‘Maybe it is going past me’: Steele Sidebottom’s comeback from self-doubt to contending again

2 hours ago 1

In the early part of the 2024 season, Steele Sidebottom had lost that sublime touch and cleanliness with the football that has defined his now 353-game career.

“I was shithouse, basically,” the super veteran recalled of those hard times. “Basically, just like my touch and footy – everything was sort of a little bit off.”

Steele Sidebottom kicked three goals in Collingwood’s qualifying final win over the Crows.

Sidebottom had not experienced such a deep recession, in a career of near-constant productivity. He wondered if the game had left him behind.

Did he think he was finished? “I had serious questions,” he admitted.

Craig McRae had gently dropped him from the team for a crucial game at the Gabba against Saturday’s opponents, without using the language of omission.

“Because my form wasn’t up to scratch,” Sidebottom said.

“I feel like I’ve been able to perform for a long time, and then it was like, ‘Shit, maybe it is going past me a little bit’.”

Collingwood did not have a contract on the table – and that remained the case until virtually the end of 2024.

‘I was shithouse, basically.’

Steele Sidebottom on his form line early last season

“But yeah, I feel like I was able to sort of fight back and change my form around,” Sidebottom said.

His stature and longevity as an elite player has been predicated, in part, on his flexibility. Late in 2024, as a sputtering Collingwood made a belated charge at finals, he was deployed as an on-ball tagger on, first, Errol Gulden, then Lachie Neale and, finally, Jack Viney – and he was among Collingwood’s best in each game (they won all bar the Swans game).

“So probably those last three games of the year were my best three games of the year,” Sidebottom said.

He secured his once-parlous contract for 2025.

“At the end of last year, I didn’t know whether I was going to get a contract as well,” Sidebottom said.

Hitherto, he had not known much doubt about his capacity. “You start to question yourself... that’s probably something that I hadn’t encountered so far in my career.”

As with the Magpies, who were written down, if not written off (this scribe among the sceptics) as being too ancient to contend after round one against Greater Western Sydney, Sidebottom had a remarkable revival thereafter from rounds two until the bye.

Scott Pendlebury and Sidebottom have played more games together than any other pair in the game’s history.

At one point, Sidebottom seemed a genuine shot at the All-Australian team, with this unforseen twist – he was playing as a bona fide midfielder, as much inside the contest as outside, after spending years on the wing and in predominantly outside roles.

But the Magpies had resorted to placing their pliable Steele in the middle because of Jordan De Goey’s unavailability and the need to support Nick Daicos.

When De Goey returned, and Ned Long settled in a defensive inside midfielder role, Sidebottom found himself back out on the wing and as what McRae calls a swiss army knife (referring to Will Hoskin-Elliott) – a player who can be moved around the field.

“I probably played 90 per cent of the back part of the season on the wing,” Sidebottom said.

He retains that knack, too, for timely goals – witness the three he dobbed in the qualifying final that were critical in storming to the line over Adelaide.

Sidebottom reckons his perennial on-field partner Scott Pendlebury should surpass Brent Harvey’s games record next year, but he doesn’t envisage that he will join Pendlebury in the 400-game club (he would be 45 games shy if the Pies made this year’s grand final).

Did he aspire to 400 games (a question other media have posed this week)?

“Not really. I want to play for as long as I can, but I don’t want to be here and just trying to get a number,” Sidebottom said.

“I don’t want to be some guy that’s holding some guy out because I’m worried about trying to get some record. I’m not going to get to 400 anyway.”

Sidebottom and Pendlebury are chasing a third premiership together, and would be the first triple-premiership players in black and white since before the Second World War.

While to win this year’s flag, clearly, is the ambition, Sidebottom is “entrenched” in the moment – in this year’s finals – rather than pondering posterity and his record.

Sidebottom and coach Craig McRae (left) share a laugh part-way through their 2023 premiership season.

“Right now, I feel like I’m in the thick of it, and I’m just not worried about what it’s going to look like when I’m all done,” he said.

Sidebottom isn’t sure why the Magpies have garnered such immense output from veterans, although he observed that this is an AFL-wide trend. Resources, and the time expended on maintaining one’s body, have contributed to players pushing into their mid-30s.

Sidebottom’s regimen also has seen a reduction in alcohol consumption.

“I do occasionally [drink], but not like I maybe used to,” he said.

The man from Congupna in northern Victoria, who professes a wish to be involved in country footy after his AFL career, said of his former fondness for an ale: “I loved it, I mean I still enjoy it, but I mean I’ve got two kids at home now as well. I don’t pull up now like I used to.”

Sidebottom has a faded tattoo on his left hand, inscribed with the words “Get up.” “I just got it in Bali, actually, [with] Daisy Thomas all those years ago.”

He thought the ink was post the 2010 premiership. “[It’s] probably something that I need to get rid of,” said the 34-year-old dad.

Could he recall what those words signified? “Not really, no.”

“Get up”, though, might be a fitting description for Steele Sidebottom’s journey over the past 18 months – Steele standing.

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