THERE are not too many AFL players that get the opportunity to celebrate a career milestone with a victory  at the expense of a competition heavyweight like Collingwood, but that is exactly what happened on Saturday evening for Matt Shaw – and the Gold Coaster didn’t hold back in his celebrations thereafter. 

“There was no better way to celebrate,” Shaw told goldcoastfc.com.au.

“Collingwood are one of the biggest teams in the league, they’ve got everything really and we’re just a fresh club trying to earn our stripes through the ranks.

“Hopefully there will be lots of great games for us in the years to come and hopefully we can begin knocking off even bigger teams like Sydney and Hawthorn.”

In hindsight, Shaw said a lighter workload on the body and mind had been key to the Gold Coast’s preparation leading into the team’s Round 17 blockbuster. 

“We had a pretty light week, we didn’t train Wednesday and instead went out and had a team bonding session at paintball,” Shaw said.

“The boys were really physically and mentally fresh and it really showed by we way came into this match, attacking it from the start early.”

And while they may have had to grind it until the final siren sounded, Shaw says the belief amongst the playing group at the pre-game huddle right through to Guy McKenna third-quarter time address remained defiant. 

“You have to believe that you can win from the very start, but when we hit the lead early the confidence was up and with the momentum swinging our way the boys just never gave up.

“The effort at every contest was unbelievable.”

The midfielder believes a lack of execution around goals and poor use of possessions had cost the Gold Coasters from claiming scalps against Hawthorn and Geelong earlier this year, but hoped the victory over the Pies would inspire McKenna’s upstart team towards creating more headaches for AFL rivals across the country.

“We’ve been playing good footy for a few months it’s just a few little things that have been letting us down,” said Shaw.

“When we get those things right, and all the boys are on song, we are a tough team to beat.

“Hopefully we can build on our victory and finish the year off strong.”