After the success of Luke Hodge’s move to Brisbane, Footy Classified host Craig Hutchison believes North Melbourne should adopt a similar plan to recruit Scott Pendlebury.
With 347 games experience, Collingwood captain Pendlebury ranks second in his side for effective disposals, and according to Hutchinson, could be the trick to getting the Roos back on track.
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“I wonder whether the wild move here is to go and get a really well-established player at another club, offer them a five-year player-and-coaching contract and try to build some respect by bringing culture in,” he told Nine’s Footy Classified.
“Scott Pendlebury would be the one for me … Could North give him two years as a player and three years as a coach? Put a five-year deal to him, manipulate the money a little bit to pay him more as a player and less as a coach, because they’ll have the means to do that the next two years?
“In two years from now they’ll be better than they are now and he would walk into like a senior assistant role or similar at that stage.
“Why don’t they go and get the best they can find? Pendlebury would bring culture with him.”
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However, leading AFL journalist Caroline Wilson disagreed with the idea.
“You don’t take Scott Pendlebury at this stage of his career out of Collingwood,” she said.
“How many big-name players have they gone for and how disruptive has it been to their culture?”
Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes added that North Melbourne was yet to experiment with a player-coach model, therefore it wouldn’t hurt for the club to ask questions. But he concluded that Pendlebury “wouldn’t go” to Arden Street.
“They haven’t tried this model so I think you ask the question,” he said.
“He’s Collingwood’s best player. There’s no upside for him to leave, I would think.”
Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd added; “I love the idea from a North perspective. Trying to get him there is the tough part.”
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