Heath Shaw suspects his career would be long over, had he not moved from Collingwood to the GIANTS at the end of 2013.
Shaw, who played his 300th game last season and is in his seventh year in Sydney, had two years to run on his contract when the Magpies told him to look for another club.
In the first episode of new podcast Becoming GIANT, presented by Bingo Industries, he says that while shattered to be forced out of Collingwood after nine seasons, the move had extended his career.
Shaw moved to Sydney just before turning 28, in a swap for midfielder Taylor Adams.
“To be brutally honest if I had have stayed at Collingwood, I had two years left on my contract and had nothing changed that probably would have been it,” Shaw said
“I wasn’t really enjoying my football and I wasn’t playing that well, so there were a few contributing factors there.
“Obviously a lot of players say it, and it happens, the fresh start and moving somewhere else, it can make or break you at the time, it can go either way.
“Lucky for me, after careful consideration, the decision was made and I made my way to the GIANTS.
“It was something that I didn’t see coming. I didn’t expect to be in that situation ever, so I had to grow up a little bit in that short period of time knowing that my football career and everything that came after it was not necessarily on the line, but that I had a choice to make in what I wanted and which way to go.”
Shaw is the first guest in the new podcast, available to download or stream today.
Teammates Lachie Whitfield, Zac Williams, Matt de Boer and Daniel Lloyd will feature in upcoming episodes, telling the stories behind their own journey to the GIANTS.
