analysis
Andrew Gaff has become an AFL scapegoat for West Coast Eagles supporters who were lucky to have him
Andrew Gaff is at a crossroads in his glittering career. (AAP Image: Joel Carrett)
Andrew Gaff is staring his football mortality in the face.
The West Coast Eagles midfielder, who will be 32 in June, was pulled from his side's losing effort against Port Adelaide early in the third quarter on Sunday. He'd had four touches.
Speaking on Channel 7, Eagles coach Adam Simpson said he did not believe Gaff's AFL decline was terminal, but flagged he would be playing for West Coast's reserves in a WAFL practice match this weekend.
"He didn't have a good day," Simpson said.
Andrew Gaff managed just four touches against Port Adelaide before being subbed off. (AAP Image: Michael Errey)
"It's all part of the game, isn't it? Sometimes you're out of form and the best way to get it back is at WAFL level."
But was a loss of form behind Gaff's low output, or is he physically unable to play at the level required?
Motor trouble
Footballers age like cars: inconsistently.
For every Rolls Royce like Scott Pendlebury, there are hundreds of VWs – banged up and barely hanging on.
At his best Gaff was like a Landcruiser Prado – ultra durable and able to run all day.
His 276 games see him sit equal fourth with Glen Jakovich for most games played for the club.
But his apex was some way back now.
Watching him try to track back with Port's Miles Bergman, four minutes into the game on Sunday, it was evident. He made Bergman look like Usain Bolt.
There is no need for the Eagles to rush making a call.
Bloodless coups seem the way of doing things these days – like the very civil media events in 2017 when Sam Mitchell and Matt Priddis were put out to pasture.
Matt Priddis was 32 when he played his last game for the West Coast Eagles. (AAP Image: David Moir)
Last year, Eagles veterans Luke Shuey, Nic Naitanui and Shannon Hurn all called time on their own terms.
There were lengthy press conferences, family photos, tributes from the boss, laughs and tears.
Gone are the days that saw club captains Steve Malaxos and John Worsfold ruthlessly cut in the midst of a final series.
Both of those men were greats who'd gone to the well one too many times.
They all get old.
Gaff, Darling the fall guys
There's an almost gleeful element to some observers when they pick over the bones of a footballer in decline.
The howls for Gaff's axing have grown over the past couple of years, as though a decelerating wingman was solely responsible for the club's plight.
Gaff, and his fellow 2010 draft mate Jack Darling, seem to be the public faces, the fall guys, of the Eagles' decline.
Jack Darling and Andrew Gaff were both taken in the 2010 AFL Draft, and have played 554 AFL games between them for the Eagles. (AAP Image: Richard Wainwright)
In the outer, watching a player who's struggling, there's a tendency to forget the blood spilled, the kilometres run. The details.
Like the time Gaff had to track a looping Chris Masten kick inside the 50-metre arc at the Adelaide Oval and ended up out cold, courtesy of a Tom Jonas elbow to the back of his skull.
Or his first game, round 1, 2011, when he came on as the substitute and moments later had the 92kg frame of North Melbourne's Aaron Edwards running through him. Gaff did what he would always do – he bounced back to his feet and got on with his work.
They won't remember that in the 2015 grand final, when most of teammates went missing, he ran himself into the ground and collected 34 touches to be his side's best.
Andrew Gaff, the Eagles' best during the 2015 Grand Final, tackles eventual Norm Smith medallist Cyril Rioli. (AAP Image: Julian Smith)
Or the fact he turned down a massive contract North Melbourne dangled in front of him to stay and fight for a premiership with the Eagles.
Or the stellar season he put together in 2019, after the disappointment of missing out on the flag, where he averaged 31 touches a week and was voted West Coast's player of the finals.
Those details will be forgotten, by most, while the roundhouse he landed on the jaw of Andrew Brayshaw – the act that cost him his place in the Eagles' finals campaign – will be remembered.
End of the road?
All this is not to say Gaff is finished as an AFL player.
Maybe his struggles, as Simpson suggested, are just a bad patch. But maybe they are not.
Contrast Gaff's struggles with someone at the other end of the journey.
Number one draft pick Harley Reid's start in AFL footy showed he belongs. He shot out of the blocks and had eight touches in the first quarter.
Harley Reid did everything he needed to on his highly publicised AFL debut. (AAP Image: Matt Turner)
He did everything to suggest a glittering career awaits. It's all in front of him.
Yet nature dictates that one day he'll be struggling to get near it, and thousands of people will be calling for him to be dropped.
Reid should take a look at Gaff, see how hard he works and how much it means to him, and savour every moment.
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