Ryan Pendlebury on winning unlikely premiership with St Mary’s, playing through injury and his salary cap ban
Ryan Pendlebury was found guilty of a salary cap breach and suffered a brutal injury in his second game back. A month later, he played through pain to help his side to an upset flag. He reflects on his rollercoaster past three months.
A rollercoaster three months for Ryan Pendlebury ended with an unlikely premiership.
The brother of Collingwood champion Scott Pendlebury was hit with a five-week suspension in July, reduced from seven on appeal, from AFL Goulburn Murray for breaching community footy player payment rules while coach of his former club Euroa in 2024.
Pendlebury, 33, maintains his innocence and told the The Age in August that Euroa Football Club “pinned it on me”, unaware that two payments he had received from Euroa officials and gave to player Silver Yousif, who copped a four-game ban, were off the books.
The former Werribee, Port Melbourne and Collingwood VFL key defender returned in the Geelong league in round 16 for their loss to South Barwon, which at that point put the Saints’ finals hopes in doubt.
In the first quarter the following week, the North Melbourne AFLW midfield coach suffered a serious ankle injury and his season appeared all but over.
“I smashed my ankle against Geelong West, which is round 17. So snapped a few ligaments, a little break, so I was probably lucky to be playing (in the grand final) to be honest,” Pendlebury said.
“As far as the physio is concerned it’s probably six to eight weeks and surgery maybe.”
St Mary’s kept winning elimination final after elimination final without him, knocking off Newtown & Chilwell twice – in round 18 and the semi-final – and Bell Park before Pendlebury miraculously returned for their preliminary final triumph over Colac.
And just six days after Scott was subbed out of Collingwood’s preliminary final loss to Brisbane with a calf injury, Ryan went off limping early in the GFNL decider against St Joseph’s.
“I just tweaked it in a tackle and it (was) pretty heavily strapped – it wasn’t going anywhere,” Ryan said.
But Pendlebury fought through the pain as he led from the front in the St Mary’s defence, channelling his older brother Scott – who was there watching with the Pendlebury clan – with a performance full of poise on the September stage.
And despite having coaching responsibilities with North Melbourne during the Saints’ preliminary final and grand final clashes, the Kangaroos gave Pendlebury the green light to play — fortunately, they got two wins as well.
“Coming in I’m 33, so on the bigger occasions, you need some experience to try and calm people down, set people up. So had that sort of my mindset going in and the backs as a group played really well,” Pendlebury said.
“Interrupted year and then timed it pretty nicely to play the prelim and then obviously won, it’s great.
“I had mum, dad, Scott, Kris my other brother and then all their kids (watching). There was probably like 15 of them here running around and the kids were somehow first out there.”
Pendlebury found the going tough initially after his ban, but St Mary’s and North Melbourne provided support and an outlet.
“It was difficult at the start, and then once you know that that’s what has happened, then you sort of just go straight into coach mode basically,” Pendlebury said.
“So helped out as much as I could with the backs, and gave (St Mary’s co-coaches Luke Rayner and Ben Boseley) a bit of a hand with that and it flew by, and here we are.
“North were really good and probably more so St Mary’s were awesome. Scott Hosking, Sally Flynn and Sean Blood were really good supporting me and helping me through it all.
“To be honest, I didn’t have to do too much. They sort of said you just worry about your work and footy and we’ll sort it all out for you.”
Pendlebury and the club still haven’t spoken since details of the ban went public.
“I haven’t reached out, they haven’t reached out. And I’m happy with that, that’s fine,” Pendlebury said.
After months of never-ending commutes last year with Euroa and North Melbourne, Pendlebury was on the lookout for a club closer to his home in Werribee at the end of last season.
He reached out to his good mate Ben Moloney, a former St Mary’s premiership star and VFL player, who suggested the Saints.
Not even the club themselves expected to be up on the dais at season’s end following a mass exodus.
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“I didn’t know anything about players they lost, nothing, just seemed like a good club,” Pendlebury said.
“All I heard was, yeah, we probably might take a little step back – that’s from us as well, might take a little step back and then look to go again next year.
“And I guess that didn’t happen, did it?”
Originally published as Ryan Pendlebury on winning unlikely premiership with St Mary’s, playing through injury and his salary cap ban
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