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Hinkley: How West Coast should approach Pendles' celebration
SEN • May 21st, 2026 11:31 am
All eyes are on Scott Pendlebury in Saturday’s clash between Collingwood and West Coast at the MCG as the star veteran breaks the all-time V/AFL games record.
Coming in somewhat under the radar as a result, former Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley thinks this could be a golden learning opportunity for the Eagles, who are hunting back-to-back wins.
West Coast successfully tagged Lachie Whitfield and Finn Callaghan in their win over GWS, and Hinkley thinks they could lock down some Collingwood stars in this one, with the milestone man himself, Pendlebury, even an option to negate.
If Hinkley were Eagles coach Andrew McQualter heading into this game, he’d even consider putting his best player, Harley Reid, onto Pendlebury, with their goal being to win the game instead of to simply celebrate the legend.
“If I've had two taggers in the last week and it's proven successful, maybe you could even put Harley Reid straight to Pendles,” Hinkley told SEN Sportsday.
“Put the 50-game milestone against the 433-game milestone and let it go.
“If you were ‘Mini’ (McQualter), because his responsibility is to win the game, you'd be looking at Pendles’ Anzac Day game and thinking, we can't let him roll around and do that.
“He's also got Nick Daicos he's got to worry about too, and it's a great learning opportunity for his young team, if you think about the challenge of that.
“Everyone's talking about Pendles, and we should be, but West Coast have got to look at this as a great learning opportunity for their team.
“Whether that's a young player who might go and play on Pendles and be close to him… Collingwood is going to want to give him the ball at all costs.
“Maybe you put Harley on him, put your best player on him, so if you kick it to Pendles, you're going to kick it to my best player, and he's going to be there to take you on as well, and that's going to be a bit risky.
“I think there's still a bit of sportsmanship in the game. You're allowed to go after him if you want, and West Coast are not there to honour Scott other than when the siren goes at the end of the game.
“Their job is to try and win.”
Given Collingwood rested Pendlebury in two of their last three games to ensure he’d reach this milestone at home, Hinkley was asked whether he’d use that as a motivating tool for his players if he were a seemingly disrespected West Coast.
“There'd be an accidental fall into that at some point, but you wouldn't certainly be disrespecting Scott, though,” Hinkley said.
“You’d be saying, ‘Do these parts annoy you, boys? They've picked our game, and it’s going to be here at home? How do you feel about that?’.
“Maybe just ask the players their own feelings.
“It's a learning moment for West Coast, the best they'll ever get in the next few years, probably, so they've got to use it for everything it is.”
Saturday’s game between the Magpies and Eagles at the MCG begins at 4:35pm AEST.
