Tony Shaw Biography

The men charged with presenting the Premiership Cup to the winning coach and captain after the 2018 Grand Final have been announced.

Tony Shaw will hand the Cup to Nathan Buckley and Scott Pendlebury should Collingwood win, while Dean Kemp will present it to Adam Simpson and Shannon Hurn if West Coast triumphs.

When Heath Shaw runs onto Spotless Stadium in the Giants' semi-final showdown with West Coast, he will set a unique League record.

Shaw's 261st match (for Collingwood and GWS), when added to the playing careers of his brother Rhyce Shaw (237, Collingwood/Sydney), father Ray Shaw (146, Collingwood), and uncles Tony Shaw (313, Collingwood) and Neville Shaw (43, Collingwood), makes the Shaw clan the first direct family in VFL/AFL history to reach 1000 matches.

"It's a great achievement for some battlers from the northern suburbs of Melbourne," Heath Shaw joked.

"We've had a fair bit of help from Tony with his 313, but it's a pretty good effort for one family to have five players contribute so many games at the top level.

"I spoke to Rhyce about it this week and he was a bit shocked.

"The Shaw family name has been pretty prominent in football, especially at Collingwood, so to achieve something like this is a special little bonus."

Heath Shaw's 250th game against the Brisbane Lions on Saturday will bring his family one step closer to one of the game's most remarkable records.

The Greater Western Sydney star's milestone keeps the Shaw clan on track to be the first footy family to break the 1000-game mark during this year's finals series, a measure of significance that’s unlikely to be broken.

Heath's uncle Tony Shaw, Collingwood's 1990 premiership captain and Norm Smith medallist, leads the tally with 313 games.

Brother Rhyce Shaw is next with 237 appearances for the Magpies and Sydney, followed by father Ray Shaw, who played 146 times in the black and white, while the boys' uncle Neville Shaw rounds out the group with 43 games for the Pies in the 1980's.

"For one family to play that many games, and have that kind of success is pretty special," Heath said.

"We're all competitive beasts and hate losing, and I think that’s part of the reason we've succeeded at the highest level because we've wanted to get the best out of ourselves and our teammates."

Colingwood great Tony Shaw is critical of Magpies skipper Nick Maxwell for voicing his opinion against trading for Brendan Fevola saying that there was no room in the team for the Blues forward.

"I reckon Nick has done a great job, but is he saying that's a club issue or his own issue? Because he shouldn't be commenting on recruitment at all," Shaw said.

"That should be left to the recruiting and administration and the coaching staff. As captain you don't even get involved in that stuff."

Former AFL players Doug Hawkins and Tony Shaw slam Lance Franklin's two-match ban for head-high contact with Ben Cousins.

"They've got to get it right because as a kid growing up that's what footy was about. People say, 'Oh, Buddy didn't tackle', well guess what? You don't have to tackle, you used to be able to bump," Hawkins said.

"Two weeks for that is just ludicrous. I'm disillusioned by the whole situation and I think the sooner the AFL work it out the better. "

Former Collingwood captain Tony Shaw concurred with Hawkins' assessment.

"It is so embarrassing at the moment. I'm all for protecting heads and spinal injuries and all that sort of thing, but you do have contact on the field and I've been involved in bumping bigger blokes where you will hit your head on their body and it's stiff cheddar," Shaw said.