It all started with a handball.
It’s 17 minutes into his debut game, against Brisbane at the MCG in Round 10 of 2006, and Scott Pendlebury has just taken hold of a contested ball at half-back. He turns as he takes it, instinctively protecting the ball from the tackler, Daniel Bradshaw. As Bradshaw wraps his arms around the skinny kid wearing #16, Pendles fires out a short handball to Ryan Lonie, and the Pies are off.
It's the kind of tight, in-close ‘give’ that so often escapes external notice. It does so on this occasion too, the commentators not even mentioning the first disposal of Scott Pendlebury’s career.
Little could they have known where that handball would lead. It was the first of what has so far been 9643 career disposals, spread across 18 seasons and 372 games. And this weekend, if/when he achieves disposal #14, he will break Robert Harvey’s record of 9656 for the most disposals in VFL/AFL history.
Just think about that for a second: Pendlebury will have kicked and handballed more than anyone else in the history of the game. And he looks on track to break the 10,000 barrier sometime next year.
By any measure, these are ridiculous numbers. So here is a quick look back at five possession-based landmarks our former skipper passed along the way.
The debut, Round 6 2006
Pendlebury's debut is famous, of course, not so much for the handball noted above but for the moment he joined the ‘first kick, first goal’ club in the second quarter after a pass from Nathan Buckley. He finished that first game with 11 possessions (five kicks, six handballs) – eight of them contested.
First 20+, Round 15 2006
Pendlebury only managed to break the 20-disposal barrier once in his first season, in his sixth game, when he had 11 kicks and 12 handballs (plus another goal) against Fremantle. It was the first sign of his ability to really accumulate, and gave just a hint of the big numbers that would soon follow.
Anzac Day, 2008
He has always loved the big stage, and the Anzac Day game in 2008 was huge. A crowd of just on 89,000, a big win for the Pies and two Brownlow votes for Pendlebury after his first-ever 30-disposal game. He finished with 33 touches, and would almost certainly have won the Anzac Medal if not for Paul Medhurst’s six goals.
The run, 2009
Between rounds 4 and 11 in 2009, Pendlebury registered hauls of 35, 30, 31, 28, 31, 38, 24 and 39 disposals respectively. Although he would go on similar (and sometimes even better) runs in future years, this was the first – and a sign of his extraordinary ability to deliver ridiculous numbers each week, every week.
The Norm Smith
In the 2010 Grand Final replay, Pendlebury gathered 20 kicks, 9 handballs, 10 contested possessions, plus had 11 tackles thrown in for good measure.
By the numbers, and the years
Year Games Disposals
2006 9 118
2007 23 435
2008 23 518
2009 21 542
2010 26 691
2011 25 742
2012 21 619
2013 23 688
2014 21 596
2015 22 635
2016 22 630
2017 16 450
2018 25 670
2019 24 655
2020 15 354
2021 18 417
2022 24 555
2023* 14 328
Source: afltables.com
