Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury has backed his under-fire manager and claimed that watching the distraction of free agency play out this year was a factor in him re-signing with the club a year early.
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Pendlebury, 27, bypassed free agency after extending his contract with the Magpies until the end of 2020, signing on Friday. He had already been signed for 2016, but the deal will see him extend his stay at the club to 15 years. The contract extension began a big few days for Pendlebury, who won his fourth Copeland Trophy on Friday night, and marries fiance Alex Davis in Bali on Monday.
Pendlebury's manager Jason Sourasis of Strategic Management is not accredited by the AFL, a fact to which Magpies president Eddie McGuire referred when announcing the deal during the best and fairest at Crown Casino. However Pendlebury praised the work of Strategic after the event and described the situation which had prevented Sourasis from negotiating with the Pies as "farcical".
"A big thanks to the guys behind me - Strategic Management - that helped me out with that," Pendlebury said.
"Those guys helped guide me and mentor me. They're making me a better person as it goes along. And the football club as well, they were really easy to work with. For both parties it was something that we wanted."
Pendlebury thought things had gotten out of hand.
"It was sort of farcical really, because the guy owns the company - what's he supposed to do? Step away and not own the company?
"They have an accredited agent working for them, and the guy that owns it is looking after my best wishes as a financial adviser.
"There's an accredited agent there as well to sign off the deal."
In any case, Pendlebury was glad to have the deal signed off ahead of next year, after witnessing drawn out sagas like those of Patrick Dangerfield and Scott Selwood.
"I just didn't want it to play out in front of our group next year. I just didn't want me to become an issue. I don't want a win to become about me or a loss to become about me. Since free agency's happened I've followed it closely and I've watched how that works.
"As a club we've got bigger fish to fry than worrying about an individual's contract."
The Magpies are the preferred destination of Brisbane Lions midfielder James Aish, however the Lions have declared they won't conduct a trade.
Pendlebury said he would like Aish to come, but that it was no certainty. "It's hard to comment on these things, because as funny as it sounds, I'm just a player.
"Obviously with Aishy coming out and saying that he wants to come to Collingwood. Obviously that's up to Brisbane and Collingwood to sort out a deal."
Pendlebury added that the Magpies' 12th placed finish this year was not acceptable, and challenged his teammates to match West Coast's 2015 effort in rising up the ladder towards premiership contention.
"Best and fairests are good but we play for premierships. I'm desperate to win another one.
"I think we've got that age bracket now where they've played two years of senior footy. I can't see why this group doesn't move forward quickly, but potential and talent won't do it for us. It's hard work on the track.
"I would love it to be 2016 but you've just got to keep putting those building blocks in place. I think West Coast is a great template for this side - the Bulldogs as well.
"We can make finals [next] year. Traditionally the top eight changes every year and we're looking to get into that next year and play finals football. The greatest experience these guys will ever have is finals football, and until they get there they won't know what they're missing out on."
