The Didak Fiasco

As everyone should know Collingwood have been the hot topic in the football world the past few days. No need to recap events, everyone should be up to speed, so I'll get straight into it.

Let's be honest, this whole situation has been all about Alan Didak. Heath Shaw's sins have not gone unnoticed, but Didak has been the focus. Given Shaw's family, history with the club, and immense talent and youth, he's a fair bet to bounce back from this setback next year. I'd be surprised if he doesn't come back as twice the player he was this year. You can make a case for this in fact being a good thing for Heath Shaw. He's been stuck in a funk all this year, and needed something to snap him out of it. Snap.

On the flipside, it's impossible to find any positive in this for Alan Didak. Word on the street is that the 25 year old Didak has played his final game in the black and white jumper, the only jumper he's known in his AFL career. Given his history and rap sheet you'd have to say that's fair enough. A player of Didak's calibre is too good to be delisted, but you'd have a hard time finding appropriate value on the trade market. Even a package of the now maligned Rhyce Shaw combined with Didak wouldn't fetch a fair return you would suspect.

In the long term Collingwood shouldn't be that much worse off. I suspect the Shaws will return, and Didak's impending absence isn't as bad as advertised. Didak may indeed be Collingwood's most talented player and best clutch performer, but he has a great deal of flaws. He's soft, never goes hard at the footy, tries to be too cute, too often attempts the impossible, and has become prone to making the easiest things look difficult. Should he leave, I will miss the way he reads the ball, uses his low-to-ground frame to gain advantage in marking contests, his searing left foot, and his ability to create something out of nothing. I'll never forget his last quarter heroics against Brisbane in an '03 final, his clutch shot in Adelaide to save the 2006 season, the way he turned the tables against West Coast almost singlehandedly last year in that classic semi-final, and of course all the freak goals he's kicked over the years. I was there at the MCG watching him kick that goal against Geelong in last year's prelim final to change the flow of the match. He's a good player to have, but it's time to part ways.

How does this affect the 2008 Magpies? Negatively obviously. You could make the argument that (with no disrespect aimed at Paul Medhurst) Alan Didak and Heath Shaw are the team's two best players. Didak can be covered with stronger performances from Dale Thomas and Leon Davis as well as the continuing form of Medhurst. The Shaw brothers will be much more difficult to cover, perhaps too difficult. On the brighter side, the Pies have been in a coma ever for the past three weeks so hopefully a shake like this will wake them up. Either way it's going to be interesting. Stay tuned.