Scott Pendlebury will lead the Collingwood AFL team for a seventh season in 2020, a campaign in which he stands to become the club’s longest serving captain.
Pendlebury succeeded Nick Maxwell as Collingwood skipper in 2014 and has led the team on 149 occasions. Only Syd Coventry (153 matches) and current senior coach Nathan Buckley (161 matches) have led Collingwood more often.
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The Collingwood board recently ratified Pendlebury’s re-appointment, along with the appointments of Steele Sidebottom, Taylor Adams and Jeremy Howe as vice-captains.
The Collingwood leadership group for 2020 will consist of Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Howe, Adams, Jordan Roughead and Brodie Grundy.
Roughead’s recognition as a team leader formalises the influential role he played in his first season at the Holden Centre in 2019 while Grundy, 25 years old and a two-time Copeland Trophy winner, has been elevated from a group of emerging leaders.
“It has always been an honour and a role I have enjoyed,” Pendlebury said.
“But I will continue to emphasise, with our players and our fans, that strong leadership emerges from strong and united environments.
“The biggest responsibility the six of us (leaders) have is to continue to encourage and inspire others to lead. The collective strength of an entire squad prepared to take responsibility for its program is immense, certainly greater than you could hope for from a top down change room of a few leaders and many followers.
“We are made by many and I would like to think that we will be led by many in 2020.”
Most VFL/AFL games as Collingwood captain:
161 Nathan Buckley
153 Syd Coventry
149 Scott Pendlebury
123 Tony Shaw
116 Wayne Richardson
105 Phonse Kyne
104 Nick Maxwell
