EVER the team player, man of the moment in Thursday’s Anzac Day clash at the MCG, Scott Pendlebury, selected a surprise highlight from his 17 blockbuster appearances against Essendon as his number one memory.
When asked prior to the game by his first and most influential coach in the AFL, Mick Malthouse, to name his highlight, either of his own doing, or a team mate’s, from all those appearances, Pendlebury nominated 2010 premiership team mate Jarryd Blair’s effort in the 2012 Anzac Day game, six years into his record breaking career, as the very best.
“I would have to go for Jarryd Blair kicking the winning goal in the 2012 Anzac Day game,” said Pendlebury.
When Essendon’s Brent Stanton put Essendon five points in front in that game,with little more two minutes to go, the Bombers looked to have snatched another last gasp victory. It had been the Bombers fourth goal in-a-row, and they had all the momentum but enter hero of the day, Jarryd Blair.
Speaking recently to the Herald Sun, Blair acknowledged, in typically self-effacing fashion, that he was just in the right place at the right time when the ball spilt off the pack in the goal square.
“I remember Ben Sinclair taking the mark at half forward and rolled around and kicked it in. There were blokes everywhere," he told Herald Sun reporter Rebecca Williams.
“I was just in the right place at the right time and just tapped it over the line.”
Of course, in front of 90,000-plus screaming fans, it was a bigger moment than that.
Interestingly enough, Leongatha’s Dyson Heppell had been playing on Blair for most of the day and probably had the better of him, but the last strike by the diminutive Collingwood forward was all that counted and still rates as number one among Scott Pendlebury’s Anzac Day highlights.
At this week’s Anzac Day game, Pendlebury continued to stack up the records when he passed the 10,000 possession mark in his 390th game with the Pies, the only player to reach such heights, and still with the 400 game milestone beckoning.
"It's pretty cool for a kid from Sale to become the games top possession getter through all of its history," said Pendlebury when reflecting on passing the record in Thursday's drawn game.
