Magpies Legend Supports Didak Ban
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday August 6, 2008
COLLINGWOOD have played a smart tactical move in suspending rather than sacking Alan Didak despite warning him last year after his wild night on the town with a killer that he was on his last chance with the club, a Magpie legend said yesterday.
Premiership captain and former coach Tony Shaw, whose nephew, Heath, like Didak, was yesterday suspended for the rest of the home and away season and any finals matches for his part in lying to the club over Didak's involvement in Shaw's drink-drive incident on Sunday night, said Collingwood would have lost any chance of getting a return for Didak had they axed him. Instead, by negotiating a deal involving Didak during trade week, they could potentially use his value to secure an out of contract star, such as Jonathan Brown or Daniel Kerr, or high draft picks. In addition to the sanctions to Shaw and Didak, who were also slugged $10,000 and $5000 respectively, Collingwood suspended the injured Rhyce Shaw for two matches and fined him $5000 for being out drinking heavily with the pair on Sunday as well as drinking excessively on Saturday night. "If you tell a player that he's not wanted he goes to his manager who says 'that's great' and then they try to get out of the club and the club gets nothing for them," Tony Shaw said yesterday. "But he might be put up for trade, you never know, even if he's got a contract. "No doubt someone would want an Alan Didak. So the club might be playing the smart game and saying 'all right, he's at the club, he's got his suspension, if we go public saying we're going to sack him now we don't get anything for him at the end of it'. It doesn't help the cause." Shaw, who before Collingwood announced its decision on the players had called for Didak to be sacked, said he had no issue with the way the club had, in the end, dealt with the players. "I've got no worries with the philosophy of the club," he said. "I have been a bloke who has been pushing that things haven't been hard enough, but I've got no worries with it now. "I said I thought they should have gone all the way [and sacked Didak] but [this] still hurts them and I think it hurts them more now that they miss out on the game that they love."Collingwood CEO Gary Pert and football manager Geoff Walsh yesterday faced a large media conference to announce the club's decision on the Shaws and Didak but, unlike Monday when Collingwood was more than eager to make Heath Shaw publicly own up to his responsibilities, it shielded the players from facing the media. Pert claimed there was "no value" in such actions. Pert said the club had not sacked Didak, who last year was put on a final notice and given a strict curfew and special behaviour boundaries, because when he signed his new contract he had the automatic termination clause removed and was given the same code of conduct conditions of other players.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
