Collingwood captain Scott Burns admitted that if the Magpies played a match on Monday, he wouldn't be motivated to support Heath Shaw if he came under physical scrutiny, so angry is he with the young defender's Sunday night drink-driving episode.
Burns was visibly simmering throughout a 27-minute long press conference at the Lexus Centre on Monday afternoon with the very source of his fury, Shaw, sitting to the left of him and leadership group members Scott Pendlebury, Nick Maxwell, Josh Fraser and Tarkyn Lockyer standing behind him - seemingly for decorative purposes.
After a night out drinking with team-mates, most notably Alan Didak, on Sunday at the Geebung Polo Club and Hotel in the Melbourne suburb of Auburn, Shaw hopped into his car and proceeded to crash into a stationary vehicle at about 11.30pm shortly before delivering a 0.14 blood alcohol content reading.
In what should be considered a surprising move, Shaw will be taking the field on Saturday night against St Kilda at the MCG.
However, this is Collingwood we're talking about - a club where players are historically free to commit serious off-field indiscretions that would almost certainly incur at least a one-game suspension at other clubs without fear of being deprived of doing what they love most, playing footy.
In recent times, Essendon, Adelaide, Port Adelaide, Richmond and Geelong have banned the likes of Andrew Lovett, Graham Johncock, Peter Burgoyne, Kane Johnson and Steve Johnson from taking the field for bouts of unprofessionalism, but that's not the Collingwood way.
Chris Tarrant, Ben Johnson and Didak have been the most recent examples of the Magpies' reluctance to stand their star players down following unsavoury misdemeanours away from the ground and Shaw is set to continue that pattern when he lines up for Collingwood against the Saints in what will surely be a do-or-die clash for the Magpies.
And Burns believes that is the best punishment for Shaw as he wants the 22-year-old to experience the culmination of an intense week of 'public exposure'.
"I want him on the (newspaper) pages the next two or three days, I want him on talk back radio to be spoken about," a seething Burns said.
"Right now the way I'm feeling is if we played a game right now against St Kilda (and the) St Kilda boys roughed him up and were into him at the first bounce, I'm not too sure if I'd go over to 'Heater' and support him to tell you the truth. Bugger it, you cop it."
"But I know once I get to Saturday night, definitely we're all in it together."
In fact, despite Collingwood playing for its season this weekend and needing a full-strength team to defeat the Saints, Burns believes the easy option would have been to drop Shaw from the senior team.
"I reckon the easiest thing in Heater's position is to get suspended, lay low, spend a week or two in the twos and then come back. To me that does seem reasonably easy to do,"
"We've made the decision on what we think's the best, the leadership group with the football club as well and I don't know whether we're gonna be right or wrong, we just have to look down the track and hopefully it is (right)."
And despite strong suggestion that Didak was in the car with Shaw in his intoxicated state, Shaw and the club flatly deny it.
"I rang him (after the crash) and then I saw him walking down and then, because there was a bit of a crowd around me, I just told him to go because I didn't really need him there at that point," Shaw said.
When Burns was asked why he believed Didak wasn't with Shaw at the time of the accident, he simply replied: "Because Heath said."
"Heath has said that Alan was not in the car with him. Alan was not in the car with him, he had a mate in there with him who he doesn't wish to name because he doesn't want to bring his mate into it," added Burns.