Collingwood still paying a percentage of Heath Shaw’s contract after trading him to GWS
COLLINGWOOD is paying $70,000 a season for the privilege of watching Heath Shaw become the game’s best defender.
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COLLINGWOOD is paying $70,000 a season for the privilege of watching Heath Shaw become the game’s best defender.
Under a deal struck with Greater Western Sydney at the end of 2013, the Pies agreed to pay $210,000 of Shaw’s wages over three years to help relieve the expansion club’s salary cap pressure.
“It was the mayonnaise that got the deal done,” a figure close to the transaction said on Wednesday night.
The Shaw top-up money is counted in the Magpies’ salary cap.
Shaw was shown the door by Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley after 173 games, and traded to GWS in a straight swap for midfielder Taylor Adams.
The 2010 premiership defender is three years into a bumper five-season deal with the Giants worth about $3.5 million.
He won last year’s best and fairest and made the All-Australian team for the first time.
This season he is easily the game’s No. 1 ranked defender, averaging 27 disposals a game.
Shaw, 30, is contracted to GWS until the end of 2018, but Collingwood’s ongoing financial contributions, signed off by AFL salary cap auditor Ken Wood, will end this season.
He scored a career-high 203 Champion Data ranking points against the Western Bulldogs on Sunday on the back of 38 disposals — at 97 per cent efficiency.
GWS has played hard ball in a series of trades with the Magpies in recent years.
The deal that landed Adam Treloar at the Holden Centre saw Collingwood surrender its first round pick in last year’s draft and this year’s draft.
An arrangement was also struck between the Pies and former Giants’ football boss Graeme “Gubby” Allan — now working at the Magpies — to send GWS fringe player Tim Golds to Collingwood during last year’s trade period.
Golds delisted himself from the GWS primary list with a year to run on his contract with the understanding he would find a home at Collingwood.
He became a Magpie with selection No. 55 in November’s rookie draft. The Giants again freed up crucial salary cap space by off-loading Golds.
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