JUST before midnight on a Friday in late May, Scott Pendlebury boarded a red-eye flight bound for Melbourne. Collingwood had conceded four goals in time-on against Fremantle, leaving Optus Stadium with two points instead of four. By the time the rest of the Magpies left Perth the next morning, Pendlebury was already home. He had places to be.

Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd wasn't surprised to see the 36-year-old out at Haileybury College's Berwick campus the next morning ahead of a game against St Kevin's College, but some staff members were trying to figure out how he had made it back from Western Australia in time. Turns out he had landed just before 5.30 am.

When Pendlebury makes a commitment, he turns up, even if he's torn his bicep tendon the night before. Last year he turned up to his first game against Carey Grammar with a patched-up eye after copping a poke from Sam Durham on Anzac Day. Lloyd knew his new midfield coach was all-in from the outset when left Collingwood's training camp in Gippsland in time to make the two-hour trek to a pre-season session in Keysborough. First impressions count.

On Saturday night against Carlton, Pendlebury will become the sixth player in VFL/AFL history to play 400 games, joining Brent Harvey (432 games), Michael Tuck (426), Shaun Burgoyne (407), Kevin Bartlett (403) and Dustin Fletcher (400) in rare territory. From the moment Collingwood stunned rival recruiters with its second draft selection in late November 2005, Pendlebury has turned up. Every week of every season. And he is still turning up almost 20 years on.

Pendlebury's status in the annals of history is assured. Last year he added a second premiership medal to the one he won in 2010 when he collected the Norm Smith Medal. He is a six-time All-Australian and five-time Copeland Trophy winner. He has done it playing a brand of football that is a different language to other greats, but doesn't require translation.

Yet those who have watched him up close believe this is only half his football story. Coaching is next. Across the past two years, the Victorian has been preparing for what the next chapter looks like. He will play on in 2025 – and you can't rule out a run for the record in 2026 – but what does his next 400 games look like? There is a clear reason why the man who has touched the ball more than any other player in VFL/AFL history – 10,219 to be exact – is driving out to Haileybury at least a couple of times a week.   

"You get what you put into your players with coaching. Scott has been brilliant for us. As a person and as a coach I couldn't speak more highly of what he's brought to the program. He has come in and been fantastic at building relationships with the boys," Lloyd said.

"It's gone from there being the buzz of 'we've got Scott Pendlebury' to once that novelty wears off, you realise how passionate and committed he is to coaching. Whatever he puts his effort to, it is not token, he is all-in. It didn't take long for the boys to realise that he is here to coach and he is here to improve us and help us. He has certainly done that.

"I've learnt more about the game from Scott since he's been with us in the past 18 months than I have from anyone. What I admire about him is his ability to keep it simple, teach quite tricky aspects to schoolboys, but do it in a way with minimal fuss and minimal words. He can teach such intricate things but in a simple way. That's why I think he will make a brilliant coach."

Haileybury had won every game since Pendlebury joined the program until the most important game of 2024 in July. Brighton Grammar beat them by a single point to all but seal the premiership (There isn't a Grand Final in the APS competition, only a ladder) while Pendlebury was preparing to face Hawthorn at the MCG.

Lloyd knows the clock is ticking on his access to Pendlebury, but the triple Coleman Medallist is adamant the veteran midfielder is a coach in waiting. He could get him for another season, with Collingwood currently finalising an extension for 2025 with his manager, Alex McDonald, from Hemisphere Management Group, that is all but complete.

"He really wants it. I think that's No.1. You don't always see that. I reckon Adam Simpson, Sam Mitchell and Scott Pendlebury. Those three names spring to mind about guys who from a long way out say they want to be a senior coach," Lloyd said.

"Some guys fall into it because that might be all they know or they may not have any other options, but for Scott, he wants it. He is training himself for it with us and in other ways. He is always improving himself."

"He knows the game better than anyone and he can teach it better than anyone, he has a nature about him where players will want to play for him, it is just getting the experience in all the aspects of coaching where you have to drop players or leave players and everything else that goes with coaching."

