A fifth Grand Final appearance and a record-equaling 31^st final. That’s what awaits Scott Pendlebury when he takes to the MCG on Saturday.

Hardly needing any more accolades to emphasise his illustrious career, the former Pies skipper will equal Gordon Coventry’s record of most finals for the Club with 31 this weekend.

Pendlebury’s first final came all the way back in 2007 against Sydney and says the record is a testament to the Club’s continued success.

“When you come in you want to be on that stage as many times as possible and obviously I’ve played in a few finals now,” he said.

“For me, it just shows you the strength of the football club and the group and it’s much bigger than me.

“It’s not like I just get to do that by myself, I’ve been a part of great groups for a long period of time.

“I’m happy that I’m still here just being able to do my bit and play my role.”

2023 has been the 12^th season Pendlebury has played in a final series throughout his career.

While he’s gone down in two Grand Finals in the past, the 34-year-old said it was the four years between 2014-17 that the Pies didn’t even make the finals that hurt more than those days.

“I’ve been someone that wants to get the best out of this journey for myself and play for as long as I can,” he said.

“The hardest times in my career are the times you don’t make finals, that’s happened four times and I remember those vividly.

“You want to be putting yourself in the arena with a chance and I’ve lost two grand Finals and won one and I look back with good memories from all those years because at least we were there putting ourselves with a chance to win it.”

Knowing better than most the occasion of Grand Final week, Pendlebury said while he would be embracing it, he likes to keep his schedule pretty similar to usual.

“It’s pretty normal for us up until the day before when we do the parade so yeah that’s probably the only thing that’s different,” he said.

“Then obviously training and stuff like that you’ve got a lot of fans that come down and show their support and we’re pretty lucky with the amount of fans that have already been down at our training.

“It’s a really awesome week to be a part of and not a week that you get to be part of too often so enjoy it, make sure you have a lot of fun and take it all in and then when 2.30pm comes on Saturday we’ll be ready to go.”

Having felt the elation of securing the premiership over a decade ago, Pendlebury is desperate for that feeling again.

Not taking anything for granted in what he described as a “special group”, the five-time Copeland Trophy winner was sure his side would be ready to take it up to the Lions.

“In 2010 it was amazing just to be able to achieve that goal as a side to win it and it’d be great to do it with this group, we’re a very special group and one that’s connected for a long time,” he said.

“This will be a thing that if we can do it, it makes that connection even stronger.

“Fly spoke about it after the Prelim final to just enjoy the week and embrace it.

“I think when we get our tails up and get the crowd involved, I could imagine it is intimidating for opposition clubs that come and play against us

“We need to use that as our advantage so I think the last two weeks we’ve started the game well and that’ll be our plan again on Saturday."