Pie Legend Tips A Didak Trade

The Age

Wednesday August 6, 2008

Lyall Johnson

COLLINGWOOD has played a smart tactical move in suspending rather than sacking Alan Didak despite his warning last year after his wild night on the town with a killer that he was on his last chance, 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 season for lying to the club over Didak's involvement in Shaw's drink-drive accident 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, the Magpies could potentially 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 fined $10,000 and $5000 respectively, Collingwood suspended the injured Rhyce Shaw for two matches and fined him $5000 for 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. But he might be put up for trade, you never know, even if he's got a contract," Tony Shaw said yesterday.

"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 announcing its decision on the players, had called for Didak to be sacked, said he had no issue with the way the club had dealt with the players in the end. "I've got no worries with the philosophy of the club. 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," he said.

"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. And now they have got to work hard and win back the respect."

Collingwood chief executive Gary Pert and football manager Geoff Walsh yesterday faced a large news conference to announce the club's decision.

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, as a result of a wild night of drinking with CBD murderer Christopher Wayne Hudson last year, was put on a final warning and given a strict curfew and special behaviour boundaries because when he signed his new two-year contract worth more than $800,000, he had the automatic termination clause removed.

But Pert said while the intention of the club yesterday was to deal with the immediate future of the players, their long-term tenure with Collingwood would be decided later in the year.

"It is something that obviously during the discussions yesterday and this morning we addressed - do these players deserve to be part of the Collingwood Football Club?

"We don't have any resolution on that and that's something that will be evaluated at the end of the year," Pert said.

"Could those players be traded? Yes. We will review that at the end of the year."

Pies drift in betting

COLLINGWOOD believes it can cover losing Heath Shaw and Alan Didak. Punters have a different take.

After putting betting on hold on Monday, TAB Sportsbet reinstated it after yesterday's announcement and, with the help of punters, "took the axe" to the Pies as a premiership and final-eight chance - and eased the odds for Saturday's match against St Kilda.

© 2008 The Age

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