Andrew Gaff has successfully made a transition from pure wing to more of an inside role over recent years at the Eagles. He was previously known for his supreme motor on the outside to provide link play around the boundaries, but today will provide perhaps his greatest test without the likes of Shuey and Yeo at the coalface. With only Jack Redden for company and a bunch of kids, he comes up against a Fremantle midfield that isn't much stronger, but should have enough experience to dominate in the clinches. Or can Gaff engineer a massive Derby upset?
Andrew Gaff has successfully made a transition from pure wing to more of an inside role over recent years at the Eagles. He was previously known for his supreme motor on the outside to provide link play around the boundaries, but today will provide perhaps his greatest test without the likes of Shuey and Yeo at the coalface. With only Jack Redden for company and a bunch of kids, he comes up against a Fremantle midfield that isn't much stronger, but should have enough experience to dominate in the clinches. Or can Gaff engineer a massive Derby upset?
Andrew Gaff has had as poor a year as the rest of his team as a whole, his numbers dropping as the premiership points drifted away. Dropping three kicks, a handball and a tackle off his 2019 figures, he has completed a transition from purely outside wingman to a double threat who can also work on the inside at stoppages. A string of six games in the middle of the season where he didn't reach a ton in standard scoring was the problem, not helped by a week off for a hand injury from training. Three tons in the last three weeks are far better areas, though.
Andrew Gaff has outlived the controversy about his Derby KO of Hamish Brayshaw and gone back to what he does best: motoring up and down the wings and flanks providing link play to any teammate who will kick him the ball. His world-class engine makes him a very valuable fantasy asset, especially in the modern era where players like him rarely get tagged as that tends to bugger up team defensive structures. He can be somewhat overlooked in fantasy captaincy discussions due to a lowish floor but his ceiling is very high, especially against opponents like Adelaide.
Gaff's flawless floor routine
The reason that Andrew Gaff doesn't get tagged much is that he lacks hurt factor, and that tendency worsened in 2019 despite putting up a personal best of 32 touches and six marks per game. His heat map shifted decidedly towards defence, and while his efficiency and metres gained went up he didn't contribute nearly as much forward of centre as in previous years. He peeled off a fantasy ton every week from round 7 onwards, save for two around the bye when he was tagged for 91 and 92. Gaff is a peculiar beast, because his value to the team is not measured in the traditional way of direct score involvements. He essentially does the work of two bench midfielders cleaning up behind centre, meaning that the Eagles can run flankers in that spot to add to important exotic stats like pressure acts and one percenters. Tagging him is pointless, but letting him run free means he enables others to beat you. For fantasy usage that scoring floor is golden, and he should go in early rounds.
Andrew Gaff will be one of the major storylines in the last week of September if the West Coast Eagles manage to make it to the grand final once again, given the way his 2018 ended in disgrace. He has been much the same player this year as last, rarely getting tagged, accumulating on the outside seemingly at will. The long-running debate on Gaff is his hurt factor, which is low on a per-possession basis but, like Bradley Hill and Brandon Ellis, can be crucial to a game result purely by weight of numbers. Fantasy coaches trust in him.
Gaff is a jaffa
Another year, another set of inexplicable decisions by opposition analysts not to tag Andrew Gaff. Dan Hannebery was the only player to lay a hard tag on him all season, keeping him under 25 touches, but otherwise he ran free and took full toll with 31 disposals and five marks per game. He is the only midfielder in the top seven for kick average, and his contested rate (29%) and disposal efficiency (75%) also resemble that of a HBF. Of course he missed the premiership through suspension after his haymaker landed on the jaw of Andrew Brayshaw in round 20, but perhaps Gaff was just disoriented because he was so unfamiliar with someone bothering him at stoppages. The obvious explanation is that no one in the competition has the tank to run with him, but barely anyone tries! He will be highly motivated this season, and should reward a first round pick.
Glass and a Gaff full
While he maintained the 30-disposal pace he has set for the past three years in 2017, Andrew Gaff added more work off the ball to get free for an extra mark and lift his execrable tackle tally from out of the bottom 10 in the league, though it's still low even for a wingman. He dropped out of the top 10 for metres gained to sit 34th for the league, passed in that stat by Elliot Yeo. Gaff's poorest game came when tagged by Levi Greenwood but he was largely free of close-checking opponents again, despite a history of struggling with them. Perhaps it's because oppo analysts don't fear his hurt factor as much as they used to, though he can still be a damaging player when allowed to run free through simple weight of possession. He is a reliable early-round pick.
