Didak, Manager Look To Future As Clubs Consider Trading Magpie

The Age

Thursday August 7, 2008

Nick Sheridan and Sam Lienert, With Rod Curtis, Thomas Arup and AAP

DISGRACED Collingwood footballer Alan Didak will meet his manager today to discuss the fallout from the drink-driving scandal that has jeopardised the 25-year-old's career at the club.

Didak and teammate Heath Shaw were suspended for the remainder of the season when Shaw was charged with drink-driving after a car accident in Kew on Sunday night.

At first Shaw denied that Didak was a passenger in the car but it emerged that the two were driving home from a drinking session with teammate Rhyce Shaw at a nearby hotel.

It has since been reported that Didak and Rhyce Shaw are almost certain to be traded at the end of the year.

Didak's manager, Dan Richardson, told The Age yesterday that he had spoken with his client only briefly since the incident and they had not discussed the 2006 Copeland medallist's future.

The incident came just weeks after Didak was freed by the club from a curfew and alcohol restrictions, put in place after a wild night with CBD murderer Christopher Wayne Hudson last year.

Didak was warned at the time that he was on his last chance with the club.

Former Collingwood great Peter Daicos believes Didak is too good and too young to be traded, despite his history of off-field trouble.

But Daicos, the freakishly talented forward who led the Magpies' goalkicking in their most recent premiership year, 1990, said Didak, the player considered to be the nearest thing to his modern equivalent, should be retained.

"Without doubt I'd keep him. He's 25, I think he's their best player by a mile," Daicos told radio station SEN yesterday.

Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse was left to lament the drama caused by the indiscretions of some of his most talented players.

"I have to keep reminding myself that these players come from all parts of society. Some have university degrees, some have two, some barely got through secondary school," Malthouse wrote in his column in The Australian newspaper yesterday.

"You don't pass an IQ test to get into a football club, you pass a talent and a character test, but unfortunately the intelligence test runs a distant third . . . I am closer to the end than the start of my career and it makes me ponder whether all of it is worthwhile.

"But that is another emotion I know that I and the rest of the club will get over and drive ourselves forward for the encounter with St Kilda," he wrote.

In a bizarre twist to the saga, Police Commissioner Christine Nixon said police would investigate claims that it was in fact Didak who was driving on Sunday night.

In Adelaide, Port football manager Peter Rohde said his club would be interested in trading for Didak, who began his career at the Power's SANFL club, the Magpies.

But Carlton's coach Brett Ratten summed up the mood of most clubs when he said Carlton had not made any decisions regarding the star forward.

Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade said his club was unlikely to make a play for him. "That sized player and type of player we've got plenty of ." -- With ROD CURTIS, THOMAS ARUP and AAP

© 2008 The Age

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