Flashbacks Part 1: Heath Shaw’s favourite AFL games for Collingwood and GWS
In part one of a flashback series, ex-Collingwood and GWS star Heath Shaw has revealed five of his favourite games – including when he starred on Anzac Day.
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Heath Shaw enjoyed 325 for Collingwood and GWS across a 16-season AFL career.
He’s experienced the highs of winning a grand final, the lows of losing one and everything in between.
Now retired, the champion defender has recounted his 10 favourite games during his playing days in a two-part series with the Herald Sun.
Here are his first five.
GAME 1
Collingwood v Essendon – Round 5, 2007
Essendon 11.13 (79) def by Collingwood 12.23 (95) at MCG
James Hird was widely regarded as the Anzac Day specialist.
On this day, I played on him and won the Anzac Day Medal myself.
My coach, Mick Malthouse, always said: “There’s good players and there’s good players on the big stage.”
It is widely known Mick most respected those who performed on the big stage more and held more trust in selecting them.
So it was nice to join the likes of my close mates in Ben Johnson and Dane Swan in winning an Anzac Day Medal and getting a nod of approval from the coach.
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I’d joked to teammates that the medal judges could have started writing my name down at halftime because I was playing that well.
I finished with a game-high 32 disposals while Hird managed just 23 disposals and went scoreless.
Scores had been tied at halftime after we wasted some opportunities as a team, before we fought out way to a 16-point win over the Bombers.
That night I tucked the medal away in my pocket and headed to the Lower Plenty Hotel to celebrate.
I thought if I ran out of cash I could always pull that out to get myself a few beers.
GAME 2
GWS Giants v Collingwood – Preliminary Final, 2019
Collingwood 7.10 (52) def by GWS Giants 8.8 (56) at MCG
Boy, was it a slog.
We thought we should have been further in front than 26 points at three-quarter time, having missed some opportunities.
But we knew exactly what Collingwood was going to do in the final quarter – and the Magpies did it.
In a low-scoring game, the Pies were always going to run the gauntlet and throw everything at us in the final term on a wet day which made for a contested game at the ’G.
And they sure gave us down in the Giants’ defence a fair old workout as they locked the ball in their forward half for extended periods and peppered the goals.
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Up against the competition’s premier ruckman in Brodie Grundy – who had a crazy 73 hit-outs – Shane Mumford played possibly the best seven or eight minutes of his career to help us hold on and push into the first Grand Final in the club’s history.
Looking up at the crowd after the final siren, it was great to see so many joyous Giants fans.
Eddie McGuire did not have quite as big a smile on his face, but he did come into the GWS rooms after the game to wish me all the best for the following week.
GAME 3
Collingwood v Adelaide – Round 9, 2011
Collingwood 20.15 (135) d Adelaide 14.8 (92) at Docklands
We might not have said it publicly, but as a side we went into most games in 2011 thinking: “How much are we going to win by?”
This game – for which we were heavy favourites – was no exception.
But the Crows held a 30-point lead at halftime and still had a two-goal advantage at three-quarter time.
Enter the master coach – Mick Malthouse.
Mick was always the best at picking his targets and knowing how to get the best out of people and he had some stern words for us at the final break.
The message was a mix of “pull your heads in” and “it’s coming together”.
With a little help from a key positional move of Chris Tarrant from fullback to full-forward, it all clicked and we went absolutely bananas in the final term to kick the last 11 goals of the match.
Tarrant kicked two goals in the last quarter and Andrew Krakouer put some icing on the cake with an absolute hanger which won him the 2011 Mark of the Year award.
Adelaide forward Taylor Walker was absent, having been infamously caught on camera having a beer at the football in Adelaide the day before after being dropped to the reserves.
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GAME 4
Collingwood v Fremantle – Round 1, 2008
Collingwood 16.15 (111) d Fremantle 13.7 (85) at MCG
I had one memorable game against Fremantle in 2013 when I was suspended for a week after Hayden Ballantyne told umpires I punched him “in the nuts”.
But since we lost that game, this one brings happier memories.
After Nathan Buckley retired at the end of 2007, it was Scott Burns’ first game as skipper, which was a bit of an off-season surprise.
A lot of people had earmarked Josh Fraser for the captaincy, but Burnsy had been vice-captain under Bucks for a long time and had the respect of the group.
Big Anthony “Pebbles” Rocca shone brightly with a bag of six goals – the equal-second biggest haul of his career.
Did he ever reach his full potential? Probably not.
But when he was on, Rocca was the definition of a power forward.
Personally, I had the equal-second most touches on the ground with 26 and we won by the same number – 26 points.
Not a bad way to kick off the year.
GAME 5
GWS Giants v Brisbane Lions – Semi-Final, 2019
Brisbane Lions 11.14 (80) def by GWS 12.11 (83) at Gabba
Sorry, Luke Hodge.
You weren’t getting a fairytale finish to your career on my watch.
The Lions had finished the regular season second on the ladder, with my Giants sixth.
But after we beat up the Western Bulldogs a week earlier, we were ready to take another scalp and knock Brisbane out of the flag race in straight sets on their home turf at the Gabba.
We had a seven-point lead at three-quarter time but still hadn’t really got our flow going and the Lions came home with a wet sail and pinched a three-point advantage with five minutes to go on the clock.
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But Brent Daniels was the hero with a goal on the run in the forward pocket with 2min 34sec to play.
We had to quickly flick the switch from celebrating a goal which put us in front to defending a lead.
It’s fair to say I didn’t have my best night with just six touches, but Phil Davis and Nick Haynes were colossal down back and especially in that all-important final quarter.
It would be Hodgey’s 346th and final game and was a result that put my Giants into a third preliminary final in four years.
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Originally published as Flashbacks Part 1: Heath Shaw’s favourite AFL games for Collingwood and GWS
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