Darcy Cameron nominated two factors for Collingwood’s apparent improvement from 2024 during the first five games of this year: enhanced belief, and the addition of seasoned recruits.
“I feel like we got greater belief,” the ruckman said of the 2025 campaign in comparison to last year. “This year we’ve added some tools – a kit, I guess. And yeah, there’s some big weapons there … [Dan] Houston, [Harry] Perryman, [Tim] Membrey’s going really well. All those lads are doing a super role.”
Were Collingwood more settled? “Yeah, I think so, definitely. And a better start.”
Steele Sidebottom and Scott Pendlebury after they broke the record earlier this season for the most games played together as teammates.Credit: Getty Images
The Magpies appear to be prospering, too, from finishing earlier after missing the finals, and having far fewer injuries than beset them in the rocky first weeks of their 2024 “premiership defence” – they were 0-3 until they won at the Gabba in the corresponding Good Friday eve game.
“This time last year we were shuffling a lot of magnets around to make up for guys that are injured,” said Collingwood coach Craig McRae in his return to “the Gabbatoir”, where he played close to half his 195 games. “So, it seems for the first time in a long time, the players are settled in some roles … for three or four weeks in a row. I’m sure that’s healthy as well.”
Further, a couple of the competition’s senior citizens – Scott Pendlebury and especially Steele Sidebottom – are far from shuffling off their mortal football coils.
That pair, who have played more games together than any duo in the competition’s history, are performing better than they were at this stage in Collingwood’s benighted 2024, at the ages of 37 and 34 respectively.
The AFL is experiencing a version of what has happened in professional tennis when Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic maintained grand slam-capable performance past their mid-30s, as Patrick Dangerfield, now 35, reinvents himself – or reverts back to his junior days – in a predominant forward role, and a greying Taylor Walker turns on a dime to boot improbable goals.
But no club has ever been older than Good Old Collingwood of 2025, with an average team age of 28.5, and it follows that no club stands to gain more from a trend in which veterans maintain the rage well past 30 – Geelong’s 2022 side having been the oldest premier yet.
Sidebottom, quiet in his team’s first-round shellacking by the Giants, has since produced a four-game run that’s career-best on some counts. He averaged 26.3 disposals, 3.5 inside-50 entries, 5.4 tackles (a career high) and, most surprising, his 11.5 contested balls per game over those past four matches would be a career peak if maintained for a season.
Pendlebury’s productivity has seldom wavered. He struggled in the Giants opener, as did most teammates, and was asked to wear the vest as substitute six days later. But since the sub stint, he’s put together three influential games, versus Carlton (26 disposals), the Bulldogs (29) and Sydney (26); his score involvements this season is seven per game (counting the sub game), the highest since 2019.
Sidebottom and Pendlebury also have completed a role reversal of sorts.
Historically, Pendlebury played more inside than his teammate, as a pure on-baller rather than midfielder/wingman. But Sidebottom revived his ebbing fortunes late last year when he was deployed as a midfield tagger – his shutdown of Errol Gulden a notable success – and McRae opted to move him back inside the centre square.
“He’s got so much experience. You look at the way he attacks the footy,” Cameron observed of Sidebottom, after the veteran’s near-best afield game in Adelaide. “He’s so strong through the legs still. I’d sign him up for another three years if I was GM [general manager of football].”
Pendlebury, meanwhile, has won fewer contested balls, as a proportion, than in any season since his first (2006), when John Howard was prime minister and the platform formerly known as Twitter was first sited, so to speak.
“You look at what they do each week – they’re pretty much our most reliable players every week,” said Cameron. “So it’s got nothing to do with age. They’re so experienced. To me, I feel so confident running out next to those boys every week.”
At 32, Jamie Elliott, who plays his 200th game on Thursday night at the Gabba, has been potent in his appearances this year to date, while Jeremy Howe, 34, remains important behind the ball and more so given the season-ending knee suffered by Reef McInnes.
Theoretically, these players ought to be heading south – since few footballers continue playing into their middle 30s – and dragging the Pies down with them.
But these veterans are having a glow-up – raging against the dying of the light, at least to round six. McRae had said after the Gather Round victory over the Swans that in reviewing 2024, the Pies had felt that the older players “did not do enough fundamentals” and that shortfall had been redressed this year.
Darcy Cameron (pictured here coming up against former Collingwood star Brodie Grundy) finally recorded his first win over his old team, Sydney, earlier this month.Credit: Getty Images
“Steele – he had a terrific pre-season. Pendles hasn’t missed a beat. We put a lot of time into our fundamentals, as I said post-game last week and yeah, well, these guys are in great form and able to play multiple roles,” McRae said.
“I heard Scott Pendlebury say at the end of the pre-season that was the hardest pre-season he’s ever done, and it’s a lot to say that after 20 years. No, we train hard. We train hard, and most guys didn’t miss a session. So, that stands you in good stead for what the season brings you.”
Finally, Collingwood’s vaunted pressure on the opposition also has rebounded, despite an age profile two years older than the next team. It is a trademark that – if maintained – defines how they fare, as much as Jordan De Goey’s presence and fitness.
“We just know if we get our pressure over a certain level, that a lot of teams can’t go with it,” said Cameron.
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