AFL Legend Heath Shaw’s Favourite Grand Final Moment Will Shock Collingwood Fans

When it comes to big-game players, few have left such an indelible mark on AFL folklore as Heath Shaw. A 300-game veteran who played taller than his stature would suggest, Shaw was the ultimate team man. Never won a Brownlow, never snagged a Best & Fairest, but his contribution, particularly to the premiership-winning 2010 Collingwood side, cannot be understated. Lest we forget that remarkable smother on Nick Riewoldt, an act immortalised in the classic Dennis Cometti line: “He came up on him like a librarian.”

Now, more than four years into retirement, Shaw finds himself at the heart of the build-up once again. Ahead of the 2025 AFL Grand Final, the Collingwood and GWS legend has been travelling the country with some precious cargo in hand.

As the official custodian of football’s holy grail, Shaw has been responsible for bringing the Premiership Cup to communities across Australia. As he explains, the Premiership Cup Tour has been as much about reconnecting with fans as it has been about celebrating the game’s biggest stage. From packed community halls in footy heartlands to subtle double-takes in rugby league territory, the Premiership hero has relished bringing the Cup to people who, in many cases, are seeing it up close for the first time.

“The best thing about this Premiership Cup tour is that it marks the first time in about 20-odd years that each state was represented in the final series,” he says. “It’s funny because you play your whole career to win the Premiership Cup, but you don’t actually see it that much,” he says. “To be so close and personal, it’s a special, special item.”

Reflecting on his career, it seems entirely appropriate that Shaw is best remembered for a premiership-saving smother rather than a goal or a mark. Those often overlooked and rarely lauded one-percenters are what he built his game around and it’s only fitting that the 300-gamer’s most defining moment came without ball in hand.

In his own words, Heath Shaw is a “bit of a weird unit”, so it’s hardly surprising that when I ask him to name his most memorable Grand Final moment from history, he strays from the obvious. In an admission that might sting Magpie fans, he points to Dom Sheed’s match-winning goal in the dying minutes of the 2018 decider between West Coast and Collingwood.

“I was heavily invested in it and I wanted Collingwood to win, but that moment and the build-up to that moment were incredible,” he says. Coming from a man who spent 10 seasons draped in black and white, it’s a striking acknowledgement that some football moments transcend patronage. Ahead of the 2025 AFL Grand Final, we caught up with the 300-game legend to discuss legendary moments, Savage Garden and the toughest opponent he ever faced. The answer may well surprise you.

You’ve been taking the Premiership Cup to communities right across the country. Tell me a bit about that.

Obviously, it’s a big build-up to what is the AFL Grand Final. The best thing about this Premiership Cup tour is that it marks the first time in about 20-odd years that each state was represented in the final series. The tour is aligned perfectly, as we had a team from each state playing off in the finals. We get to share the love with all the states that are represented and get to travel around and present the cup to people who get a firsthand look at it, up close and personal.

It’s funny because you play your whole career to win the Premiership Cup. When I won in 2010, I probably saw it that day, maybe the day after and haven’t seen it since. So it’s a unique situation. As I said, you play your whole career to win that cup, but you don’t actually see it that much. It’s very representative of the cup of all the hard work put in throughout the years, but to be so close and personal, it’s a special, special item.

What’s been the best fan reaction you’ve seen so far on the Cup Tour?

In the more traditional AFL states, people see it and they get a bit obsessed with it; they want to hold it and get a photo. But then you go into the rugby league states and they look at you and do a sort of double-take. You can see them thinking, ‘What is this guy doing? Why is he holding the cup?’ So those are the reactions that are more interesting than the people who know exactly what it is. It’s been good fun and it’s all a big build-up to the final in a couple of weeks’ time.

You’re in a different role now, but do you still get that Grand Final buzz when you’re holding the Cup?

People always ask, when you finish footy, do you miss it? And I don’t, but when finals come around, that’s when you start to miss going out there and kicking the footy around. This is the time when you think that you’d love to actually be out there in front of the big crowds. This final series so far has been amazing. All the games have been great to watch, so you get a little bit of fomo, you do get a little bit jealous, but still, I know that I played for 17 years and I’ve done my time, so I’m pretty happy to sit back and watch.

Speaking of Grand Finals, that 2010 smother is one of my favourite AFL moments of all-time, not just for the act but for Dennis Cometti’s classic ‘He came up on him like a librarian’ call. Do you have a favourite Dennis Commetti quote?

