“Next Sam Mitchell”: The path Pendlebury should choose

With Scott Pendlebury set to break the V/AFL's games record, Kane Cornes and David King have discussed the possibility of the Collingwood legend entering the coaching space.

This weekend, Pendlebury will play his 433rd AFL game, surpassing Brent Harvey’s all-time games record in front of a packed-out MCG agaonst West Coast.

As a result of the celebrations, there’s been plenty of speculation about what the 38-year-old will do once he decides to call time on his playing career.

One of the options he could take up is coaching.

Pendlebury has already dipped his toe into the coaching world, having worked as a midfield coach for Haileybury College, a private school in Melbourne.

Should he choose to go down this path, there would be no shortage of AFL clubs after his services.

But with the AFL recently revealing the average salary of an assistant coach, Cornes and King expressed concern on SEN's Fireball that the money involved might not be enough to keep a great mind like Pendlebury in the space and believe the league should do more to help.

Cornes: “It'd be a shame if he doesn't go into coaching.

“I'd like to see whether he can be the next Sam Mitchell.

"But the AFL did release the band of what coaches earn.

"Assistant coaches - $200,000, Director of Coaching - $250,000, Head of Development - $175,000 to $200,000, Development coaches - $125,000, and senior coaches between $800,000 and $900,000.

"So, would you, as a club, pay Scott Pendlebury straight up as a Director of Coaching level of about $300,000, which is what I think (is the) minimum it would take to get Scott Pendlebury to your footy club.

"Would you pay him that straight away?"

King: "The AFL can't afford for these people that want to be coaches to walk away because of finances.

"Is there a way which we do with the players, we have additional services agreements that are subsidised by the AFL?

"Is there a way that a Pendlebury could be subsidised by the AFL to stay in the system?"

Cornes: "We're seeing now that some of the senior coach's salary can be outside of the salary cap. The league has also increased the soft cap as well.

"Could there be exceptional circumstances where a player such as Scott Pendlebury or that type, because we want to keep them in the game, that a portion of their wage can be outside of the soft cap?

"I don't mind that."

Cornes also threw up the possibility of Pendlebury being part of a coaching succession plan with the Tassie Devils.

King agrees... but under one proviso.

Cornes: "How hard should Tassie go for Pendlebury?

"Should there be a succession plan at Tassie if they went for a more experienced coach, just say Nathan Buckley, Ken Hinkley, (John) Longmire, whoever it is, with the progression to Pendlebury in four or five years to take over a senior coach."

King: "I would suggest he gets away from Collingwood, and I would suggest he gets away from Buckley.

"Because he knows Nathan. He knows what he thinks already. He knows his philosophies on the game.

"If it were to be Ken Hinkley, go for it. If it were any other coach, (go for it).

“Go and work underneath Chris Scott and learn, go and work underneath Sam Mitchell and learn, go and see a different environment."

Cornes: "What would be the best fit for him?"

King: "He's got family, so he would probably wanna stay in Victoria…"

Cornes: "St Kilda, under Ross Lyon?"

King: "Ross would be pretty interesting, I think he'd work you pretty hard, and that's the gig, isn't it? I like that idea."

Collingwood takes on the Eagles this Saturday, with the match beginning from 4:15pm AEST.