Nathan Buckley has been making this journey for four decades. It rarely takes more than half an hour, although you never know with Melbourne traffic. He made his debut at the MCG in 1993 and played 148 of his 280 games at the home of football. He then coached 130 of his 218 games in charge of Collingwood at the ground.

Since the age of 20, most of Buckley's weekends in winter have involved a pilgrimage to the ground. Now 51, Buckley's destination hasn't changed; the job has, which is why we are joining the Magpies icon for the trek into the ground before the Magpies face Hawthorn in round 19. These are the final moments of solitude players and coaches have before the most important 120 minutes of the week.

Buckley is at the business end of his third season with Fox Footy and SEN, providing analysis on game day and during the week on TV and radio. Time will tell if he, like Ross Lyon a couple of years ago, will be lured back into the coaches' box after a stint sitting one level higher in the commentary box. The gatekeeper at the entrance to the bowels of the MCG wonders this very point out loud. As does the security guard while we wait for the elevator to deliver us to level three to continue our conversation.

The Brownlow Medallist was Collingwood captain when Pendlebury arrived at the club. It was Buckley's signature Adidas Predator right boot that precisely delivered the Sherrin to Pendlebury for the 18-year-old's first kick and first goal in his debut against Brisbane in round 10, 2006.

Buckley observed Pendlebury arrive with a country drawl (watch his first interview on Black and White TV) and quickly evolve into a polished performer through an obsessive pursuit of excellence. Like Buckley, Pendlebury gleaned information from the best. Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant's 'Mamba Mentality' drove him, as did world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao's rise from poverty in the Philippines to global superstardom. Before Instagram and TikTok, Pendlebury was the one leaving breadcrumbs on the aforementioned Black and White TV for people like Christian Petracca to devour.

"I think he has maximised his talent better than anyone I've been around in the game and anyone that I've seen in life, to be honest. He has a drive somewhere deep, it wasn't overt, but it was a drive to prove himself. That loop: learn, observe, put into action and then lock away and go into the next learning continual improvement loop – he does that better than anyone I've witnessed," Buckley said.

"But it wasn't overt, it happened right under your nose, every moment of every day. It's the Warren Buffett style of professional development. Pendles looked at guys like Kobe Bryant and Manny Pacquiao. He had a passion for basketball and the idea of boxing where you go into a ring and can only rely on yourself and who is the toughest, how can you buffer your own weaknesses and take advantage of your opponent's weaknesses.

"That whole 'dog eat dog' mindset is a game to him. He always wanted to be overprepared to handle whatever was going to come at him. He was driven by that; he never wanted to be left short when the moment arrived, but it was never overt, it was a quiet, consistent application."

Ahead of Buckley's third season as senior coach in 2014, he appointed Pendlebury as captain, replacing Nick Maxwell after six seasons in the leadership group. Pendlebury would go on to lead the Magpies for a club-record 206 games, ranking him seventh in VFL/AFL history behind Joel Selwood, Stephen Kernahan, Dick Reynolds, Nick Riewoldt, Ted Whitten and Michael Voss. Pendlebury is a different leader to the names above. He has never forced anyone to prepare like he has prepared. He didn't call people out for choosing the easier path. The offer was always there if you chose to accept it. And if you did, success followed.

Buckley coached Pendlebury for a decade. They nearly led Collingwood all the way in 2018, but Dom Sheed intervened at the death, producing one of the most memorable Grand Final moments of the AFL era to secure West Coast's fourth and most recent premiership. Only once across Pendlebury's 399 games to date can Buckley remember the champion midfielder lost for answers. Richmond smashed Collingwood by 91 points in round 21, 2015. Pendlebury still had 33 touches, but it sticks out to Buckley because of how atypical it was.

"It was the worst loss I had as a coach, against Richmond at the 'G. I reckon I looked out and it was the only time I ever looked out and saw him beaten. It looked like he didn't have the answers at the time," he said.

