GWS veteran Heath Shaw says he has “unfinished business” with the Giants and is looking to play on in the AFL in 2020.
The 33-year-old – who had intended to retire if the Giants won the 2019 premiership – collected 25 disposals in the 89-point grand final loss to Richmond and said GWS chief executive Dave Matthews had urged him to continue.
“To be honest I spoke to Dave Matthews when I was walking off the ground and he said ‘mate you can’t go anywhere, you have to come for one more year,'” Shaw told reporters post-match.
“So I said to a few of the boys that if we won the premiership I’d retire but we didn’t win it so we’ll figure it out in the next couple of weeks but I’m not going anywhere and I’ve got a little bit of unfinished business.”
The Giants went toe-to-toe with the Tigers for just over a quarter, before Richmond surged with 10 goals to GWS’ one across the second and third terms to reach an unassailable lead.
“It was just obviously disappointment as a whole,” Shaw said.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow and you sort of forget about the previous 25 weeks but that one week, it was so disappointing but I think for this group, the journey to get to here was really good and the three previous weeks were really good.
“But for a quarter and 10 minutes we played the way we wanted to and then the Tigers took over. They’re a very good team – they’re obviously a quality team and then when they went to the next level we didn’t.
“And that was pretty much the story of the rest of the game – they were at the next level and we didn’t get to that level and then in a way we tried to force things that weren’t there and that sort of escalated to make it a little bit worse.”
Despite the disappointment behind Saturday’s performance, Shaw backed the Giants to bounce back.
“This group is amazingly unique … behind closed doors these guys are amazing and as much as it’s hurting now, when everyone’s getting around their families, this is a great club, this is a family club, we’ll get together, well stay together and next year in 2020 we want to go one better,” Shaw said.
“And I know it’s not an easy thing to do – it’s not an easy thing to get back to this spot – but this group is good and we’ll get there.”