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Tom Morris | Scott Pendlebury games record, ARC debacle - AFL news update (27.04.26)
27 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the latest AFL headlines after Round 7?
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This is Waitley.
Your thoughts this Monday morning. The 40 Wings Temper Tech 0-4-3-3-98-11-16. The difference is temper. Took my 15-year-old to her first Anzac Day game. She absolutely loved it. Made me promise to go again next year. As for me, I get goosebumps thinking about the Pendlebury performance.
Chapter 2: How did Scott Pendlebury perform during the Anzac Day game?
How blessed is a 50-year Collingwood supporter to watch Peter Dacos Pendle's And now the Dacos boys. Dom from Shepparton. Memories of Messi in the last World Cup. Minimum running, maximum impact. Pendlebury was the reason I stopped hating Collingwood. I couldn't hate that talent and attitude. John from Mornington. Pendlebury reminds me a little of an accidental hero.
When you look closely at his career, it's phenomenal. But because he never had eye-catching speed or kicked miracle goals, we sort of took him for granted what he did week to week. and for how long he's been doing it. And then there was, did you hear the Pendles chant around the stands? That's worthy of sharing.
Brilliantly done. Side bottom, Lipinski, Cameron Hughes, 42, career best equaling, and it's a beauty too as he drops it on a dime for McStay. Scott Pendlebury, if he had a bat, he'd raise it right now. It's unbelievable. I think you should rest him now. Let him get the 50. It's an indictment on Essendon, but let's enjoy for what it is, his career. I wonder if he'll go around again, Andy.
Why wouldn't you? One goal, three. McStay's hit the post twice. Pendles the chant around the ground and McStay finally puts up his second.
Can you imagine that Pendle's chant on the night or the day that he breaks the game's record? I can only see it at the MCG. I can see a Dusty-style game. 90-plus thousand there to honour one man in one record game. Tom Morris with the footy news for Alex Scott and staff to sell your livestock or sell your home. Hello, Tom. G'day, Gerard.
It's going to be the talk for the next three or four weeks now, isn't it? So how does it lay out? There's a five day break for Hawthorne. If he were to play, it means the record breaker is against Geelong at the MCG. If he's not to play, then it would be scheduled for Sydney at the SCG, which just wouldn't be right. And that would take us to the week after West Coast at the MCG.
Yeah, that's right. So people who I trust are very careful to say this can change at any moment if either Craig McRae has a change of heart or their fitness boss has a change of heart. But the plan for Pendles is what he wants, and that is to break this record against West Coast at the MCG on that Twilight game on May 23, which would mean he rests against the Hawks this week.
He then plays against Geelong Saturday night, May 9th. He then rests off six days versus Sydney at the SCG and then plays the week after versus West Coast. And this is not, in Collingwood's eyes, them resting him just to break the record. It is sticking to a pre-season plan to have a very conservative approach across breaks that are fewer than seven days, which is what these are.
So it actually fits quite neatly. I think if they had a space of injuries... Um, and they desperately needed him against the Swans. They would play him.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Pendlebury's potential record-breaking game?
But I think there's certainly a view now that that's not the case. And, um, they're pushing towards this, which makes perfect sense as well, Gerard.
So it'd be round 11, Saturday, twilight, May 23, Collingwood West Coast. It would have all the trimmings of Dusty's 300. Yes, it would. Come for one man. And a crowd that ordinarily would be, what, 60,000 would swell to ā they could get more than they had on Anzac Day, you know. It could get to mid-19s.
Yeah, and Pendlebury paraphernalia everywhere and all the bells and whistles around it. And unlike Dusty's 300, it's with, I think, kicked an early goal, didn't he, then they lost. Collingwood would be expected to have party time here against the West Coast Eagles at the MCG.
It could be a great afternoon or twilight game for the club and for Scott Pendlebury, who's showing no signs of slowing down. No, no. What a day that was.
All right, it's all eyes to headquarters today. Can you give us a hint as to what we're expecting?
Well, they're weighing up whether Greg Swan should hold a media conference outside the AFL to explain ā all football issues that need to be explained, really. They're getting so many requests for Greg Swan to speak, understandably. I'm sure people inside this building want to speak to Greg Swan and also at other media organisations. It would make sense just to do an all-in media conference.
He's very good in those situations. He's very honest. He's transparent. And I think it is indefensible, the two arc incidents that you spoke of in your editorial at the start, one being the Rowan Marshall incident that was paid and the other being Griffin Logue's fingertips getting his hands on the ball for two very different reasons, as you explained earlier.
