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When Nathan Buckley was interviewed by Mark Stevens for the Herald Sun last week, inevitably the topic of Scott Pendlebury’s future came up.
The speculation is that Pendles, who signed only a one-year contract extension at the Pies last year, will join the GWS Giants from 2013.
The response of Bucks wasn’t the most convincing of answers, to say the least.
Here’s how it was reported by Stevens: “Buckley said he believed that Pendlebury chose a short-term deal to challenge himself to overtake Dane Swan as the Magpies’ No.1 player.”
Putting that idea out there was a nice attempt at spin by the Collingwood coach, but ultimately it was hard not to chuckle at that paragraph. It reeked of a man clutching at straws.
The quotes from Buckley would go on to say that he thought Pendlebury wanted to become Collingwood’s highest-paid player and that overtaking Swan would justify that title. While this notion momentarily gave the argument a bit of support, it didn’t take long to realise that if he was truly motivated by better remuneration, well, GWS might be able to help him out there…
It’s too early to say Pendlebury will definitely be going to GWS or anything like that. But after the last two years – with both the Gary Ablett and Tom Scully sagas – it’s almost as though we’ve come to read a bit more into signs like these.
Certainly, eyebrows were instantly raised when Pendles signed that one-year contract. Very few players willingly opt for a one-year deal, and the fact he did so this year – remembering the Giants have two years to sign uncontracted players – was mighty suss.
Throw in the fact GWS, unlike Gold Coast a year earlier, didn’t land a “big fish” in 2011 – no, Scully does not count – and it all lines up.
Except Pendlebury isn’t the only one that’s been linked to the AFL’s newest club. There’s also St Kilda’s Brendan Goddard.
The Giants have been reported to be interested in Goddard since as far back as February last year. The list of players worthy of filling that Ablett type marquee role is not a long one, and when you take out the players who aren’t out of contract Goddard’s name, like Pendlebury’s, stands out.
Goddard, for what it’s worth, had some interesting comments on Triple M last year.
“For me personally, I’m as loyal as they come but at some stage players are going to start thinking about their future and life after football is a lot longer than life in it,” he said. “I believe I’ve given everything I can to this footy club and they’ve given back to me as well.”
You can read into that what you will, but it does show he’s open to the idea of switching clubs if the circumstances were right.
Now yes, it’s only February. If either player is going to be a Giant next year it won’t be announced until September or October. But GWS had a window at the end of last year to sign uncontracted players.
Said list manager Stephen Silvagni in November: “Look, we’re speaking to the managers right at the minute and we have the ability to sign them now.”
It’s entirely plausible that one of Pendlebury and Goddard has already agreed to become a Giant.
One thing’s for sure, though: it’s doubtful we’ve seen the last of these two men gracing our back pages this year.