"The reason I say that, in the 20 years that I've observed Scott Pendlebury in every guise, that was the only time that I can recollect him forlorn, a little ruffled, and not 100 per cent connected with where he was. That to me highlights what he has been able to do. That is coming from someone who looks at things from a critical lens. The only time he looked less than on top of things and impactful. It was for 15 minutes at the end of a game where we were getting flogged."

Comparing eras is an inexact science. Gordon Coventry is Collingwood's greatest goalkicker. Syd Coventry was a star. Bob Rose only played 152 games before heading to the country, but is widely regarded as the most impactful Magpies player. Then there are the Peters – Daicos, McKenna and Moore, Dick Lee, the Collier brothers, Dane Swan and the man whose doorstep we turned up on an hour earlier and have followed all the way to the Fox Footy broadcast booth at the MCG.

"Pendles has done this longer than most, at a higher level than most. If that's not greatness, what is?" Buckley said.

"There is no one that I've seen do it at that level for as long as he has. The longevity piece has to be a part of it. He stands up in big moments. He has a Norm Smith Medal, two premiership medals and he has done it for 400 games. Whilst some may have flamed brighter, they flamed out.

"He is a metronome. I think his greatness can be overlooked because of that, but I think that's the very essence of it. You will often consider, would you rather reach the heights for a shorter period of time or be in the game for longer and not get there? He has done both. In my mind, he has to be the best ever Collingwood player. He is a Hall of Famer and will absolutely be a Legend and we are only talking about half his story. He will go and coach and he will have an impact. Wherever he goes next and whoever chooses to walk with him will be better for it, that's for sure."

Derek Hine was one of the newer recruiting managers in the caper when he took a club- shaping punt on a 17-year-old from Sale. West Coast had called Pendlebury's mum Liza the night before, telling her they were going to take him at pick No.13 if he was still on the board, and leaving her in tears at the thought. Pendlebury was outside playing basketball when the phone rang again. This time it was Geelong list guru Stephen Wells. The Cats had Pendlebury in mind two picks later at No.15. He would never get that far.

Despite Pendlebury being widely considered a late first-round pick, the Magpies swooped at pick No.5 after taking Dale Thomas with the second overall selection. Hine copped it in the media in the days and months after the pick. It was a seismic call on a bottom-age player who had started the year at the Australian Institute of Sport on a basketball scholarship, before deciding to commit to football in February for the first time since the age of 12, especially from a recruiter who had only just transitioned from a career as a fireman to a football scout.

Hine's decision was vindicated by the time Pendlebury won the Norm Smith Medal in the 2010 Grand Final replay at the age of 22, weeks after being named All-Australian for the first time. Now he is the only player still standing from that draft after West Coast great Shannon Hurn bowed out to end his 333-game career last year.

In a sliding doors moment, Patty Mills missed that initial 12-man AIS squad in 2005. But when Pendlebury chose to stop playing basketball and commit to playing TAC Cup, Mills took his spot in Canberra. The rest is history. Mills is currently representing the Boomers at his second Olympics. He has played 15 seasons in the NBA for Portland, San Antonio, Brooklyn, Atlanta and now Miami.

Joe Ingles was also in that squad at the time. Like Mills, the 36-year-old is also in Paris after going to Tokyo. After spending his first eight years in the NBA in Utah, Ingles is now playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves, following brief stints in Milwaukee and Orlando. Both believe Pendlebury would have joined them in America and in the Australian team if he had stuck with basketball. But he didn't. Instead, the only connection to basketball were the constant references relating to his sporting background. Did you know Pendlebury played basketball?

Pendlebury and Thomas moved in with then-Collingwood CEO Greg Swann and his wife and two children in Williamstown for the first six months. It was the ideal soft landing for two teens from the country, something Swann, now leading Brisbane, still does. By that stage, they had got to know each other by playing for the Gippsland Power. Thomas witnessed back then in Morwell the same game awareness and precise decision-making Pendlebury is still producing decades later. 

