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/661335\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Collingwood urged to stick with Scott Pendlebury milestone plan, Matthew Lloyd ‘exposed’ comments, Rory Sloane reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood<\/a> has been urged to stick with the plan for Scott Pendlebury<\/a> to break the V\/AFL games record at the MCG against West Coast<\/a> in round 11, despite questions surrounding the club’s priorities. <\/p>\n

The Magpies find themselves outside of the top eight following their 54-point thrashing at the hands of Geelong on Saturday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Next week they head north to take on ladder-leaders Sydney<\/a> in an enormous match in the context of their season, but Pendlebury won’t play. <\/p>\n

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\"Geelong<\/p>\n

Geelong assistant coach Nathan Buckley and Collingwood’s Scott Pendlebury.\u00a0via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Just like he was rested for the draw with Hawthorn in round eight, Pendlebury will miss again, but this time there isn’t a five-day break to point to as an explanation. <\/p>\n

Collingwood has struggled against good sides so far this season, losing to Adelaide, Brisbane, Fremantle and now Geelong.<\/p>\n

Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd<\/a> doesn’t currently see them as a top six side this season, meaning at best they will have to fight their way through the wildcard round.<\/p>\n

“They were so much cleaner than Collingwood tonight Geelong it’s not funny,” Lloyd told 3AW.<\/p>\n

“They have been shown up tonight. I haven’t seen Collingwood shown up like this at a game live in a while. They were exposed in so many areas. So many players who just can’t use the footy well enough and make poor decisions.<\/p>\n

“They ask that much of Jamie Elliott and he’s still the most lively. They were exposed.<\/p>\n

“They’re a seventh to 10th side this year Collingwood. That’s what they are. And Geelong, they’ll be top six at the end of the year.”<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Scott Pendlebury of the Magpies and Tom Stewart of the Cats embrace.\u00a0via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Pendlebury equalled North Melbourne champion Brent Harvey on 432 games on Saturday night, and will surpass him against the Eagles in round 11.<\/p>\n

Adelaide champion Rory Sloane<\/a> believes Collingwood has made the right call to rest him and ensure it is broken at the MCG, given the significance of the milestone.<\/p>\n

“The game is too big for Collingwood and for the sport in general. It has to be at the MCG,” Sloane told Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.<\/p>\n

“This moment is bigger than a whole season. I think there’ll be 90,000 plus there.<\/p>\n

“The MCG will be packed. It has to be there for Collingwood fans and football fans who want to see this in general.”<\/p>\n

Co-host Tony Jones wasn’t as sure, saying “who’s in charge, the selection committee or the marketing department? What is the priority?”.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old will don a Magpies jumper with a golden number on its back against the Eagles to signify the occasion.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Scott Pendlebury of the Magpies.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

His teammates will wear the standard black and white. <\/p>\n

Speaking after the loss, Collingwood coach Craig McRae said they were “unashamed” in their planning of Pendlebury’s record-setting moment. <\/p>\n

“Scott won’t play next week. We’re unashamed in that. He’ll play the week after going to plan with his body,” McRae told reporters.<\/p>\n

“This is the plan we stick to. High performance, but also rewarding and celebrating one of the greats of the game.”<\/p>\n

The Magpies will also be without captain Darcy Moore against the Swans after he suffered a concussion in the loss to the Cats. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood has been urged to stick with the plan for Scott Pendlebury to break the V\/AFL games record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-661335","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\/661335","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=661335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}