COLLINGWOOD and its president, Eddie McGuire, have been humiliated after two of the club's best players were exposed as having lied about a drink-driving incident at the weekend.

McGuire yesterday publicly chastised Heath Shaw for drunkenly crashing into two parked cars in Kew late on Sunday night, but ridiculed suggestions that controversial forward Alan Didak was a passenger in the car. "Didak will be accused of the Kennedy shooting next," he said.

But the club was last night forced to issue a statement admitting that Didak was in the late-model utility when it crashed, contradicting the version of events provided to the club by both Shaw and Didak.

The immediate futures of both players are uncertain, with the club saying that it will review the $10,000 fine issued to Shaw. They are likely to be suspended, which would be a backdown for McGuire, who has said rubbing players out for misbehaviour is the easy way out.

Didak's involvement is a blow to McGuire, who took a close interest in his rehabilitation after he initially failed to tell police that he had taken a wild ride with CBD killer Christopher Hudson days before Hudson murdered city lawyer Brendan Keilar. He was recently signed to an $800,000 contract, with McGuire declaring at the time: "He has earned our trust."

The role played by Shaw, who blew .14, almost three times the legal limit, is devastating for the Magpies, as he comes from one of their most revered families.

The cover-up was exposed by several Kew residents, who emerged from their homes on hearing the crash and reported seeing Didak sitting on a bench near the mangled utility. The Age can confirm that Didak appears in the police incident report.

Despite that, Shaw told a packed press conference that a "friend" not connected with Collingwood had been in the car with him. He said he then rang Didak "because I obviously didn't really know what to do".

"I rang (Alan Didak) 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," he said.

McGuire described the passenger as a "so-called friend" for letting Shaw get behind the wheel drunk. "There comes a time in your life when you have to get rid of scaly mates, let me tell you."

He said he was particularly disappointed in Shaw, given that his sister Laine was lucky to survive a 2005 car crash.

Club captain Scott Burns was also lied to. He said Shaw told him he did not wish to name his passenger "because he doesn't want to bring his mate into it".

McGuire, coach Mick Malthouse and Burns all expressed their anger. "There is no excuse and we're sick and tired of this behaviour," McGuire said.

That was nothing compared with the fury at Collingwood last night, where McGuire, chief executive Gary Pert and football operations chief Geoff Walsh were meeting. In a statement, the club said it had been acting "as a result of information stated by both Heath and Alan after being repeatedly questioned about the incident.

"Given the club has now found their information to be false, it strikes at the principles of honest and integrity that the Collingwood Football Club is built on."

Speaking before the cover-up was discovered, Pert said: "If there's any inaccuracies in the story, that multiplies it (seriousness) by 10."

In January, Collingwood lost its $500,000 TAC sponsorship after Sharrod Wellingham was arrested for drink-driving. At the time, McGuire denied the club had a boozy culture.