Heath Shaw’s trade to GWS was complicated and dad Ray had to resort to calling Eddie McGuire

Heath Shaw’s time at the Magpies was done. And the premiership star was weighing up two options for his next football destination. But nothing about that year’s trade period was simple, with a club legend forced to step in.

It took a while, but Shaw was finally traded to GWS. Picture: Getty

As the trade deadline neared in 2013, Ray Shaw picked up the phone.

The Collingwood great had come around to the idea that the Magpies were going to trade his son, Heath, to GWS.

It had taken time to get that state of acceptance, given the heightened emotions that came with such a famous Collingwood name being told to look elsewhere.

Heath had been at the Magpies for nine seasons, played 173 games, and was a premiership player.

But at a post-season meeting with coach Nathan Buckley, who had been in the hot seat for two years, Shaw was told that some of his methods and ideas didn’t exactly gel with what the new coach was trying to achieve.

It followed soon after Collingwood’s shock loss to Port in the elimination final.

And the club trading Shaw was the beginning of the end for the rat pack — Collingwood also moved on Dale Thomas (to Carlton) and Alan Didak (retired) at the end of 2013.

Shaw was contracted for another two years, but some at the club considered him “high maintenance”, prone to outbursts of frustration and disruption, which were growing tiresome as Buckley tried to instil his own methods after Mick Malthouse’s departure.

“You’ve got to ask if we’re making the right decisions in regard to culture and in regards to environment, personnel, game plan, coaching staff etc,” Buckley said at the time.

Basically, Buckley and Shaw didn’t get on and despite the strong family link to the Magpies, where Heath’s dad, Ray, was a captain and best and fairest winner and uncle Tony a premiership skipper and games record holder, parting ways was going to happen whether Heath liked it or not.

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Nathan Buckley and Heath Shaw didn’t get on.

Heath was annoyed, and emotional. As Ray told the Herald Sun, Heath was “a passionate Collingwood person.”

But when two clubs showed interest in the then 27-year-old, Geelong and GWS, and suggestions from some of his closest confidants at Magpieland also suggested it could be good for him, Heath convinced himself a move was going to work.

Then the decision was Greater Western Sydney or Geelong.

“I met at Heath’s place with his manger and we went through the scenarios,” Ray said, reflecting on the machinations of the move.

“Heath has said with the Giants it was like grandpa going to the kindergarten. He was 27, and most of his teammates were 18 and 19.

“But he saw it as a real big challenge. He’s very passionate about his footy, he wants to win all the time, it doesn’t matter what game.

“For two years we knew it was going to be hard. He was going to a club that had won one game the year before.

“But he was happy to go, and Heath went overseas and thought it would be all done when he got back.”

It was always going to be risky trying to trade a 27-year-old with a reputation, and emotional too given the unwavering loyalty Collingwood supporters show to their players, especially one who has a last name like Shaw.

Shaw with his dad and Collingwood champion, Ray Shaw.

But in this instance, with the player on board, his suitors announced and his choice clear, it should have been relatively smooth sailing.

It wasn’t.

Buckley had an existing relationship with Taylor Adams, who had played 31 games with the Giants across the expansion team’s first two seasons, having coached the midfielder at the AIS Academy.

Adams, who was 20, and from Victoria, was identified as the player Collingwood wanted for Shaw.

The GWS football manager, Graeme Allan, was also a former teammate of both Ray and Tony Shaw. A family friend even.

The Giants also threw a great deal Shaw’s way, a contract worth $800,000 a year, double what he was set to earn at the Pies.

In the end it was a straight player swap, and it was touted as one of the most even trades — nobody could split it.

But it wasn’t without a hiccup. As one insider close to the talks revealed “egos got in the way”.

When Shaw got back from overseas, expecting to be headed to the Giants the deal still wasn’t done.

“The Giants and Collingwood were playing Heath like a bit of meat,” Ray said.

“They agreed to the trade, Heath went overseas and thought it would be all done when he got back. But absolutely nothing had been done or decided. It was going back and forward between the clubs.

“It wasn’t far off the end of the period and Heath rang me and he was really upset, he couldn’t understand why it was all taking so long. I told him to leave it to me.”

It took a while, but Shaw was finally traded to GWS. Picture: Getty

As a Collingwood legend, Ray Shaw had a hotline to plenty in charge at the club.

With his son upset, wanting to know where his future was, Ray went straight to the top, and called club president Eddie McGuire.

Ray gave McGuire both barrels.

“I must give Eddie his due, he was hosting a function and he got back to me. But I certainly gave him an earful,” Shaw recalled.

“I said they had made the decision to get rid of Heath, a very passionate person about Collingwood, and they needed to get it done.

“I’m not sure what happened after that, but funny enough at 2:30pm the next day the deal was done.”

It had been five weeks since media reports first surfaced that Shaw was likely to be traded.

It had been even longer since Shaw had that meeting with Buckley where he was told he would be traded.

“The problem was there had been no preparation work,” an insider who was working at the Magpies at the time said.

“So many of these trades, people are talking in June and July, moves are being made, figures are being talked about, there’s a lot of back and forth.

“But in this instance, the decision was really made at the end of the season, because of the way things had played out.”

Negotiations also moved from who was moving where, to how much they would be paid.

Collingwood had to agree to pay a percentage of Shaw's salary in the first year of his contract too, which proved a hold up.

Collingwood received Taylor Adams in a straight swap for Shaw. Picture: Michael Klein

Shaw in action during last year’s Grand Final. Picture: Mark Stewart

But on October 22, 2013, Shaw was confirmed as a Giant, and Adams a Magpie.

Shaw has gone on to win a best and fairest at GWS, and twice be named an All-Australian.

It’s been a winning move to Sydney, one Ray said wouldn’t have happened if Heath’s brother, Rhyce, wasn’t already there with the Swans.

“There’s two other things that helped him decide. Rhyce was in Sydney, and I don’t think Heath would have gone if he wasn’t there,” Ray said.

“It was a bit easier, he was living with Rhyce for a while. He didn’t even know some of the Giants player’s names.

“The other thing was getting out of Melbourne. A lot of players have seen that, if they’ve gone to Brisbane or out west. People don’t know you.”

Last year’s Grand Final defeat aside, Ray said the move had even brought out the best in Heath.

“He’s very highly respected by everyone he comes in contact with,” Shaw senior said.

“Everyone loved the way Heath played with Collingwood, and now the Giants.”

In an interview last year Heath declared he left Collingwood an “angry person”.

But, now in his 30s, he had moved on and had “no regrets” about the whole affair.

“I left Collingwood probably an angry footballer and an angry person; things weren’t going that well for me, so there was a reason behind me leaving the Pies,” he told AFL 360.

“For the Giants to take a risk on me and for me to take a risk on coming up to the Giants, it has worked out pretty well for both teams and for both parties.”

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Originally published as Heath Shaw’s trade to GWS was complicated and dad Ray had to resort to calling Eddie McGuire