{"id":872092,"date":"2026-08-29T01:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T01:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872092\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T01:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T01:08:19","slug":"afl-2026-scott-pendlebury-to-join-gold-coast-suns-as-a-free-agent-depart-collingwood-magpies-details-announcement-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872092\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Scott Pendlebury to join Gold Coast Suns as a free agent, depart Collingwood Magpies, details, announcement, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scott Pendlebury will play for the Gold Coast Suns in 2027, drawing a close to his legendary 442-game career at Collingwood. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heraldsun.com.au\/sport\/afl\/collingwood-legend-and-afl-games-record-holder-scott-pendlebury-makes-call-on-future\/news-story\/763ea5aeae01a9d8513bc9638ca4be2d\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">The Herald Sun first reported<\/a> Pendlebury has accepted a multi-year playing-coaching deal for Gold Coast from next season.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787965699_19_poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WHAT&#8217;S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.<\/p>\n<p>Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? <a href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au\/en-AU\/welcome\/afl?extcamp=fsaeditoriallinkafl-edt-fsp-lnk-awr-grc-afl-kyo&amp;channel=fsa&amp;campaign=fsacontra\" title=\"kayosports.com.au\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It would see Pendlebury, who turns 39 in January, play at least one season for the Suns, before joining three-time premiership boss Damien Hardwick in the coach\u2019s box.<\/p>\n<p> It\u2019s a move similar to Luke Hodge\u2019s switch to Brisbane and Sam Mitchell\u2019s trade to West Coast in the twilight of their legendary Hawthorn careers.<\/p>\n<p>Pendlebury departs the Magpies as a free agent after a glittering career in black and white as arguably the greatest player in club history including breaking the AFL\u2019s games record in 2o26.<\/p>\n<p>The veteran won two premierships, played in a further two grand finals and won five Copeland Trophies, six All-Australians, one Norm Smith Medal and four Anzac Day medals across 21 seasons since making his debut in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Scott Pendlebury will depart Collingwood (Photo by Quinn Rooney\/Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n<p>Pendlebury missed out on a send-off game in front of the black and white faithful after a hamstring injury sidelined him in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/afl\/live-afl-finals-2026-western-bulldogs-vs-collingwood-magpies-second-wildcard-final-live-scores-and-stats-updates-and-blog-start-time-aest-and-how-to-watch-video-highlights-news\/news-story\/6efdba1dabcc3f2620723bef8605d0f6\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Collingwood\u2019s heartbreaking finals wildcard loss to the Western Bulldogs on Friday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He departs with Collingwood\u2019s blessing, with president Barry Carp saying the club would fully support whatever choice the Magpies icon makes on his future. <\/p>\n<p>Collingwood coach Craig McRae earlier this week said Pendlebury was a 50-50 chance to stay at the club in 2027, with momentum building on a move to the Suns in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>It comes after retired Magpies champion Steele Sidebottom played his last AFL game on Friday night following 375 appearances in a changing of the guard at the club.<\/p>\n<p>Widely regarded as a future senior coach, Pendlebury will now begin the process of moving his young family up north.<\/p>\n<p>He will add leadership and unrivalled experience to a Suns team hoping to bounce back from a shock fall from grace in 2026 after adding Christian Petracca.<\/p>\n<p>MORE TO COME.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scott Pendlebury will play for the Gold Coast Suns in 2027, drawing a close to his legendary 442-game&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-872092","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\/872092","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=872092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}