You won’t find it on Google Maps, but a new establishment dubbed ‘Café 308’ opened in the Pies’ player’s lounge this week, with two Collingwood champions the co-owners.
It’s been open for business for a few years, but the coining of the name for this week has special significance, with that duo – Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom – preparing to play for the 308th time together this weekend – a VFL/AFL record.
Pendlebury steers the ship as barista when it comes to the morning brews at the Club, with his love for coffee becoming just as synonymous with him as his gliding left foot has, while Sidebottom pulls his weight more so as a consumer and occasional dish-washer, rather than contributor.
“Sidey’s just been receiving coffees for 12 months or two years and doesn’t know how to use the machine,” Pendlebury said while in the process of making Sidebottom’s Tuesday morning coffee this week.
“This is a communal coffee machine so everyone’s always mucking around with it.
“Steele just gets what he gets and doesn’t complain … he does do the dishes though”
While there are many regular visitors, there’s no doubt the barista’s favourite is his long-time teammate in Sidebottom. It’s a morning ritual they’ve established over the twilight of their careers - becoming more than just a coffee together, and more so allowing them to start their day with a joke, to be relaxed and ready for the rigours of the AFL that they know all too well.
“Sidey likes his extra hot, extra hot, otherwise it gets sent back,” Pendlebury said.
“Ash Johnson’s usually the third guy in here but he’s out injured, we send him our best wishes.
“One of the Daicos boys usually floats through and do the old ‘oh do you mind if I just grab one’, but they never contribute anything those boys.
“We always find a way to survive.”
On this particular morning, the pair took time to reflect on what becoming the most tenured teammates in league history will mean to them.
First playing together some 16 years ago, memories are hazy on some of their first games, but their first interactions are what stood out.
“I remember him coming in he had long ratty hair, smiling ear to ear and whoever he met just giggling,” Pendlebury said.
“Then pretty quickly he won the 2km time trial and back then the time trial was everything, I think he knocked off Marty Clarke the Irishman.
“Then just watching his highlights of the (TAC Cup) Grand Final kicking 10 goals. It sounds like a video game scoreline having 30 touches and kicking 10 goals in a Grand Final.
“Crazy to see those highlights and then play together now for 300-odd games.”
Sidebottom shared the sentiment:
“Dip’s (Pendlebury) been here the whole time I’ve been here so it’s been good to have someone to lean on when I need to,” he said.
“Who else would you rather have alongside you?”
And just as a cup of coffee should be “good to the last drop” – a phrase said to have been coined by former US President Theordore Roosevelt – Pendlebury and Sidebottom’s careers are following that same concept.
Beginning with a bang with a premiership together in 2010 – only their second season as teammates – the pair reached the top of the mountain again in 2023, while Sidebottom was one of the most impactful players on the ground in last Saturday’s win over Port Adelaide and Pendlebury a force each and every week across 405 games and counting.
Bringing their families along for the ride and doing it all with a smile on their faces, the pair of country Victorians are extracting every last drop from their already heroic careers, as they aim to add even more silverware to the AIA Vitality Centre’s cabinet later this year.
“It’s just been a lot of fun our careers. We both started when we were 17, pretty care free but now with two kids each, after the games the first priority for both of us is to find your kids and get them in the song if we win and watch them run around,” Pendlebury said.
“It’s just been a lot of fun watching hi grow up with his family and seeing our kids run around and interact it’s become more important to me.
And for Sidebottom:
“The footy club’s been good like that the last couple of years, if you ever need to bring your kids in the door’s always open.
“You can say family first, but we actually live it which is great.”
