GWS Giants AFL star Heath Shaw only got a $100 clothing voucher when he retired after 152 games
GWS Giants gun Heath Shaw reveals he only received a $100 coupon for MJ Bale’s menswear store when he retired after 152 games for the club: “I thought I was missing a couple of zeros!”
- Shaw retired from GWS at the end of 2020
- Won the club’s best and fairest award in 2015
- His jaw dropped at his retirement gift.
After proving he is one of the best players GWS has ever had over the course of 152 games for the club, Heath Shaw expected a Rolex watch when he resigned at the end of the 2020 season, but instead received a $1 clothing coupon. 100. .
The former Giants and Magpies star looked back and laughed at the surprising slight in a recent interview, explaining that he thought someone on the team had left a couple of zeros in the amount he was given to spend at menswear supplier MJ. bale.
Shaw was traded to the club in 2014 after starring in 173 games for Collingwood and was one of the team’s leading lights, winning their best and fairest award the following season and making the All-Australian team that year and the next.
But that didn’t seem to count for much when they gave him his parting gift, as he revealed in Tik Tok.
‘[I thought] when you retire or are delisted, you get a watch, like a Rolex,” he said.
Shaw (pictured chairing from the ground after his 250th game in 2017) quipped that he was “a little disappointed” in his retirement gift.
I have this envelope. I was like, sweetie, I hope this is a big, massive check… I opened the envelope and I just pulled out this coupon, I opened this coupon and it was a $100 coupon to MJ Bale.
‘I thought there was a couple of zeroes missing, someone forgot to do the extra pair of zeros.
‘It was a $100 voucher for my services to the Giants in 152 games… I honestly don’t think I could get a tie or a hat!
You could say that I was a little disappointed.
A quick look at MJ Bale’s website shows Shaw is right, with some ties at the fashion house selling for $120.
Following his retirement, Shaw revealed that the club had a “messy” end to the 2020 season, when they missed out on the final after reaching the grand final in 2019, only to lose to Richmond.
Shaw won the Giants Best and Fairest award in 2015, made the All-Australian team that year and the next, and played in the club’s only grand final in 2019.
The advocate joked that the $100 coupon wouldn’t get him a tie at MJ Bale (pictured), and he was right: Some of the menswear accessories sell for $120.
He said he told then manager Leon Cameron that he was wrong to drop captain Stephen Coniglio in a move that shocked the football world.
Coniglio was the first full-time AFL captain to be ousted from the team in more than two decades and Shaw said the surprise change embarrassed his good friend.
“Leon knew about my relationship with Cogs, he said Cogs wouldn’t play and I gave him my thoughts,” Shaw explained.
“Whether he’s my best partner or not, I think he’s in the top 22 and I want to win.” I said that it was the wrong decision and that I was quite strong in the fact that we needed to let it be known that he was going to be left and that he was not rested or sore.
‘If we’re doing it, we’re being totally honest about it.
‘Towards the end of the year it’s always a bit messy. For the Giants it was more complicated than most.
‘We had two games to win to reach the final. We dropped our captain for one of those.