But they're working through that at the moment in the league. That's the official messaging. We're working through it. We'll have more clarification this afternoon. And that might be via a Greg Swan media conference.
So it matters not for just what happened. It matters for going forward. So the first is the level of intervention. And I replayed Greg Swan's interview at the Super Bowl where it was eight seconds in the Sydney Adelaide game. It was a minute and one second yesterday. That's not what was conceived. So how has that been? And it would be just...
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Chapter 4: What are the controversies surrounding the ARC technology in AFL?
Yeah. And I think that... The post. So we started with the post. Remember the night down at Geelong when David Roden got overruled because a player ran into the left-hand post and it was interpreted as the ball hitting the right-hand post. So we have, think about what we've gone through and it has embarrassed the game. We are now at a point where Snicko is to be trusted on the two goalposts.
Why we're reviewing over on the behind post is just nonsense. But yesterday showed why are our goal umpires and boundary umpires so reticent to make a decision? That's why. Because even when they know they're right, they got overruled.
And you can't have a system operating like that. Are you happy for the game to be called back like what we saw with the Rowan Marshall situation yesterday?
So in the way that it was conceived for Sydney and Adelaide, it took eight seconds. So you're recalling about four seconds of play. No one in their right mind can be comfortable with the recall that happened yesterday. A minute, a second later and 37 seconds of play. Nobody. So ice hockey does this pretty well. And they erase what happened. It just comes back.
But the difference between what was described and what was implemented, and this is the whole failure of technology in sport. I've seen it for 30 years of sports have fumbled their way. We'll just correct the howler. We'll just correct the howler. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. So it's worked in tennis. Yes. Because it's quick. And it's contained. Yeah.
But no one truly believes that it's accurate. They just all give themselves over to the convention of it. No one believes that the millimetre shown was the literal millimetre. They just all agree. But it's still, it's rectangular, it's straight lines. There's no projection in it, but nobody believes that it's actually a hundred percent right. They'll just go, this has improved the sport.
It's taken the temperamental aspects out of it. It's ended up taking the challenges out of it. It's made the linesman redundant. So that's the one implementation that has worked. And every other sport has tied itself in knots, chasing the unattainable. Yeah. Unattainable. Yeah. We just want to correct the howler. Oh. For 30 years, I've watched it.
And we'll ruin the sport if we continue down this path.
Well, it's impacted soccer and the offside calls as well when a fingernail is ahead of a defender.
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Chapter 5: How does the AFL plan to address recent officiating issues?
So we spoke about this on Saturday. You put a little dossier together, don't you think? Yeah. I think there'll be some vision that's showed in those conversations. I built a dossier yesterday for what it's worth. You could. How many have you got? I've got seven or eight. Yeah. So they're not the only club, by the way.
I had another club contact me and said, you can't mention the name of us, but we are dissatisfied with the holding the ball rule. We just don't understand. We believe that we are in contact with the AFL and they're sending us clips and then the umpires do the opposite. And as a result, our players don't understand. So we don't know how to educate them.
So that's something for the AFL to work through again, the umpiring department. with the clubs. And then there's also a lack of understanding from fans and media as well around the holding the ball decision. So there was a decision late in the Giants-North Melbourne game last night. The player had no prior opportunity.
But everyone screams that should be ball, but under the letter of the law, that is not holding the ball. So I think... We, as an industry, as a business, need to be educated as well on that because it's pretty fluffy. It's all over the place at the moment. So, yes, there's multiple clubs and players that I've spoken to that are confused by it.
And Richmond's just the one that's been happy to say to me, yeah, we're going to seek clarification from the AFL after the ā what game was it? Friday night against Melbourne. So that happens today. Any line of sight on the Dogs injuries? No. Just only what I've said on Saturday, which was Tim English is a chance. Artie Jones is a chance. Remarkably, Aaron Norton is a chance.
No concussion, just a strain of the neck. Amazing. And no plans at this stage to rest players. That might change by the end of the week, but they're going to give Bond and Pelly every chance despite that knee injury as well. So they've got a few injuries, but no, there are, and Rory Lobb's got his three to four weeks hamstring as well, which hurts them. So he had scans last week on that. Yep.
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Chapter 6: What are the upcoming challenges for Collingwood this season?
Yep. That it? I reckon for the moment, yeah. We might have some more stuff later on, but for the moment, that's it.
All right. Excellent.
Crunch Time's my favorite show. There's no point trying to make good with it now.