"I crossed paths with Pendles for the first time at the Power. I was top-age, he was bottom-age. A lot of the traits that he shows off weekly in AFL footy stood out back then," Thomas said. "The decision-making, the poise with the footy in hand and the fact no one could lay a glove on him at under-18 level. There are a lot of blokes who are extremely quick, extremely talented, can run, jump, mark, kick goals from anywhere, but his poise and class shone from a very early age.

"I just marvel how he is still going at this level right now. We got drafted together, my career finished in 2019, so just the longevity he has had in the game. But not just longevity, he has been at the highest level for such a long time. It blows your mind. To get to a point in the game where you are one of the best players in the game is hard enough, to stay there for a season or two is tough, but for him to do it for so long will see him go down as one of the best Magpies – if not the best – to play the game. It's rare air."

Collingwood fans have always been enamoured with loveable rogues who coloured outside the lines like Dane Swan, Alan Didak, Heath Shaw, the late great Darren Millane and current favourites Jordan De Goey and Brayden Maynard. Pendlebury is different. He has never put a foot wrong. Thomas said the 'rat pack' embraced him, even if he was cut from a different cloth.  

"For the level of superstardom and the level of rare air, he is almost too unassuming the way he goes about it," Thomas said. "There is such a massive amount of respect in the AFL community and the wider community because he is just ticking off these milestones almost easily, which is probably why he is so unassuming. His benchmark has been so high and so consistent for so long."

Mick Malthouse was keen to expose Thomas and Pendlebury to as much senior football as possible, as soon as possible. Collingwood had finished second-last the year before and was regenerating. Pendlebury contracted glandular fever just before Christmas and missed most of his first pre-season. He spent the first couple of months building at Williamstown under coach Brad Gotch and captain Brad Lloyd, before making his AFL debut in the No.16 jumper in round 10. Magpies coach Malthouse made Pendlebury really earn his first chance. He moved him from the wing to an inside role at the Seagulls, and Pendlebury would never wear the Williamstown guernsey again, nor return to the VFL.

Simon Lloyd wore many hats during Malthouse's era at the club, from club psychologist to specialist coach to high performance boss. He worked closely with Pendlebury, who would seek feedback from all departments across the building, from the time he arrived at the club. Pendlebury even studied nutrition at university to learn more about fuelling his body for performance. 

Malthouse coached Pendlebury across his first six seasons, then coached against him at Carlton, before remaining involved in the game as a commentator for the ABC. For the longest serving coach in VFL/AFL history, Pendlebury's football IQ set him apart from the outset. He has made time slow down around him for 399 games and counting. 

"With basketball, you've got a smaller arena or court; you've got to make quicker decisions, good decisions, defensive decisions, offensive decisions, very, very quickly. Clearly he was at an elite level with his basketball and he brought that to football. He had a remarkable level to control a game. That's what he has done virtually his whole career," Malthouse said.

"He's been able to get to where he has got to because he has a knowledge of where his teammates are, where the opposition is, and where the ball is, very quickly. You can't teach that; that is an innate ability, you can home in on it and exploit it."

Malthouse has seen many great players not become great coaches. The three-time premiership coach implored Pendlebury to complete a comprehensive apprenticeship as an assistant coach first before considering a spot in the hot seat.

"He is not a senior coach and there have been plenty of players who think they are going to be a senior coach," he said.

"He has enough knowledge to be in a position where he understands the game, but there are a lot of other factors that determine whether you're going to be a successful senior coach. I think it's premature. He hasn't even been in the passenger seat yet. I think he needs to be in the passenger seat for a couple of years before he starts to be touted as a senior coach. Just ask senior coaches who have just been sacked how hard it is."

Time will tell if Pendlebury the coach achieves anywhere near as much as Pendlebury the player. He has squeezed every last drop out of the sponge as player. No doubt he will do the same as a coach. It is why he will start his milestone game day out at Xavier College, coaching Haileybury in the final game of the season, before trying to keep Collingwood’s season alive.