Game Day Round 23, 2024: West Coast vs Carlton

Is Andrew Gaff the super-sub we didn't know we needed?

  • Yep, 4 more years please.

    Votes: 14 38.9%
  • No, Jack Watts

    Votes: 13 36.1%
  • No, Jack Williams

    Votes: 9 25.0%

  • Total voters
    36

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sharps24

All Australian
Oct 15, 2023
877
1,847
AFL Club
West Coast
If there's one thing I knew 3 weeks ago when I signed up to do this preview it was that we'd be playing for our third win in a row and likely knocking Carltank out of the 8. Who wouldn't want to delight is such misfortune? All of you apparently, but I was happy to oblige. How was I to know that it would also be Gaffy's 2nd goodbye or JAMIE ****ING CRIPPS 250TH! Going to be very hard for me to stay on brand here folks. I can be gracious though, who said I can't be gracious?

In seriousness, while I have not exactly revelled in his output for several years now I am more than happy to acknowledge that Andrew Gaff was one hell of an a grade wing in his day. The AFL had to change the rules in order to make his role redundant so that was unfortunate. Adam Simpson looked at the same Andrew Gaff we all knew and loved and said to himself "there's an inside bull inside this man, I know it!'' and that was even more unfortunate. Time comes for us all and it has come for Gaffy now.

I am on record as saying that a football club is not a charity and I don't care if he was stuck on 299 games, personal achievements are not more important than developing this list. But wins are important. And because of an Andrew Gaff moment of courage and brilliance we won our first match on the road in 12 months and first match is Tasmania in 10 years. He will play his last game for West Coast having earned it, and I am content with that and personally hope he neither starts nor finishes as a sub. Play a full one for the big 280 Gaffy. Congratulations on a great career and thanks for being a dedicated servant of our club.

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Pictured: 2 x All Australian Andrew Gaff. A fine player and significantly, friend and confidant of #1 best forward Jake Waterman.

Ahhh, you know that wasn't even that difficult. Any friend of Jakes is a friend of mine and I will honestly look back on Andrew Gaffs career with respect for what he achieved. Unfortunately not everyone gets to taste Premiership success but he's not alone on that front.

Now. Um. Oh boy. Gulp.
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Ok ok campaigner you don't have to look so smug about it. Congratulations on 250 games for the West Coast Eagles Jamie. Yes for decades now we've known you in the game day thread as Captain Fumbles, but you just keep kicking ****ing goals so how do we drop you. Kicked another 3 of them just last weekend. Injured yourself the last 2 games but the docs won't give you a rest either. I just can't catch a break. Anyway, a review of the first of his 3 goals sums up this career in a nutshell really:
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Catch ball. Drop ball. Kick ball. Goal. How do they let you do this? Why do they let you do this? How much longer do you plan to keep doing this?

Sorry for calling you Captain Credits and for saying we should play the youth instead of you. 250 is a fair shout for anyone in the blue and gold, and there's another year to come. Given we are unlikely to ever lose a game again I can actually make my peace with this.

Righto, so yeah on top of these milestones there is also a game to be played, let's briefly summarise:

Carlton have just lost 6 players to injury, some of them rather critical to their chances. [Charlie Curnow, Harry McCay, Adam Saad, Jack Martin, Lachie Fogarty, Jordan Boyd]
Carlton have won just one game in the last 6 and have fallen from 2nd to 9th.
Carlton's last two wins came against North Melbourne and Richmond. Who we won our most recent games against.

Thats not good folks.

In contrast, this is a home game for us and we've won the last two and everyone knows good things happen in three's. Since taking over from Adam "Don Pyke and Sam Mitchell did all the heavy lifting and now its obvious" Simpson, Schofield the Magnificent has basically solved all of our problems and its a pretty clear run from here to next years grand final I'd say.

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Eagles an absolute certainty. Probably to the tune of about 10 goals.
 

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Man I'm so tired of all these excuses. Just win regardless of the players on the park.
smh my head.
 
We haven't won 3 games in a row since Rounds 7-9 2021. In that block of games we knocked off Freo, Hawks, Crows. Weeks later we also beat Carlton, and have not beaten them since.

Could it be time? 🤔
 

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Listening to the footyology podcast Rodney Eade said his plan for Carlton would be to try and use their BBIM's to get a clearance advantage, leading to field position and then lock it in their front half. Turn it into a dour low scoring scrap.

This might be feasible given the combination of forecasted heavy rain and the rugby boys turning Optus into a potato field.

I'd hope we could create some mismatches to our advantage given all their outs but there's a trust issue after the St Kilda/Norf games earlier this year. Eagles by < 2 goals.
 
Strage omissions. Both Maric and Hall are the future and every game helps. Dropping them for blokes like Petch makes no sense to me. Feels like Schofield is trying to protect his candidacy for the head coaching role by playing more experience to get the win and help his case.
 


Final changes

In : Petch, Edwards
Out : Hall, Maric

Witherden keeps his spot ahead of Maric which is truly bizarre

Petch for Hall I’m ok with. Halls had a taste and now knows what to work on but Maric seems to have lost his wing spot with Gaff coming off the green vest

Thought Maric has shown a bit too so he’s stiff to miss out
 
Hmm I like Petch but thought Maric was great last week and very stiff here. And who is Edwards actually going to play on? Hall out is fair enough. It was worth giving him a taste and he'll be better for it next year.
Edit: so uh, what Keys said a minute ago!
 


Final changes

In : Petch, Edwards
Out : Hall, Maric

Witherden keeps his spot ahead of Maric which is truly bizarre

Petch for Hall I’m ok with. Halls had a taste and now knows what to work on but Maric seems to have lost his wing spot with Gaff coming off the green vest

Thought Maric has shown a bit too so he’s stiff to miss out

Agreed. I dont get that at all. Maric has been really good and one of the few whos a decent kick.
Maybe not suited to wet weather footy?
Might be expecting a dour defensive game so the older bodies are requried. Still I'd much rather Maric over Witherden.
 
Surprised to see Maric out. One of our green shoots of hope over the last 18 months.

Possibly structural, going to be a wet ground game, most of Carlton’s forwards are smalls so we need more coverage for them hence Witherden and Johnston getting a game before him. Plus Gaff.

Like to see him return next week.
 
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