The “rather important” disposal discrepancy surrounding Pendlebury’s quest for 10,000

There is some confusion surrounding Scott Pendlebury’s quest to become the first player to reach 10,000 disposals.

The Collingwood veteran and former captain is only a handful of touches away from becoming the first man in V/AFL history to hit the 10k mark.

However, there is a slight discrepancy which has the impending milestone shrouded in uncertainty.

Stats websites like AFL Tables and Footywire have Pendlebury on 9,995 disposals while Champion Data have him on 9,996.

While the slight disparity is highly unlikely to deny ‘Pendles’ from reaching 10,000 disposals against Essendon on ANZAC Day, it could have an impact on when the Magpies fans are free to applaud the champion.

According to Champion Data, 36-year-old Pendlebury finished last Saturday’s win over Port Adelaide on 9,996 with just four disposals to get there when he was subbed out in the final quarter.

“It felt like the coverage on Saturday, which was counting them on Fox Footy, had him with four to go when he was subbed out of the game,” Gerard Whateley said on SEN.

“I feel like this is actually rather important because it’s going to be the first time a player will have cracked that 10,000 threshold.

“We would want to be sure which disposal it is. You can’t be celebrating a batter who gets to 99 as a century.”

Pendlebury broke St Kilda legend Robert Harvey’s all-time disposal record in Round 17 last year against the Western Bulldogs.

On that occasion the Pies faithful did cheer and you’d imagine the groundswell of support for Pendlebury will be slightly louder against the Bombers on the big stage at the MCG.

“There’ll be a reaction in the crowd when he does get there as there was when he broke the all-time record,” said Sam Edmund.

“According to AFL Tables, he sits at 5,000 handballs even, and 4,995 kicks. So if his first five disposals are kicks, he’d have the perfect symmetry for the perfect career - 5,000 kicks and 5,000 handballs for 10,000 disposals.

“How Scott Pendlebury would that be?”

Whateley added: “The would be deluxe.

“Can we play any sort of role in trying to resolve this? It feels rather important ahead of Thursday.”

Thursday will be Pendlebury’s 390th AFL game, meaning across his 389 games to date he has averaged 25.694 disposals… or 25.696 if you’re Champion Data.