West Coast might not be firing on all cylinders but hard-running wingman Andrew Gaff took away plenty of positives as the Eagles banked another home win against Hawthorn on Sunday.
With only one more match at Optus Stadium against Greater Western Sydney before a second stint in Queensland, the Eagles are holding onto fourth spot – only a win and percentage behind League leader Port Adelaide, which has played one more game.
However, a fixture crunch of five matches in 19 days – not to mention relocation to the east coast early next week - awaits the group in a challenging finale to the 2020 campaign.
“We’ve won seven-in-a-row now and with this compressed season – it’s going to be even more compressed for us coming up – but at the moment teams are up and down, so for the moment while we’re playing well and banking these wins it’s really important,” Gaff told SEN.
“We started really well against Hawthorn, which is probably a thing we hadn’t done for the last couple of weeks, despite winning quite a few games.
“To be three or four goals up at quarter-time (3.4 to 0.0) we kept that lead, and Hawthorn were pretty plucky all day and stayed with us but for the most part we were pretty good.
“Moving onto a GWS team which will be looking forward to bouncing back from last weekend.”
There was a lot to like against the Hawks, with champion forward Josh Kennedy nailing three more goals to stay in the Coleman Medal hunt, star ruckman Nic Naitanui influential again and former North Beach amateur Nic Reid making his debut at 24.
Seeing Liam Ryan leaping high, pulling down pack marks and nailing three majors also brought a smile to Gaff’s face following a trying period for the energetic goalsneak.
“He made a couple of my snaps around the body look good going inside 50 taking big hangers on a couple of blokes,” Gaff said.
“It’s a really tough position that small forward, although he can play pretty tall obviously with his marking prowess, but sometimes you have those lean weeks when things don’t go according to plan.
“For him to finally get some reward yesterday was really positive and we know he’s had a few personal issues as well this year which takes a toll on different guys at different levels.
“For him to get back to really good form and confidence is going to do him, it’s going to do us, the world of good going forward.”
Reid provided one of the highlights of the season when he snapped truly following Jack Darling’s selfless hand off in the final quarter, with 17 teammates rushing from everywhere to join the celebrations.
The former school teacher didn’t look out of place with nine touches and two crunching tackles, and his enthusiasm rubbed off on his teammates, including 208-game veteran Gaff as he racked up a season-best 33 disposals.
“To see a guy so excited and so pumped up – not only to play but to kick a goal and be part of a win – was so great to see,” Gaff said.
“He reckons he doesn’t have asthma but he had to borrow one of the boys’ asthma pumps at quarter-time because he was running around so much and he reckons the speed was five times quicker than the WAFL.
“Guys that have been around a long time you kind of forget what it’s like to play your first game or first season.
“It’s a different type of nerves when you’re young and debuting opposed to when you’ve played quite a few games. It was great for him yesterday.”
