West Coast didn’t get the Hollywood script in time for the first ball up.

It read: Scott Pendlebury’s AFL record 433rd game. 90,028 at the MCG. You know what to do.

The Collingwood banner was big: SP 433 Scott Pendlebury record breaker.

The Eagles banner was defiant: Crashing the party on Pies Territory, Waalitj Marawar is here to steal the story.

After a pre-match celebration of Papal proportions – all that was missing was white smoke billowing from the nearby Nilex clock silo Paul Kelly made famous – the Eagles did exactly as their cheer squad promised. They became the most unwelcome of gate crashers.

Clapped on to the ground by a guard of honour featuring former teammates, club officials, family and friends, Pendlebury turned up, as forecast, with a gold No.10 on his back. What wasn’t expected was each of his 22 teammates also took to the field with gold numbers.

Collingwood Craig McRae said the Pies “might get in trouble” from the AFL but “we wanted to look like a team”.

The Magpie veteran also wore celebratory boots designed by his kids.

West Coast wunderkind Harley Reid was celebrating a more modest 50 game milestone. His boots, however, were anything but modest. Luminous pink.

Reid walked the walk too.

Sticking to their own script, not the Hollywood one, Reid lined up directly opposite the record breaker at the first stoppage of the game and stuck a fend-off straight in his face, sending the Collingwood champion to the turf. Reid then burst away to set up Elliot Yeo for the first goal of the game to the visitors.

Pendlebury responded moments later with a muscle-twitching huge hip and shoulder on Reid on the boundary line. Cue the melee, with Pendlebury and Reid both involved.

The game was only minutes old and already the significance of the occasion was absorbed by the on-field action.

West Coast, renamed Waalitj Marawar for Sir Doug Nicholls Round, had come to play and it would be deadlocked until Nick Daicos conjured his third goal with just under five minutes remaining.

It preceded an ugly melee, seconds after Jamie Elliott went down with a knee injury.

The game, which had been played in great spirit up to that point, deserved better.

Tens of thousands of Collingwood diehards and a healthy contingent of Eagles fans had begun lining up outside the MCG gates three hours before the game.

When they entered they saw a giant SP 433 painted on one members’ wing while ground staff handed out free SP433 signs, which they held up at the 10-minute mark of the first quarter.

An hour and a half before the game, images and video tributes were rolled out on the giant scoreboard.

Then there was the unprecedented merch which is expected to earn Pendlebury $500,000 with the AFL allowing 100 per cent of his commercial windfall to sit outside the club’s salary cap.

No one would begrudge him that. He is currently locked in a multimillion-dollar legal battle with his former manager, Jason Sourasis, with the allegation $2.6 million was siphoned from his investment accounts with a $300,000 personal loan left unpaid.

Pendlebury wore 12 jumpers during the game, the 433 number displayed on the chest, with the milestone man revealing they would be given to his parents, brothers and children.

No doubt he will have washed the game down with an SP 433 Record Breaker Pinot Noir - produced exclusively for the game at Yering Station in the Yarra Valley.

A signed single bottle could be purchased for $149 with a 12-pack collector’s edition for $1799.

The AFL Record was renamed The Scott Pendlebury for the day, with the word game written 433 times on the back of the glossy souvenir edition.

Boots, wine and watches were available for fans to purchase.

Pendlebury also wore a one of a kind dual premiership ring when he arrived at the MCG. Made by jeweller Jeff Devers – it is valued at $50,000 and will be auctioned off post match with all proceeds going to My Room Children’s Cancer Charity.

“Today’s been really normal,” he told Fox Footy in the lead up.

“Mum and Dad stayed over last night and just pretty much played a bit of PlayStation this morning with my Son. Sonic Olympics. Lost a Rugby 7’s to him so copped that from him this morning. A pretty cruisy day,” Pendlebury told Fox Footy when he arrived at the ground.

“It is different. Since ‘Fly’ (McRae) has been here we’ve been big on embracing the occasion. And this is a little bit different because it’s an individual games thing. I’ve tried to lap it up and enjoy it. It was pretty funny, I was doing some shopping yesterday down in Elwood and they clapped me when I walked out and I was holding a pumpkin.

“It’s like ‘I’m getting clapped for buying a pumpkin’. It’s been fun, I’ve enjoyed it and now is the easy part where I get to go out and play.”

Collingwood got the four points in the end. The Eagles the respect they craved.

And Pendlebury got the W he deserved, by 10 points, and there was even a chat with Harley after the final siren, an official interview before he was chaired off the ground between a guard of honour formed by both teams.

“I wasn’t really going head to head (with Harley). He put me on my arse straight away,” Pendlebury said of his first quarter clash with the young Eagle in his post-game interview.

Pendlebury said it had been a “hell of a ride” but there was “still plenty left in the tank”.

A Brownlow remains the only elusive prize in a career that has produced five grand finals (one draw), two flags, a Norm Smith Medal, five best and fairests and six All-Australians. And now the games record.

Bravo.