To Mick Malthouse, it was just a friendly game of golf. But to Scott Pendlebury, it was not.

To the likes of Dale Thomas and Danny Stanley, it was an opportunity to have a casual to start to life as a professional athlete. But to Scott Pendlebury, it was not.

It was Collingwood’s pre-season camp of 2005 – well, Mick Malthouse’s version for newly-selected draftees who missed out on the main one – and a series of activities were set to take place.

There was an afternoon on the links, a few nature walks, and even some canoeing slated in the coastal location of Lorne in the state’s south, all with the intention of bonding the Pies’ new group of footballers ahead of the upcoming season.

And as can be the case when a group of teenagers come together, thing weren’t always as professional and serious as perhaps they should’ve been – but there was one curly-haired 18-year-old who was already prepared to pull his new teammates into line.

“I used to always run a sort of a semi draft camp. It was a camp for the draftees because we got them after our normal camp, which was basically all the players that we had and I always thought they missed out,” then Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse remembered.

“I used to take them here there and everywhere and we went down the Lorne with that group and my immediate thing was he's (Pendlebury) a different type of player, a different sort of person, because he was pretty harsh on the blokes,” he said.

“I thought, ‘well, that's pretty strong coming from an 18-year-old’, because the 18-year-olds were mucking around.

“We had a game of golf, we went for a walk, went for canoe, and it was good fun, but Scotty was really switched on to doing what he had to do.

“I just though ‘this bloke's different’ because he's almost switched on from the word go.”

One way or another, Malthouse remembers Pendlebury was going to win that game of golf.

It meant he quickly acquainted himself with the soon to be star on that camp, as Malthouse discovered there was a special talent in the Pies’ realm.

Having no qualms with the type of player they had selected having watched the “basketballer with a footballer mentality” through his draft year – Malthouse was almost immediately put at ease about the type of person they’d selected too.

“We knew we were going to try to get him. It was a little bit of a bit controversial one in many respects because he was a basketballer,” he said.

“We had two picks. Dale Thomas was hopefully going to be our first pick, and Scott Pendlebury was hopefully going to be a second pick and that was Derek Hine’s vision if you like, that he can have a look at that and see a player roll out for as many games you should when you're a first round pick.

“I didn't realise how good or bad he was going to be. I used to do a lot of watching of the kids when I was coaching my early days at the Dogs, West Coast, and Collingwood because you had the opportunity to go up to Canberra to watch them in their training camps.

“So, I had an idea on what sort of player he was, but didn’t have a great idea what sort of person he was, so he immediately put me at ease (on the camp).”

Before he’d even pulled on the black and white, the fifth pick in the ’05 draft had made a presence for himself.

But having been picked up as the much talked about basketballer, whose evasiveness and poise set him apart, Pendlebury’s very early days in Pies colours were spent roaming the wings as opposed to the midfield where his name has become synonymous.

And that’s because it wasn’t until Malthouse made the switch with fellow draftee Thomas who’d been drafted as an in and under bull, that the soon to be 400-gamer’s game blossomed – and consequently Thomas’ too.

“He (Pendlebury) wasn't blessed with I didn't think great leg speed, but he had an ability to win the football, find space, and use the football, and that's a really great ingredient to have in the middle,” Malthouse said.

“After a few games we put Thomas out to the wing where he could show his pace and we put Scott in the middle and it worked virtually straight away.

“And it's not because we're all clever guys and know these things. It's just that the players worked. He worked that position well, and I think it's pretty recognised that with a top line basketball pedigree, you seem to be able to find space and you pull a game back time wise.

“So no matter how quick, slow or whatever you are, the game around you doesn't go past you and he fitted in beautifully.”

Fast-forward to the end of Nick Maxwell’s tenure as Collingwood captain, and it was clear that Pendlebury was the obvious choice to replace him.

While Malthouse might no longer have been in charge by that stage, the groundwork the star had laid during his first half a decade in the system meant it was no surprise to the legendary coach when he did assume the role.

And for Malthouse, it was Pendlebury’s ability to lead without a desire for popularity that made him stand out above the rest.

“Good leadership is when you lead and people follow the right path and don't get upset with what takes place,” Malthouse said.

“I’ve rarely seen what we call a popular or populist leader because he wants to be the most popular person. That's not a leader - a leader is knowing what he has to do in this case, for the Club, for his teammates and for what the coach is setting.

