Tearful, numb but proud, Gaff misses out on glory
Andrew Gaff’s eyes were red and rimmed with tears. Josh Kennedy was holding him, planting a kiss of sympathy on his head. Of the three regular players who missed out for the Eagles – Brad Sheppard and Nic Naitanui the others – Gaff’s was perhaps the hardest.
But Gaff’s wasn’t a hard luck story, like Naitanui, whose knee gave way late in the season against the Eagles’ eventual grand final opponents, or Sheppard, who strained a hamstring in the qualifying final.
And he wasn’t pretending it was. Gaff was fit, but out of the game by his own hand: the one that broke the jaw of Fremantle’s Andrew Brayshaw in round 20.
Gaff has kept training over the last eight weeks, and said staying fit had helped keep his mind clear. But, he said, “it’s also the hard thing, being fit but not being able to play.
“It’s really tough and I hope to look back at it in many years time and say it was a good thing for me.”
Gaff was filling up again, but he ploughed on. ‘‘You have a real big setback at age 26 as opposed to 46. You figure out who’s really close to you and who means a lot to you, probably more so than if something happens when you’re 45 or 46.
“That’s something I can take out of it. You get to know the people that are really there for you when you’re struggling.
“I’ll get over it. It’ll be tough. It’s really hard at the moment, and we’ll be OK but it’s just very bittersweet ... You feel pretty numb watching it. You don’t know what to think. That’s what we strive for, to win flags, and we’ve done it today.”
Gaff had leaned on his family and friends for support, but also said that assistant coach Sam Mitchell, as well as his injured teammates, had rallied around. “At least we’ve got each other. Hopefully we get our chance in the next few years.”
He said he would take the next few weeks off, “play a bit of golf,” holidaying around Australia with his partner. He did not give an indication about his future in 2019.
Of course, he was thrilled for his teammates who had driven his team to a famous victory, perhaps none more so than Dom Sheed, whose nerveless shot from the boundary with two minutes to go won the match. Sheed, in and out of the side, was close to best afield.
“Disbelief,” Gaff said of his feeling when the ball pierced the goals like an arrow. “I actually had a good feeling about it, he kicked a good one a couple of weeks ago against Collingwood.
“I’m very proud of him. Not everything’s sweet sailing in footy. He’s taken his chance and achieved the ultimate goal. Very proud for him [and] for guys like Chris Masten who’s worked hard over so many years and been maligned for whatever reason over the years.”
Few in football have been navigating such choppy waters.