CTV > Watch the Final Siren with Brad Scott

Assistant coach Brad Scott highlighted the efforts of Scott Pendlebury, Scott Burns and John Anthony as positives in what was an otherwise disappointing loss to North Melbourne last Friday night.

Speaking on CTV’s weekly match review show the Final Siren, Scott described Pendlebury’s season as “fantastic” and underlined his efforts in trying to lift his team mates against the Kangaroos.

“He was one of our few midfielders who played reasonably well,” Scott said of Pendlebury.

“I think the passage of play where he dodged around a couple of players and fed off a ball to Alan Didak who kicked a crucial goal for us was really important, and whenever he gets his hands on the ball he’s always pretty good with it, so we’d like to get the ball to him as often as possible.”

The dual Brisbane Lions premiership player also praised the captain for his form and leadership.

“He (Burns) is really defying the odds, at 33 years of age, he continues to play really good footy.

“He is our captain and our leader, and we expect that from him every week, and he’s delivering for us, but unfortunately he and Scott Pendlebury were lone hands in the midfield for us on the weekend.”

Meanwhile, John Anthony took another great step forward with a four-goal haul in only his fourth game, meaning he has booted nine majors in his short career so far, despite being touted as a future key back.

“John’s been good, he’s come in and played well.

“He was groomed as a defender, and has played most of his footy at VFL level in defence.

“With Travis (Cloke) well held by Firrito, and Gibson did a pretty good job on Medhurst as well, it was good that John could bob up and kick a few goals for us. (He) didn’t get a lot of opportunities but kicked four from the limited opportunities that he did get.”

After coming to Collingwood at the end of 2006 to take up a role as development coach, Scott moved into a new role this year as assistant coach to Mick Malthouse with his primary responsibility analysing the opposition, something that gives him inside knowledge of what the Magpies can expect from Essendon this Saturday afternoon.

“They’ve really turned their season around, Essendon.

“Earlier in the year they were scoring quite heavily, but also getting scored against quite heavily, but the last four weeks in particular, they’ve not only lifted their scoring rate, they’re restricting the opposition to pretty low scores as well.

“While they’ve got a few injuries and are a little bit depleted, we’re certainly not going to take them for granted, and they’re just another side standing in our way of getting what we want.”