COLLINGWOOD captain Scott Burns has defended the club's decision to shy away from suspending Heath Shaw, and believes the young player will learn more from facing up to his actions than not playing on Saturday night.
A visibly furious Burns did not hold back when expressing his thoughts on Shaw’s actions.
"Right now, the way I'm feeling is that if we played a game against St Kilda and the St Kilda boys roughed him up and were into him at the first bounce, I'm not too sure if I'd go over to Heater and support him," he said on Monday.
"I know once I get to Saturday night, we're all in it together. But the way I feel right now … I'm not happy, especially with the position we're in."
The club will fine Shaw the maximum in-house penalty of $10,000, but will resist making him sit out Collingwood's crucial Saturday night clash with the Saints.
Burns explained Shaw faces a tougher penalty by facing up to his actions with press conferences this week, and will be open to further criticism by playing on Saturday night.
"I'm more than confident that we could compensate for Heath this week with another player, but bugger him. We've got to make sure he cops it," he said.
"There's going to be 60,000 people there, hopefully, and two million people watching. The cameras will be on him throughout the whole warm up and at the start of the game.
"I just believe that Heater would hate doing this, he will hate to have to front up again Wednesday with the press conference that we have to do.
"He said he'd love to play, but I think the easiest thing for him in his position would be if he was to get suspended, lay low, spend a week or two in the twos and then come back.
"Like I said, we've made the decision on what we think is best, with the leadership group with the football club as well, and I don't know whether we're going to be right or wrong.
"We just have to look down the track and hopefully it is. Hopefully the young fellas, and we've spoken to them about how we've gone about it, they understand it and they see what Heath goes through over the next week."
With other clubs including Essendon, Melbourne and Port Adelaide recently suspending players for off-field misbehaviour, Collingwood is bucking the trend by allowing Shaw to remain available for selection.
But Burns said the Pies' decision to stick with Shaw is not a reflection of poor club culture or a lack of discipline.
"We only read about [other] suspensions when we know they've transgressed," he said.
"There could be other things from those clubs that haven't been made public.
"But, I don't know what's right and wrong. All I know is that he's already committed the crime, and we've put things in place that we hope are not only etched on his memory from this day forward, but that the young fellas at the club now really sit up and take notice that we're not going to hide from our responsibilities."
