Andrew Gaff is a rare breed of AFL player and Victorian clubs are lining up to splash the cash
ANDREW Gaff doesn’t put fear into the hearts of rivals and isn’t as “sexy” as Jordan de Goey but the Eagles superstar is still a rare breed of player that Victorian clubs are lining up for. WATCH TRADE TV HERE
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ANDREW Gaff is worth $1.2 million a season to a Victorian club over five or six seasons.
He isn’t the perfect player, but for at least four clubs desperate for a star mid he has the ideal combination of attributes to splash $6 million.
He doesn’t put fear into the hearts of opposition players like Michael Voss or Ollie Wines.
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He isn’t “sexy” like Jordan de Goey, a rare combination of midfield brawn and explosive forward marking power.
What he does do for West Coast is absolutely phenomenal.
He is the rare breed of player who absolutely never misses a game, never plays badly, never lets his team down in finals.
Combine those ingredients with his status as a restricted free agent, and he is worth that lofty price tag.
Because let’s face it, a club like Melbourne, North Melbourne, St Kilda or Carlton will have to hand him that type of salary to tear him out of West Coast.
Those close to him joke he has a resting heart-rate of 60 - utterly nonplussed by the football circus and speculation about his future.
It is why he could easily stay at West Coast, bucking the trend that would say a free agent still yet to sign a deal at Round 18 normally indicates imminent departure.
Yet if this year was some kind of audition given his free agency status, consider it triumphant.
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If you were a Melbourne list manager considering whether to splash the cash on the former Oakleigh Chargers 26-year-old, consider this.
SINCE Gaff became a regular in the West Coast side in Round 17, 2011 he has played 166 of a possible 167 games.
The single game missed - when Port Adelaide’s Tom Jonas elbowed him so hard he was suspended for six weeks in 2016 - Gaff missing a single game with concussion.
If you pay a player mega bucks you want him out on the paddock every week.
Had he played that game he would be 36 games - a season and a half of football - ahead of Geelong’s Zach Tuohy on the consecutive active games streak.
MILLION-dollar players need to fire in finals.
In the 2015 Grand Final, when his star teammates were flailing about and failing to exert influence, his 34 possessions were matched by only Sam Mitchell.
In the 2016 elimination finals loss to the Bulldogs he backed up with 35 possessions, then went again with 34 possessions in last year’s elimination final.
GAFF is now starting to hurt teams from the inside as well as out.
The one knock on him was that he was an accumulating wingman who didn’t cut sides apart.
Gaff has gone from attending 3.4 centre bounces a game in 2017 to 11.2 centre bounces, a clear change in his role to a midfielder rather than wingman.
He averages career-high possessions (30.9), contested possessions (8.9), intercept possessions, centre clearances, goals and pressure.
He also has 11.2 for the year, on track for what would clearly be his most damaging season from a goals perspective.
STARTING points and restricted interchange will help running machines, players with incredible tanks who barely stop for a rest.
What does that do for the value of a player like Gaff.
For clubs like St Kilda, North Melbourne and Carlton who have a ridiculous amount of cap space to spare, this is the equation.
How much extra do you pay someone you might rank as a $900,000 player for free agency status, durability, big game performance.
If you pay him $1.2 million it is less than 2.5 per cent of your available cap, not enough to upset your recruiting priorities in future years.
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