“It was pretty evident early days that he had that capability. I don't know whether even he wanted to be best friends with everyone, he wanted to be a great teammate and that there's the big difference.

“He was smart enough to realise that an individual does not win the premiership. It is team that wins it and the more you can get coming through the same gate as you are, then you have got an opportunity to win.”

Malthouse remembers the 2011 Preliminary Final win over Hawthorn – the penultimate game he spent at the helm of the Magpies – as a particular time that Pendlebury’s on-field expertise stood out.

Part of a team that had numerous rookies that was in the midst of a campaign to go back to back, Malthouse knew the number 10 was someone he could rely on to set up those not as well equipped when it was needed most.

“When you have seven or eight rookies there’s doubt … I can categorically tell you that player has got doubts because he's been bypassed in the draft before,” he said.

“With rookies, they just give everything, but they also need guidance and they need stability and they need to be reinforced that they are good enough and you need someone to look up to and you need a positivity around the place.

“The classical one in 2011, you needed someone to be able to run a play, and it was run at the 130th minute mark, with 100,000 people, with fatigue set in and as a coach sitting there I’m thinking, ‘I just hope they've listened’, because it was only once we spoke about it.

“As soon as the ball went to this area, I saw players scatter, and I knew that there was only three or four players that would give directions and Nick Maxwell couldn't because he's sitting at Centre Half Back, so we knew straight away that was it was, Scotty Pendlebury.

“Players like him and Daisy Thomas and Luke Ball and Steele Sidebottom all contributed to the other eight to 10 players getting in position and were able to manufacture something out of nothing.

“Scotty was part of a little group that when there's that much fatigue in that time of the day, it's a great effect that a single player in my mind epitomises players who just are switched on and will do anything for victory.”

With almost 900 games combined as a player and coach, Malthouse knows a thing or two about longevity.

But as Pendlebury prepares to become just the sixth person in the game’s history to pull on the boots 400 times, there’s a few key characteristics that his maiden coach said has allowed him to remain at the top for so long.

“I just think he's got a thirst for the knowledge, he wants to be the best, he wants to play in the best team and when you've got those ingredients and he's got the discipline, then to go about it, it's quite amazing,” he said.

“I've always thought that the players that make 400 games are fairly unique  and there's a couple of characteristics where, injury wise, they've been pretty safe - they don't get big injuries.

“They've all got good pace and Scott is going to join them. He's had two and he's not lightning but he's not made it up with by not losing any pace probably from his third or fourth year.

“It’s a testament to the greatness of Scott Pendlebury because he's not a winger sliding up and down the ground - he gets buffeted every week that he goes and plays football for 19 seasons.

“It’s a lot of seasons to be knocked around, so he's done all the things that he needs to do.”

And even further to that, Malthouse believes worldwide, Pendlebury’s longevity rivals those getting more recognition.

“Age is just an irrelevance. I mean, Scott's prepared himself to play until his body gives up,” he said.

“You’ve got Djokovic who is 37, 38 and probably still one of the best in the world. We've seen some great cricketers go right through in the world, basketballers, because they've prepared themselves.

“They've got they've got the goods, they prepare themselves and they've got a fierce determination to be the best and Scotty’s got all of that.

“AFL football, which is in the overall scheme of things in the world, is a minor local competition because we know basketball is universal, we know soccer is universal and they get applauded by the public and so they should, but in our game Scott stands with the greats.”

Through all his reflection during time spent as Pendlebury’s coach, Malthouse is nothing but grateful.

Barely taking an ounce of credit for the five-time Copeland winner’s success, the 70-year-old speaks with the utmost respect about one of the greatest players to take the field.

“Scott is his own man. I was just lucky enough to be his first coach, but as I say, that could have been anyone,” he said.

“I take very little, credit for the way Scott did it. There's a lot of things that coaches will take credit for, but there's a lot of things in the champions that are innate and they bring along.

“The credit lies with him in his ability to want to be the best and as I said, that day on a Lorne golf range, he wanted to win and I thought, ‘this is just a friendly game walking around the park, but he demonstrated in that moment that he was switched on to be the best.

“I shouldn't have been surprised given that he had to make a decision between the something he did love in basketball, to switch football.

“To make that sacrifice or make that decision to sacrifice a sport that he loved, he wasn't going to waste his opportunity after that.”