CTV> Watch the press conference with Gary Pert and Geoff Walsh
The Collingwood Football Club has suspended both Heath Shaw and Alan Didak for the rest of the 2008 season as a result of the fact they lied to the club about a drink-driving incident that occurred on Sunday night.
These suspensions include both the home-and-away portion of the season and potential finals matches.
As a repeat offender, Alan has been fined $5000, while the original fine to Heath of $10000 remains.
As part of the club’s further investigations, it was established that Rhyce Shaw, while injured, was drinking over that weekend, and as a result he has been suspended for two matches and fined $5000.
All three players will continue to train with the team, and as contracted players, will be bound by the same standards and disciplines of every player at the Collingwood Football Club.
The incident involving Heath Shaw and Alan Didak took place on Sunday night. Shaw crashed his utility into two parked cars, returning a 0.14 blood alcohol reading when later breath-tested by police. Didak was a passenger in the car.
CEO Gary Pert described the situation as, "extremely embarrassing".
"I don't accept at all that there's a drinking culture at the Collingwood Football Club, he said.
"We absolutley do not. We have got a player group that isn't playing like that, that lives everyday disciplined and focused on winning a premiership".
Chief of football operations Geoff Walsh hinted to the proposition that with the loss of three key players, it will give some of the younger boys a chance in the senior side.
"We may unearth Chris Dawes, we may unearth John McCarthy. They can come in and play cameo roles and they (can) galvanise the senior boys and get (us) over the line" Walsh said.
He added that there was nothing to be read into the fact that president Eddie McGuire, coach Mick Malthouse or captain Scott Burns was not in attendance, adding that Pert was the right man to be at the media conference.
"It could easily be Eddie or Mick, it could easily be Scott Burns or the players themselves … but Gary as the CEO of the organisation, carries out the policy and administers the policy as set by the board.
"I would've thought, in my humble opinion, that there is no better person than the CEO to be sitting [here]."
Pert was adamant it was "absolutely not" a problem at Collingwood, in the wake of the suspensions imposed on Alan Didak, Heath Shaw and Rhyce Shaw for their off-field indiscretions.
"I don't accept at all that there's a drinking culture at the Collingwood Football Club," Pert said, who fronted a 45-minute media conference with chief of football operations Geoff Walsh at Lexus Centre on Tuesday.
"Unfortunately, yesterday and today, we are focused on two players that have made really poor decisions that have affected their behaviour, which I think they'll regret for the rest of their lives.
"We forget about the Collingwood players that are disciplined and focused and doing the right things by the code of conduct at the Collingwood footy club."
