Roos to provide tough contest, says Pendlebury
Magpies midfielder says Brad Scott's coaching philosophy has transformed the Kangaroos in 2010
COLLINGWOOD midfielder Scott Pendlebury says he is expecting to come up against an uncompromising North Melbourne side coached by Brad Scott on Saturday night.
Scott took the North Melbourne job after three seasons as an assistant at Collingwood and Pendlebury said the Kangaroos were playing a tough brand of football in line with Scott' s philosophies.
"We've got North Melbourne this week, and Brad Scott has come from here so obviously he is going to know a fair bit about us. It is going to be another good challenge for us," Pendlebury said on Monday morning.
“It’s going to be a tough contest, a lot of contested footy and probably a lot of stoppages as well.
"They played well on the weekend against Melbourne and they’ve got a great list of young players.”
Pendlebury said North Melbourne’s match-ups and strategies would give the Magpies a strong idea of how they are rated from someone who spent time in their inner sanctum.
“It helps their understanding of what we want to do but I’m sure Scotty’s got his own stuff that he wants to do with North Melbourne as well. As a few of the players said yesterday we get to see who he rated from our side and who he didn’t,” he said.
“We’ll get a good look at that [their structures] this week and figure out ways to counter that. He’s going to know a fair bit about our structures and it is going to be a fair match out there.”
Thirteen players kicked a total of 24 goals for the Magpies in Sunday’s win over Carlton and Pendlebury said the ability to share the goal scoring around made them a formidable opponent for any team.
“You don’t want to rely on Travis (Cloke) to shoulder the load. I think so far this year we’ve done that pretty well,” he said.
“Mick said yesterday I don’t think we’ve got a player in the top 15 in the goal kicking but we’ve had a good spread of it and kicked some good scores.”
The Magpies are sitting in second spot on the ladder, just behind the Sydney Swans on percentage.
With experienced players Tarkyn Lockyer, Shane O’Bree, Leigh Brown and John Anthony all unable to get a game at the moment, Pendlebury said the side has real depth.
”There is competition for spots and training standards go up because of that and performance as well,” he said.