Toast Andrew Gaff (Pick 4, 2010 National Draft) - Thanks for the 1000 Cuts, Enjoy Retirement

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Fair summation from Duffield.

Even if it does highlight that along with Shep and Nic, Gaff won’t get to retire a premiership player despite being one of our best players over his career

Of the many measures we use to assess a player’s career and worth, it is one of football’s great ironies that the measure that has the most worth is also the least accurate.
There are games played, seasons played, best and fairests, All Australian jumpers and Coleman and Brownlow Medals.

There are performances in big games and awards like Norm Smith Medals that come with them.

But the one everyone wants is a premiership medal.

Andrew Gaff’s decision to call time on his career at the Eagles is further evidence that often the players who don’t get to play in flags are better than many of those that do.

There are quirks of selection and interventions of fate involved. And there are personal misadventures.

At West Coast three of the more significant contributors to the club over more than a decade will leave without a flag in an era when the team won one: Gaff, Nic Naitanui and Brad Sheppard.

All were All-Australians: Sheppard was in 2020, Gaff in 2015 and 2018 – the club’s two grand final years over the course of his career.

Naitanui was in 2012, 2020 and 2021.

This is in no way to denigrate the players who played in their stead in 2018. Will Schofield played a critical role on Jordan De Goey in place of Sheppard. Dom Sheed kicked the winning goal in the grand final. And ruckmen Nathan Vardy and Scott Lycett were important in big man battles against Max Gawn in a preliminary final against Melbourne and against Brodie Grundy in the decider.

But as grand final selection fates go doors don’t often slide more than they slid here.

In the 2015 grand final loss to Hawthorn — a game when too many Eagles didn’t handle the occasion, Gaff (34 disposals) and Sheppard in defence were arguably their team’s two best players.

Naitanui had a stinker that day but had had 40 hit outs and five clearances against the Hawks in a qualifying final to get the Eagles within a game of the big dance and then 29 hit outs and six clearances against North Melbourne to help put them on the dance floor.

Of the many split seconds that make up games of football it is worth pondering the three split seconds that so profoundly altered the playing careers of Naitanui, Sheppard and Gaff.

Naitanui’s knee collapsed under him on the grandstand wing at the MCG against Collingwood in round 17.

Sheppard’s hamstring snapped while attempting a straight legged stretch to pick up a low ball at speed in the qualifying final against Collingwood.

And Gaff, as we all know, was the inexplicable source of the blow that broke Andrew Brayshaw’s jaw and shattered his teeth in the round 20 western derby that year. We should not excuse the action. It happened and that is a matter of fact.

But it is also true that the act was as out of character as it gets — scarcely less out of character than it would have been if Matt Denny had decided to contest the women’s pole vault alongside Nina Kennedy instead of the men’s discus at Stade de France this week.

Just as in the Olympics such things now appear more possible than they used to, we only know that Gaff was capable of something like the Brayshaw hit because it actually happened and only Gaff will ever know whether it was a moment of madness or a terrible accident.

West Coast interim coach Jarrad Schofield this week labelled Gaff a “legacy player”.

It is right that the Eagles will aim to give Gaff a farewell game and the two games he needs for a total of 300 (280 AFL, 18 pre-season, one for Victoria and one International Rules match) and AFL life membership.

A farewell game is something neither Sheppard nor Naitanui got to experience.

Lingering concussion issues made Sheppard’s retirement a medical necessity in between the 2021 and 2022 seasons. An achilles tendon problem ended Naitanui’s career before a game was played in the 2023 season.

Gaff has been previously described as Adam Simpson’s set and forget wingman — the bloke who could be relied upon to trundle up and down his wing and gather 25 to 35 disposals ever game and help shift the ball forward reliably

He was metronomic in output. He averaged 25 disposals over his career and in five seasons between 2015 and 2019 he gathered 3393 disposals in 112 games at an average of 30.29 per game.

He has as many top-10 finishes in club best and fairests (11) as Paddy Dangerfield and two more than Nat Fyfe has at Fremantle.

Gaff is one of just four West Coast players to have been named on a wing in All-Australian teams and he is in good company. Two are Norm Smith Medallists Peter Matera and Dean Kemp and club legend Chris Mainwaring is the other.

That legacy Schofield spoke of — and a farewell game — have been well earned
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ioppolo said:
Next year will be tough. Darling, Cripps, McGovern all gone end of 2025 no doubt. Sheed is a non entity right now. Barrass is probably gone this trade period.

Young guys are going to have their work cut out for them. Pray for Edwards and Bazzo down back.
Click to expand...
Is TB a cert to be traded?
Young guys can cope and develop, always have...the next wave comes through, same with most teams. I'd rather be in that stage of development going forward than where we've been in recent years.
 

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FKASC said:
I only just got out of bed (in London at the moment) but watched the highlights on the AFL site and saw Gaff take that mark with seconds to go.

My first thoughts were how much fun that moment would have been in the match day thread lol
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This website would have exploded if he slotted it from outside 50
 
wce4premiership said:
He's always been courageous.
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Despite being labeled soft due to being predominantly an outside player, few players at the club more consistently park themselves under a high ball and wear the hit like Gaffy.

He was the victim in the biggest dog act he was involved in during his career (no, not the Brayshaw one you lurkers, scuttle home now) and despite that never shirked a high ball, guaranteed to get rocked marking contest.

To cap his career off with a genuinely strong performance, plus getting a hero’s moment at the end, is everything he deserves. Well done Gaffy.
 
HoneyBadger35 said:
Despite being labeled soft due to being predominantly an outside player, few players at the club more consistently park themselves under a high ball and wear the hit like Gaffy.

He was the victim in the biggest dog act he was involved in during his career (no, not the Brayshaw one you lurkers, scuttle home now) and despite that never shirked a high ball, guaranteed to get rocked marking contest.

To cap his career off with a genuinely strong performance, plus getting a hero’s moment at the end, is everything he deserves. Well done Gaffy.
Click to expand...
The downside to having great positioning as a winger, you're in the hole in front of the charging forwards who are 150% your size.
 

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The common belief that Gaff broke Brayshaw's jaw just grinds me.
He displaced his teeth, no broken jaw.
Hopefully Gaffy dines out for $ on sports nights in future though.
Tom Percy can get in the bin.
Special human TP. You know it Tom, you're fooking great man, don't forget it:thumbsu:
 
Gaff and JD as recently looked destined to be not only 300 gamers but also due to their durability looked like guys that could play well into their 30’s and break Hurns record. I wonder if that durability and ability to play through injuries and niggles right through their careers have impacted them significantly. Gaff was never an elite sprinter but his pace drop off in recent years has been massive and looks priddis level slow. JD had great straight line speed and would burn taller opponents but he now even struggles at that too.
 
donpyke92 said:
The common belief that Gaff broke Brayshaw's jaw just grinds me.
He displaced his teeth, no broken jaw.
Hopefully Gaffy dines out for $ on sports nights in future though.
Tom Percy can get in the bin.
Special human TP. You know it Tom, you're fooking great man, don't forget it:thumbsu:
Click to expand...
Duffield mentioned he broke his jaw as well..? He whacked him in the chops, lost a tooth or two and probably loosened a couple more.
 


They finally came through with the highlights package. Sorry cruppa, but i thibk gaffy has yours covered.
Song choice might be doing some real work though.
 

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Toast Andrew Gaff (Pick 4, 2010 National Draft) - Thanks for the 1000 Cuts, Enjoy Retirement

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