AFL legend Heath Shaw has shared some extraordinary behind-the scenes detail of the recent wedding between Dale Thomas and long-term partner Natasha Bongiorno.
A star-studded guest list attended the spectacular event which was set in the picturesque setting of Dunkeld, at the southern end of Victoria’s mighty Grampians at the start of February.
Shaw and ‘Daisy’ Thomas are premiership teammates and played together in Collingwood’s famous grand finals in 2010 (the first was a draw before the Pies lifted the cup with a thumping win over St Kilda in the replay).
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They are great mates and go back a long way, so naturally Shaw was also the groomsman at the ceremony.
But so far details of the three-day glamping event have been a little sketchy … up until now.
Speaking on Triple M’s The Rush Hour with JB & Billy, Shaw has revealed there was absolute “carnage” at the wedding, while also opening up on an altercation between himself and with Daisy’s sister, Jess.
“We played in a couple of grand finals and we played in some really big games together, but I’ve never seen somebody so nervous in his life,” Shaw said about Thomas.
“He was 10 times more nervous about upsetting the bridezilla, Natasha, before the big day.
“He was scared about upsetting the bride … and the groomsmen were under a tight leash the night before which is very rare for Daisy, because usually he’s the one leading the charge to let loose and go wild.”
But Shaw said he “accidentally” started drama the night before when the groomsmen went for a midnight boat ride in the middle of a lake.
“It’s slightly dangerous, I must admit. Don’t think it’s ideal to be in a dinghy, the night before the wedding, pitch black, not knowing exactly (what was going on),” he said.
“But I did accidentally-on-purpose send a photo of us in the dinghy to the wedding party and the wedding group from one of the other groomsmen’s phones, so it wasn’t my fault.
“But we got there (to the wedding) … we were in one piece.”
But that was just the night before … there was more trouble to come and Shaw again would again be front and centre of a very spicy situation.
Thomas explained that his sister Jess and Shaw “get on famously” but about 40 minutes into the recovery Shaw sparked chaos.
Thomas said Jess looked spectacular for the recovery and was wearing a “grouse kit”, but Shaw had decided it would be a laugh if he pushed her into the pool.
“Heath goes ‘next time she walks past I’m going to push her in the pool’ … and I said, ‘Well, she’ll either deck ya, or I’ll have to’,” Thomas said.
But fearless, or possibly naive, Shaw then acted on his promise.
“Yeah, I knew there was going to be some backlash,” Shaw said with a laugh.
“You’ve got to do something for a bit of entertainment.
“Everyone was like in shock and (they were) like, ‘I can’t believe he did that … she’s gonna crack it’.
“Little did I know, she went and got changed, was hunting around, and I avoided her, I was looking out.
“But she got me at a very weak moment. She was a very talented netballer back in the day but I didn’t realise they did spear tackles in netball coz she’s launched at me, tackled me into the fence.
“I put my hand out to stop it and sliced up my hand.
“And then she decided that wasn’t good enough so she started shoving dirt in my mouth, shovelling it into my mouth because she just wanted to finish the job.
“It was a bit of a shock to me. I didn’t think I’d cop it that bad.”
AFL legend Billy Brownless — who was a guest at wedding — said Jess “actually owned” poor old Shaw.
“What am I supposed to do, Bill? Obviously I did the wrong thing (but) I didn’t realise I was going to get spear tackled and would have to go get my hand strapped up because there was blood everywhere.
“It was a little bit of carnage, but we hugged and made up after that …. this is what siblings do, even though we’re not blood related.
“It probably wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve done at a wedding recovery.”
Shaw is now making up for that mistake by going a 100km walk for the charity Oxfam with the Trailwalker so far raising over $2 million to help lift First Peoples communities out of poverty.
