Speaking after the Swans' 43-point loss to Richmond, Shaw was honest, engaging and almost emotional about the performance his side had delivered against the Tigers with its finals chances on the line.
It was not an effort the Swans were used to, he said, and not an effort they would accept.
Shaw, now in his third season at the club having been traded by Collingwood at the end of 2008, said there would be no finger pointing at coaches, or a handballing of blame. It was about taking responsibility.
"The 22 players who go out every week … we need to have a real hard look at ourselves," Shaw said. "We can't even be looking at finals because if we put that effort in we don't deserve to be playing finals.
"[St Kilda] is around our position on the ladder and it's probably the most important game I've come across since I've been at Sydney."
The Swans' rooms told the tale of the loss. Silent players did their warm down with heads bowed. Fans were allowed in but spoke in hushed tones. Everybody knew the implications of the defeat.
Shaw, who collected 16 possessions in the loss, said the week would be spent working out what went wrong and how to rectify it as fast as possible.
"Finals is not the way we're looking at it at the moment. We got beaten by a side that wanted to put in the effort and win the contested ball and just generally go harder than we did," the 29-year-old said.
"We're not consistent in winning the ball and putting in the effort for four quarters. In this day and age of AFL, you can't put in one or two quarters of effort and expect a game to be won.
"This week there's going to be a lot of soul-searching to do. We play the Saints, who are up and about and playing for their finals lives, and so are we," he said.
"We just keep making it harder for ourselves but that's the price we've got to pay for putting in efforts like that today."
Follow Callum Twomey on Twitter at @Cal_Twomey
