Thursday, March 17, 2011

2011 Brownlow Player Preview: S. Pendlebury

Name: S. Pendlebury
Club: Collingwood
2010 Brownlow Performance: Equal 4th 
WTS's 2010 Pre-Season Prediction: N/A
WTS's 2010 Post-Season Prediction: 3rd CLOSE!
Total Votes: 21
Games Polled: 8
Games Played: 22
Total Votes Breakdown: 5, 3, 0
Brownlow Odds: $15 (Courtesy of TAB)

Pendles is one bloke who went under my radar during the 2010 pre-season, so much so I didn't bother to write up a Pre-Season Player Preview last year. It wasn't until a few rounds in the season, and on further inspection of my phantom count did I realise we were witnessing the coming of age of one of the future elite midfielders of the game. And if you thought he stepped it up last year, then this year will be a sight to be seen as I expect very BIG things for young Pendles.

Being a Carlton supporter, I despise all Collingwood players, except for Pendles who happens to be one of my favourite players in the competition. Not that this has any bearing on anything else, but just thought i'd share with you the admiration I have for this bloke and how highly I rate him.

At the present time, Pendlebury sits in the same bracket as Joel Selwood as one of the few players from the crop of future superstars that are most likely to win the Brownlow Medal over the next few seasons. With aging stars such as Goodes, Black et. al. slowly but surely dropping off the pace, I feel the time has come for one of the next up and comers to snag the Brownlow. Given this, and in light of catapulting into the Top 5 in the 2010 count, I rate Pendlebury a very high chance of taking it a step higher and winning the coveted medal.

So how does one analyse his 2010 season?

One way is to compare it to that of his direct counterpart - Dane Swan. The reason for this is that Swan is the only real player to steal votes off him, so when on song, who is most likely to seal the 3 votes?

Well, if you look at the number of 3 vote games Swan polled in, there were only 2 in total - which happens to be among the lowest amount alongside Selwood out of those players to finish in the Top 10. Compare this to Pendlebury, who polled 5; this being the second equal highest number behind Judd (8), and one can see that Pendlebury is more than likely given the nod ahead of Swan when it comes to standout games.

And if Pendles steps it up a notch, and gains more votes alongside this form of grabbing more 3 vote games than Swan, i'd say he's a fair chance to win the 2011 Brownlow Medal. He won the Norm Smith, so why couldn't he go one better? At this stage, this is one speculative player i'll be on for Season 2011.


**Predicted 2011 Brownlow Finish: 1st-4th**

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