Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury responded to former AFL star Jonathan Brown's harsh assessment of a particular pre-season training session that the Magpies held.
Brown took to Fox Footy's On The Couch on Monday night to voice his concerns about the Magpies training habits, saying that they lacked intensity and and questioned the teams leadership.
He noted that in Collingwood's 60-point loss to GWS in the JLT Community Series pre-season game, the team played without match-level intensity and also "had a lethargy about them."
“I get my benchmark — I look at Richmond — they train with intensity, they train with an urgency of a premiership team," Brown told Fox Footy’s On The Couch.
“I go down the road and watch Collingwood — there’s a lethargy. There’s a lack of urgency, a lack of intensity … blokes dawdling between drills.”
"Time to stand up and be accounted. And the other thing is, the leaders - have a bit of voice out there, it was a very quiet training session.”
Pendlebury was asked about Brown's comments on Triple M's Hot Breakfast and vouched for his team and offered the his side of the argument.
“We actually played an intra-club the next night, so we were out there on a light captain’s run and training for maybe 45 minutes. Guys were doing their own prep and doing what they needed to do to get right for the game the next night," Pendlebury told Triple M's Hot Breakfast.
“It’s good that he picked up on it being a low-key day for us.”
Pendlebury spoke somewhat sarcastically, as if to imply that Brown should know better about AFL player preparation in the lead up to an early season match.
“I do remember the day he was there. He was standing out the front of the cafe watching us and I actually thought ‘I wonder what he thinks we’re doing right now’. It was a low-key day," Pendulebury said.
“I wondered if he thought it was actually team training. Clearly he did.”
