SCOTT Pendlebury is looking forward to getting in the ice bath on Sunday morning and starting to prepare to play the Western Bulldogs next Saturday night. That's how he is wired, how he has always been across 433 games.

Less than 30 minutes after breaking Brent Harvey's all-time games record at the MCG on Saturday, the 38-year-old sits in a tiny, narrow room deep inside the Collingwood rooms contemplating what's next. 

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Pendlebury has now played the most games in VFL/AFL history and has two premierships on a CV that includes six All-Australian selections, five Copeland Trophy wins and a Norm Smith Medal. Now another flag is the aim this year.

"I love the game and I want the opportunity to play for as long as I can. The thing that I'm sort of trying to wrap my head around is yes, I broke the record, but, you know, the end goal is a flag, so that's what I want to get this year," Pendlebury said on Saturday night after the win over Waalitj Marawar.

"I might finish on 450, 460, 440, I don't know. But I just want to keep preparing. I love the process and, you know, I'm looking forward to getting in the ice bath tomorrow morning and starting again and playing the Bulldogs next week."

This milestone has been coming for years. Pendlebury joined the 400-club late in 2024 before finishing sixth in the best and fairest. Last year he finished eighth at 37. The build-up has been enormous across months, particularly in the past handful of weeks where every facet of the milestone has been forensically examined.

"Oh, it's a funny thing, isn't it? Yeah, there's some negative stuff, but the amount of positive stuff, the amount of messages, I reckon I would have received over a thousand messages this week of just people thanking me," Pendlebury said.

"It was an opportunity for me to give back and thank a lot of people. And look, if there's three or four people that want to be negative and go that route, you know, jealousy is a funny thing, isn't it? But the amount of positive stuff and positive messages was unbelievable. And most importantly, it's from people that I really respect."

Pendlebury wore a gold No.10 on the back of his guernsey, but in a twist, every other Collingwood player's number was also the same colour. Craig McRae wasn't sure the club had been granted approval by the AFL before the game, but the League had ticked it off on Friday. 

After so much backlash around the decision to wear a different coloured number, Pendlebury said he knew about it a long time ago and wanted the fans to see it first, rather than reported days or weeks in advance.

"I'm glad that we could keep it under wraps," he said. "Because there's a few people out there that love to leak that sort of stuff and they do it because they want the moment, they want to try and steal the moment from the fans and the club, and I don't respect that sort of work that those people do. So I'm really glad as a football club, we could keep that under wraps for a long period of time and then come out because I think the fans deserved to see it first."

The game stopped momentarily 10 minutes into the first quarter when Collingwood supporters held 'SP433' signs above their heads. Just over 90,000 crammed in, almost all wore black and white. The timing was perfect. Nick Daicos narrowly missed a set shot from the pocket, allowing a moment that will be replayed forever. 

"It was crazy just to look up and just see the whole game sort of stopped. I don't know if it was supposed to stop or whatever, but like the West Coast guy didn't want to kick it in. It was phenomenal just for everyone to acknowledge me, and it was a little bit uncomfortable at the same time," he said.

"I wanted to sort of say thanks to everyone and whatnot. I was saying before to the boys, I'm not a very emotional person, but walking up the race nearly got me just because I was walking up and I could just there were so many people that have played such a big part of making my career so much fun and so enjoyable. I reckon it could have taken an hour to get out onto the ground. I've had a blast and spoke and thanked every person, but it was an incredible experience."

Waalitj Marawar in round 11 wasn't Pendlebury's plan when he looked ahead during the pre-season. Geelong in round nine was always his desired outcome due to the storied rivalry between the two powerhouse clubs and the big finals dating back to the 2007 prelim and including the 2010 prelim, 2011 Grand Final, 2019 qualifying final, 2020 semi-final and 2022 qualifying final.

"Everyone spoke about these plans that they reckon they knew about and stuff. It was really funny because I wanted to play it against Geelong," he said.

"They have been my greatest rival, and the plan from the very start was to miss the Hawthorn game before the year. It's obviously a five-day break, so it would have been hard anyway. I was really hell bent on it being Geelong because I've had such a big rivalry and they're a club that's got a winning record over me, so I would love to have done it against them, but it wasn't to be. 

"And you know, I had the Achilles injury in the Giants game and missed the Brisbane one, so I had to manage that. But I think after today, I'm glad that I did it here with the amount of people that came and the spectacle it was."

Pendlebury has produced some of the best football of the past decade in his 21st season, but also dealt with injury scares and a trip to the AFL Tribunal. 

He revealed he has also been dealing with an issue with his hand since the win over Carlton in round six, which hampered him against the Eagles and will need to be managed going forward in the short-term.

"There's some funky stuff going on there, but it's been happening since Carlton, so it's something that I've got to manage, but every week I seem to jag it or hurt it," he said.

"I played with it a bit just because I don't know, it clicks and crunches, so I try and get all those out. But it's just one of those things that some weeks you just knock it too many times and it gets pretty sore."

So now he holds the record, how does the crown fit?

"I've always found individual awards really funny in a team sport," he said. "We seem to celebrate all these individual things, like the Brownlow we all get together and have a big team function for the Brownlow, but we don't do it for the Grand Final. Everyone wants to win a premiership, but it's not like every club has to come to a Grand Final dinner before the AFL Grand Final or something. I don't know what it means. It just means, for me, I love the game and I want the opportunity to play for as long as I can."