COLLINGWOOD last night suspended Heath Shaw and star forward Alan Didak after being forced to admit Didak was the mystery passenger in Shaw's ute when he crashed into parked cars on Sunday night, club sources said.

In a statement, the club said the lies told by the players - who are believed to have been questioned during the day by president Eddie McGuire, chief executive Gray Pert and football manager Geoff Walsh - "strikes at the principles of honesty and integrity" of the club.

Pert, McGuire and Walsh were locked in a crisis meeting earlier to nut out what new sanction would be imposed on the pair. Shaw had initially been hit with a $10,000 fine by the club but had not been dropped for this weekend's crunch match against the Saints. Didak, who had been seen throughout the day sharing a laugh with teammates during training, had had no sanction applied.

Shaw, his brother Rhyce and Didak had been drinking at the Geebung Polo Club in Hawthorn on Sunday night before Shaw and Didak got into Shaw's black Ford ute and drove to east Kew.

The ute sideswiped two cars in Wrixon Street, the loud noise from the collision causing residents to race on to the street where they found Shaw and Didak, the latter sitting on a bench in the front yard of a house.

The Magpies hierarchy, led by a seething McGuire, launched an angry and disappointed campaign to own up to the collision and ensure Shaw took responsibility for it, but were last night embarrassed their trust had been so comprehensively betrayed by both players.

Being seemingly a first offence for Shaw, the 22-year-old will most be safe from dismissal. The club, however, will be under pressure to sever ties with Didak despite having just re-signed the star forward on a three-year, $1.2 million-plus contract.

Didak was last year threatened with the sack over a night out with Melbourne murderer Christopher Wayne Hudson, but as late as yesterday, the club said he had been on the straight and narrow and mended his ways.

Police sources yesterday confirmed officers who attended the crash scene had been searching for Didak into the early hours of the morning to question him over the accident.

Shaw yesterday told a press conference he had been drinking with Didak and his brother Rhyce Shaw at the polo club. He claimed a "friend" not connected with Collingwood Football Club had been in the car with him and after the crash he telephoned Didak "because I obviously didn't really know what to do".

Shaw said Didak had been drinking but claimed he did not know how much he had had, and that Didak had not driven from the pub to Wrixon Street.

The fabric of the story began to unravel during the afternoon but reached critical point in the early evening when Pert told the Herald he had requested further discussions with Shaw and Didak to clarify the discrepancy in the story Shaw had told the club and media. He said the club had also sought further details from the police, which it was still awaiting.