Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Collingwood champion Scott Pendlebury has been officially managed for this Thursday’s blockbuster against Hawthorn.
Pendlebury will now equal the AFL games record against Geelong at the MCG the following week before the club faces a decision between performance and pageantry.
The 38-year-old played the game of his illustrious career against Essendon on Anzac Day but was post-game all but ruled out for the Hawks off a five-day break.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae said the decision was left in Pendlebury’s hands this week.
“Pendles, funnily enough, I had a conversation with him yesterday and he was pretty keen to miss this game,” he said.
“So he’ll be managed, 38 years old, five-day breaks, all those things, but it’s not like it’s a reacting to this game – it was planned to some degree.
“It was never completely ruling him out until, like I said, we talked to the athlete and the athlete says, ‘I think I would enjoy the break’.”
Pendlebury, one shy of Brent Harvey’s 432-game record, will draw level against the Cats before the Magpies travel to Sydney to tackle the ladder leaders.
Collingwood must then choose between playing one of its best against the Swans and saving him for a record-breaking clash with West Coast at the MCG the week after.
McRae stopped short of divulging the Pendlebury plan but said it was “a delicate balance”.
“Potentially, yeah, but do you have the Powerball numbers for me this Thursday? It’s hard to predict the future,” he said.
“We’re living in the moment of what is, so he won’t play this week, then he’ll play Geelong and we’ll see where that goes.
“We’ll have a conversation about how his body is and we all weigh up performance too.”
The Magpies lose Pendlebury but will gain its star defender and captain Darcy Moore.
Moore was close to getting up last week, telling reporters he was ready and keen to play.
But the Magpies went with the cautious approach after soft tissue setbacks plagued his pre-season.
“Darcy will play, yeah, like we said this time last week, we were ambitious he would play but he’s available,” McRae said.
