SCOTT Pendlebury underlined his ascension to the Collingwood captaincy with a starring role in his side's important 20-point win over the Sydney Swans at ANZ Stadium.
Taking over from Nick Maxwell at the start of the year, Pendlebury was quiet early on Saturday night, ending the opening term with just three touches.
Five talking points: Sydney Swans v Collingwood
He still did his best to make an impact, landing five first-quarter tackles, but his production after the first break was nothing short of exceptional.
Facing a 23-point deficit early in the second term, Pendlebury managed to elevate his game to a stunning level to will his side across the line and avoid a 0-2 start to the year.
By full-time his stat line read 33 possessions, 16 of them contested, 10 tackles, 10 marks and nine clearances.
"I thought the leadership across the board was quite strong when we were challenged," Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said afterwards.
"The point was made after the game about a weight lifting off the shoulders with a more positive performance and positive result.
"When we were down on the scoreboard, it requires strong leadership and resilience to focus on what's in front of you and work your way back in contest by contest.
"I thought 'Pendles' exemplified that."
While Pendlebury's talents across his 173-game career are well known, at the other end of the spectrum, young defender Jack Frost was lauded for his role on Swans superstar Lance Franklin.
Franklin undoubtedly had his moments, kicking two goals including a stunning effort from around 55m out in the third term.
But, in just his fourth career game, Frost never stopped trying and at least broke even in his duel with the decorated Swan.
His effort was all the more impressive considering Nathan Brown suffered a suspected dislocated shoulder late in the third term and had to be substituted out.
"'Frosty' has put a lot of work in over the last couple of years," Buckley said.
"He's a young player [with] great athleticism and the thing that he needed to convince himself of was that he belonged.
"He's shown a real want and belief to take the game on and take the contest on, this year even more so than 12 months ago.
"He played the first two games last year as well, so he's played his third and fourth this year and clearly he's in better shape 12 months on to be able to have a real crack with the next stage of his career.
"I thought it was a really strong performance from him over four quarters.
"He's starting to learn the way that we want to defend and play the game."
Buckley wasn't sure of the extent of the damage to Brown, saying he will know more after scans in the coming days.
But it didn't look good for the defender, who injured the same shoulder he had reconstructed back in 2010.
