‘Cooked him’ — Cornes blasts Collingwood’s handling of Scott Pendlebury

Collingwood has put their season at risk by ‘cooking’ Scott Pendlebury, according to polarising AFL critic Kane Cornes.

Pendlebury played 92 per cent of the last quarter as he secured the ANZAC Medal in the Magpies 77-point win over Essendon.

The Collingwood champion gathered 43 disposals and kicked two goals in a mammoth performance.

However, Magpies coach Craig McRae has indicated the 38-year-old veteran will likely be rested from Thursday night’s blockbuster against Hawthorn but will return the following week against Geelong.

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With Pendlebury currently sitting on 431 games — one off equalling Brent Harvey’s games record of 432 — it’s likely he will equal the record against Geelong but then not break it the following week as Collingwood plays in Sydney.

Instead Pendlebury will be rested for a second time in three weeks for the Sydney match before breaking Harvey’s record the following week at the MCG against West Coast.

Cornes feels the Magpies are accommodating Pendlebury too much and they will now be missing their champion for two of three crucial games because they haven’t managed him effectively.

“I’m not sure when at Collingwood it became about the individual and not about the team,” he said on The Agenda Setters.

“Scott Pendlebury should be playing this week against Hawthorn. They need him to be playing this week, but the reason he’s not playing against Hawthorn this week when they desperately need him is because they cooked him.

“They absolutely cooked him because he was chasing a disposal and an Anzac Day Medal record that we all loved and we all celebrated. Congratulations to him, but this is about the team.

“And Collingwood’s next three weeks, Hawthorn, Geelong and Sydney, Pendlebury’s going to be playing in one of those games.

“They’ve beaten St Kilda, Giants, Carlton and Essendon, they’ve beaten no one.

“He just should be playing this week. They desperately need him against this Hawthorn side, but he’s not because he spent five minutes total on the bench in the second half.

“They were 43 points up at three-quarter time. They were 14 points up at half-time. He’s 38 years old. He should have played, with this game in control at halftime, certainly at three-quarter time, five minutes of the last quarter.

“He spent the most time on the ground other than Nick Daicos as a midfielder in the last quarter. When has he ever done that? When has he ever played 92 per cent of a quarter?

“If they had managed him smartly and played him for 70, 80 minutes of this game, he plays this week.”

‘Cooked him’ — Cornes blasts Collingwood’s handling of Scott Pendlebury

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