How Collingwood pair are changing the narrative for veteran players

Former Sydney captain and AFL champion Josh Kennedy has mounted a heap of praise towards the Collingwood veterans amid a highly successful 2025 season.

Despite entering the year with the oldest team in the competition, the Magpies sit pretty atop the AFL ladder, with veterans Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom playing with a renewed sense of youth.

Already arguably the club’s greatest ever player, 37-year-old Scott Pendlebury has played a vital role within the Pies’ midfield.

No longer the focus of attack through the middle, Pendlebury most recently entered as the substitute, entering the game in the second half and through his cleanliness and calming presence, helped to guide a near-miracle comeback.

Steele Sidebottom has seen a rather different progression with age, transitioning into one of the competition’s premier wingmen, currently playing out his best statistical season since 2018.

Having already polled 45 coaches votes, Sidebottom has exceeded all but two of his season tallies across his 346-game career, just a year following a 2024 season that looked to mark the end of the 34-year-old’s career at the elite level.

Looking across to the two veterans, both within a similar age bracket to the Sydney legend and two-year retiree, Kennedy believes the pair are changing the outlook for older players and the roles that they can play within an AFL environment.

“It's incredible, isn't it,” Kennedy told SEN’s Whateley.

“(Pendlebury) and his mate Steele over there at Collingwood, their football IQ is through the roof, which makes them incredible assets to that football club.

“Steele's obviously got one of the great kicking legs, but also endurance, a tank to be able to play out on the wing and their leadership qualities on the field.

“(I have) huge admiration for those guys, for the Collingwood coaching staff that went against popular belief that you get over 30 (and your career’s coming to an end).

“Steele Sidebottom, for example, a couple of years ago was in bad form, just really struggling, and I reckon most people in the football media, in the football world had written him off.

“This was coming towards the end, but you get a coaching staff that believe in you and persist with you despite maybe a couple of little injuries here and there and look what they get paid back.

“I'll never forget being on a plane with Kevin Sheedy, probably 15 years ago. It was just after Cadel Evans won the Tour de France, and he made a comment about how in the AFL we retire guys once they get over 30, but Cadel Evans wins one of the hardest endurance sports in the world at 32.

“So, I admire the Collingwood coaching staff as well for persisting with those guys and obviously the ultimate professionals to be able to keep doing what they're doing.”

Sitting six points clear at the pinnacle of the competition, the Pies will look to bounce back from their Round 18 defeat as they face the Dockers on Sunday afternoon.