What was it? Bobbed up like a cork in the ocean. That’s a classic one. I don’t know if he plans this sort of stuff or if he had these quotes lined up, ready to go, but the librarian one is pretty well known. I say to people a lot, I played 325 games and I’m going to be remembered for a smother. So it’s a unique setup, but I feel like I’m a unique human being.

Being a defender and playing in the back line, you don’t get the credit like the forwards in the mids do. So it sort of suits that I’m going to be remembered for a one percenter or a defensive act. I’m more than happy to take that on board, and obviously, it was such a big game for us. Whether it made a little bit or a lot of difference, I’m not quite sure. We ended up winning by 50 points, but it was definitely something that I look back on and think, yeah, that played a part. To be remembered for something like that is pretty cool as well.

Do you ever wonder how different your life would have been had you not secured the win the previous week?

Yeah, I don’t reckon you’d be talking to me now if we didn’t win that second one. You actually do think about it because we came as close as humanly possible to losing a grand final without actually losing it, and St Kilda came as close as humanly possible to winning a grand final without winning it. It is a real sliding doors moment. But I think you hit the nail on the head, we came back the second week, and I couldn’t have been more confident that we were going to win.

That first week, if we had extra time, we probably wouldn’t have won. I think St Kilda would’ve had us covered. So I’m glad that we did come back the next week, I’m glad that we got away with the draw in that first game. Getting to say that you are a premiership player is incredible. I don’t know what life would be like if I didn’t have the fact that I could say I was a premiership player. So I’m glad it did happen.

What made that 2010 Collingwood side so special?

You tend to think that if you win a premiership, you must have had superstars all over the field and that you were jam-packed full of talent, but that’s not always the case. We were very much workmanlike. Mick Malthouse, our coach, had always built teams around that idea, and the teams that he coached were always workmanlike.

Obviously, you throw in a couple of superstars in the mix, but I think we all understood what our role was. It’s very much the token line, but we understood what our role was and just played to our strengths. We operated under the theory that not only do you play your role, but you also have to be harder for longer; be harder to play against and harder than your opposition. If you could do that for longer, then you would win most games.

We lived by that, and we definitely had superstar players, but amongst that, we had guys who just played their role. There were three rookies who played in that grand final, and one of the guys played 11 games and won a premiership. That was how our team was. He just played his role, and that’s why he got picked and that’s why he is a premiership player now. So it’s funny how you can mix in some superstars, but more often than not, it’s the guys that play their role that are the most important.

Is it strange for you to watch now, all these years later and still see guys like Steele Sidebottom and Scott Pendlebury running around?

Yeah, it’s amazing. The way that they go about things is A-grade. You have to be a good player, but you also have to be durable; you have to have a certain standard and they definitely have that. What I say to people when they ask me about Penns and Sides is that if you never had pace, then you can’t lose it. Sidey and Penns have always been reasonably slow, so they haven’t lost any pace; they never had it at the start, so that’s why they’ve lasted so long in the game.

So that’s the secret, you reckon? Just being slow from the outset?

Yeah, there’s a little drive-by for them.

When you are in a Grand Final, do you get a chance to soak it all in or are you more concerned with the task at hand?

No, to be honest, it’s so busy. Even Grand Final Week is so busy that when you actually do get some spare time, you just want to relax. The build-up to the Grand Final is massive and there’s always something going on, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to focus on what the job is and that is literally to win a Grand Final.

You have to remember to take a little bit of that in and enjoy the moment, but understand that you’ve got a job to do and you can’t let that be secondary to what the game is. You don’t want to enjoy the moment too much because you want to get out there and get it done. You can enjoy it when you win. If you win, you can enjoy being a premiership player for the rest of your life. So it’s hard to say that you do take it all in because most of the time you’re actually just concentrating on what you need to do.

As the ultimate team-first backman, is there someone that you look at now in the AFL and you think that’s the kind of player that I would’ve been if I played in 2025?

I’d like to think I would be Lachie Whitfield. He is one of my good mates and if I were going to come back as anyone, I’d definitely want to come back as him. His endurance is unbelievable and his skill is next level. Obviously, he went pick one in the draft, but he’s such a classy player and from the first day I saw him in the very first training session with the Giants, I knew this guy was going to be a gun. He just makes things look easy and when your player makes things look easy like Scott Pendlebury, that’s something that you definitely get jealous of. So I’d say Witters would be the one.

