Former Collingwood star Dane Swan has heaped praise on former premiership teammate Scott Pendlebury on the eve of his 300th game.
The Pies skipper will play his milestone match in next Friday night's qualifying final clash against Geelong at the MCG.
He becomes just the third Magpie to notch the triple ton games tally, joining former club greats Gordon Coventry and Tony Shaw.
It comes as Pendlebury was named an All Australian for the sixth time earlier this week and his first honour since 2014.
Swan said he would not have been the player he was if not for Pendlebury's influence.
โScott made me a much better player than what I was,โ Swan told SEN.com.au.
โHe looked after me a lot.
โThe thing about us is that we came to understand how each other plays.
โIf Scott got the ball at a stoppage, we wouldnโt have to talk. I knew where heโd like to get out and give so Iโd get in his vision before he was ready to give it. Thatโs just the rapport we had with each other.
โWhen I got it, he knew I couldnโt do much with it, so Iโd give it to him. He made me look better.
โSo without him I certainly wouldnโt have done what I had done in my career.โ
While the star midfield duo had different approaches to their preparation, Swan believes they both knew how to get the best out of themselves.
โWe had different methods to get the best out of ourselves,โ he said.
โScott found out what worked for him. Mine was probably a little different than his, but if Iโd have trained and worked like him, whoโs to say I would have done what Iโd done.
โAnd if Scott had have trained the way I did, who knows? He might not be the player he is today.โ
Despite being four years his senior, Swan revealed that he still took great learnings from the way Pendlebury went about it.
"I did learn plenty from him though," he said.
โI was a few years into my career when he was drafted so I already knew how I was going to go about it, I didnโt change too much.
โBut I saw his work ethic and I probably saw more stuff from him game day around preparation. That and his work rate stood out.โ
The 2011 Brownlow medallist joked: โI tried to take him under my wing, but he left me alone pretty quickly.
โHe went and followed guys that he looked up to.โ
Swan concluded that Pendlebury's application and commitment have been the driving force behind his successful career.
โHis consistency and the fact heโs rarely hurt is credit to himself.
โObviously heโs worked extremely hard, harder than anyone during my time at the club, and itโs no surprise that heโs achieved what he has.
โIt started from day one. His passion, work ethic and training intensity have only improved as heโs gone on.
โHe would have got a taste of how good he can be and just thought, โI want to be the bestโ.โ
