Collingwood champion Scott Pendlebury to play at Gold Coast next year

The future of Scott Pendlebury has been revealed with the Collingwood champion to play at Gold Coast next season.

All eyes were on Pendlebury on Friday night after the team’s heartbreaking loss to the Western Bulldogs ... and coach Craig McRae dodged questions about the 38-year-old’s next move in his post-match press conference.

Pendlebury missed the wildcard clash with a hamstring injury, and had been increasingly linked with a move to Gold Coast in a playing-coaching role .

Some fans and Collingwood insiders were hoping he stayed at the club, but the AFL games record holder leaves with their blessing.

“There’s clearly a difference of opinion amongst people at the club, and Pendles himself hasn’t sat down with them and said this is exactly what I want,” 7NEWS reporter Xander McGuire said on Friday night after the loss to the Bulldogs.

“Barry Carp, the president, said they will be aligned with whatever call Pendles makes but you don’t want to be in an organisation playing on an extra year if you don’t feel like that’s in the best interests for everyone.

McRae said after the game Pendlebury knew how much he was loved at Collingwood but refused to comment on his future.

“That’s going to take its own course now. Their management was saying that they’ll speak to it at the end of the season, now here we are, so I assume that’ll happen reasonably quickly,” McRae told reporters.

“I don’t know. Again, it’s not my department, but I have had many conversations with Pendles throughout that time, and yeah, I won’t. I won’t project or add opinions of things until they’re factual.

“So I’ll just, I’ll just give it a bit of space on that. I’ve made many comments in the last couple of weeks around Pendles and how much we love him, and I’ll just leave it at that for now.”