Talking about pre-game performances, this year we’ve got Snoop Dogg taking to the MCG. If you could choose, who would be on your Grand Final entertainment wishlist?

I’m a bit of a weird unit. People usually listen to dance or pump up music before games, but I used to listen to Savage Garden and Seal. So, if it’s Seal ‘Amazing’ or one of the Savage Garden songs, I reckon that’d be right up my alley. I’m not quite sure many other people would enjoy it, though. It is different. It’s a bit left field but yeah, that’s the sort of music I used to listen to pregame.

Toyota has just crowned your smother as the newest Legendary Moment — how does it feel to see that split-second of effort become immortalised alongside the greats of the game?

When I was asked if I would be interested, I said ‘a hundred percent’. I obviously knew that it’d be something relative to the smother, but to relive it.. it was a 12-hour day of filming with Matt and Ryan and honestly, it was the funniest 12 hours. It went that quickly and there was so much good content on the day that I was surprised they could only squeeze it into a minute and a bit of ad. Some of the stuff that didn’t make the cut was hilarious. To be involved in that sort of ad campaign, particularly as they haven’t done one for seven or eight years…bringing that back out and being the one that’s come back and relaunching it was cool as well. No doubt there’ll be some in the next couple of years, some good moments that we all get to relive as well.

If you could choose another “legendary moment” from footy history, what would it be?

I’ve been asked this before and for some reason, I just go straight to West Coast—Dom Sheed’s goal against Collingwood.

Surely, you can’t pick that one.

I know I can’t pick that because obviously a Collingwood man, but that game…I was heavily invested in it and I wanted Collingwood to win, but that moment and the build-up to that moment were incredible. If I were going to pick another one, I think it would be Buddy Franklin when he kicked his thousandth goal and everyone ran onto the ground. That was pretty amazing. I don’t think we’ll see that again. So I think watching Buddy kick that thousandth goal and how it was celebrated was pretty special.

I’m sure it’s great to be remembered for that moment, but let’s not forget you also played over 300 games for both Collingwood and GWS. Do you feel you lean one way or the other in terms of your support?

I 100 per cent have splinters in the bum, I’m that much of a fence-sitter when it comes to who I prefer. I have to sit on the fence because I played 173 games for Collingwood and 150 at the Giants, so I’m nearly split down the middle. I do get that question of ‘Who’s your alliance to?’ and the answer is whoever wins, obviously. That would’ve made it hard, but I’ve got two teams and I can say, hand on heart, that I actually barrack for both teams. Love to see ’em both do well.

Toughest opponent you lined up on?

I played on a fair few, but I would say when I was young, when I was just sort of cutting my teeth, I played one game on Ben Cousins over in Perth. I started on him and he just worked so hard; he ran that hard that game and I’m like, that’s the sort of level I’ve got to get to if I want to make it. He was probably one of the hardest opponents I’ve played on, along with Eddie Betts and Steven Milne, and these crafty forwards that you know if you give them an inch, they will take a mile. I’d say Ben Cousins is probably the hardest I’ve had to work, and then the other boys, the other forwards, are the most dangerous. Definitely.

Worst sledger?

Oh mate. Over the years, I’m very much someone who likes to get involved in a bit of sting on the field. People don’t do it as much these days, but I enjoyed the physical battle as much as the mental battle. Especially being a backman, you’ve got to find a way to get inside your opponent’s head. For me, I’d just be sledging the small crafty forwards like Milne or Eddie Betts or even Hayden Balentine. I just always found a way to get into a bit of verbal with those guys, so I can’t really pick one out, but I know there are a fair few of them.

Final question, the Shaws are a family dynasty in Football. Is there another footballing family that you think could bring it to the Shaws?

Well, you’ve got a couple of football families that are rolling around now. The Diacos boys are pretty good at the moment and a good friend of mine, his old man is Terry Daniher, so I reckon that team Daniher would be pretty good too. What was it, four brothers played in one team at one point? So just on numbers alone, the Danihers might be able to take the Shaws. Talk about sledging as well, that would be very, very interesting.

The 2025 AFL Grand Final will be held on Saturday, 27 September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. A much-anticipated encounter, the season-decider pits the reigning premiers, the Brisbane Lions, against the Geelong Cats. The game starts at 2:30pm and will be televised across the 7 network.