‘It feels like a lifetime, but it has also gone so quickly.’
Those words uttered by Andrew Gaff as he approached the final game of an amazing career feel so poignant right now. His ride on this AFL train started two weeks after his Year 12 exams.
It ends, at least in a playing sense, 14 years later. He is now a husband to Emma and a father to little Harvey and pondering the next chapter of life’s journey.
Gaff’s exit speech resonates so strongly. Perhaps because my own memory of draft day 2010 is so vivid.
The Eagles finished at the foot of the premiership table that year, claiming the dreaded wooden spoon for the first time. But new franchise Gold Coast had the first three selections, locking away David Swallow, Harley Bennell and Sam Day.
West Coast was pick four and snared Gaff from the Oakleigh Chargers. It proved a canny selection.
The slightly built Gaff, unkempt hair pushed across scone in keeping with the trends of the day, was touted as a great accumulator – of the football and kilometres. Talent scouts were on the money.
In the ensuing years there have been many Gaffy moments that are embedded in my memory. And now that is all we have. The memories.
Pondering that opening line that Gaffy enunciated before his teammates emphasised the ease with which those within the AFL bubble can be trapped in the cycle.
Putting it mildly this year, like the two before it, has been challenging. Just five wins (so far) from 22 games; 10 victories from the last 72. It has been a grind.
When you’re in this industry where everything is scrutinised forensically the game can become all-consuming; You’re scanning traditional and social media platforms to see what people are saying about us.
When you’re struggling, up your knees in sludge in the bottom quartile of the table, there’s not much to gain from dredging through it all. It’s masochistic but you do it.
And suddenly you’re at this point. Today we play our final game of the season. A campaign that began with so much hope ends with slight improvement. The Eagles have won five games, equal to the sum total of victories in 2022 and 2023. We will finish 16th regardless of round 24 results.
It’s a step in the right direction. Not a quantum leap, but a baby step forward.
And the relative toddlers, in an AFL sensed, have been impressive. Harley Reid, Harvey Johnston, Clay Hall, Loch Rawlinson, Jack Hutchinson and Tyrell Dewar all show something. They, along with a dozen others under 22, are the future.
The club completes its 38th season in the competition with another trip to Geelong. In the last five years West Coast has put the full stop on the qualifying rounds with a home game just once (2023).
That situation is slightly skewed because in 2020 the finale came at Metricon Stadium when all clubs were in a COVID-induced hub.
The AFL has scheduled some tough road trips at GMHBA (2022 and 2024) and Queensland (Metricon 2020, Gabba 2021) in that period.
Journeys to GMHBA (aka Kardinia Park) have been brutal at times. The Cats sent us packing with an 85-point loss two years ago. I’ll ignore that one and instead channel one of the club’s most remarkable comeback victories.
Round 10, 2006. What a day.
Trailing by 54 points in the third quarter, the Eagles staged an astonishing comeback to win by three points on the occasion of Matt Priddis’ debut.
Had it been possible I would have hacked into the entertainment system on Thursday’s flight and replayed the last hour of that game on loop. That also feels like a lifetime ago, but also feels so fresh.
