Andrew Gaff - Best player from the 2010 draft?

[pantskyle]

I have said before on BigFooty that Gaff could well be the best from the draft and I currently have him at 1.

Basically I think he has been the most consistent since debuting. Playing 3 finals last year was a bonus for he's development.

Although Swallow and Bennell are going to be very good players I don't think it helps the development playing in a losing side for 1-3 years. Where as players like Gaff, Darling and Heppell are playing in wins and final(s).

I think we are about 3 years away from being able to answer this question though. Gaff is quite tiny still.

Time will tell.

 

[Roobs321]

Along with his gut running, his understanding of the game is elite imo. He just knows how to find the right place for both himself and his teammates. At WCE, he is already one of the most trusted playmakers imo. Him and Shuey in this aspect will be scary in 2-3 years.

Bennell and Darling maybe have more superstar potential, but Gaff seems a sure thing and will have had a magnificent career when all is said and done. I could also see him seldom being injured, could see him racking up a lot of consecutive games and conceivably giving all-time disposal records a bit of a shake.

Still light and untagged in a deep midfield, so there are questions that could be asked. But im overjoyed with our drafting of Gaff. Along with Shuey, NicNat and Darling, we have made some wonderful draft choices in recent years. Almost justifies our horrible 2008-10 period.

 

[DerpWerls]

Massive Gaff fan here but yeah chuck him in the GC team and see how consistent he is. This is the problem with early comparisons throughout recent drafting periods.

 

[mattyc75]

Watched a fair few Eagles games this year and have seen Gaff a fair bit.

Good player but as rightly pointed out by an WCE supporter earlier on in the thread beenfits from playig in a team full of hard nut insider ball winners who feed it off to him.

Has an accurate left foot but does lack a bit of penetration with it. Might come as he gets bigger an stronger.

Have not really seen him do much of of the hard in and under and it raises a question mark to me when comparing him to a guy like Swallow who does play that role to a great extent already (without looking at stats I would imagine he would comfortably beat Gaff in clearances and cont pos).

Two things that I noticed in todays game was that he was left unattended all day at the back of the pack and was allowed to run onto his left foot continuously as the other eagles midfielders slaughtered the Dockers in the clearances. I was shaking my head at how easily he was allowed to do this.

The other one moment I noticed was when it came for him to pick up a contested ball on the wing (2nd qtr I think) he put in a fairly weak effort and did not at least cause a ball up, which allowed the Dockers to get one of their rare quick break goals.

Contested ball is what turns a good midfielder into a great midfielder so until then I reserve my judgment on him and would rate Swallow and even Darling ahead of him.

Sorry for the ramble. Please continue.

so what your saying is that he does the role asked of him perfectly and is a great team player?

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Waters, Glass and Scooter the only people even remotely in contention for AA. Gaff is awesome but lets not throw around AA calls just yet.

 

[Eastern Rangers]

I wouldn't say Gaff is close to being soft, perhaps his contested work is a little inconsistent. Anyway he's going well, enjoying his football and has plenty of physical improvement left.

 

[tek87]

Jack Darling is the best performed out of that draft to date and he would arguably be the most valuable

 

[The Passenger]

Waters, Glass and Scooter the only people even remotely in contention for AA. Gaff is awesome but lets not throw around AA calls just yet.

cox, almost by default.... no ruckmen dominating the first third of this year.

naitanui has been the better ruckmen though. both top five in the competition imo... paddy ryder has also been very good...

if you were going to completely rule out reputation and past (which you're supposed to but it is hard to do, especially when the incumbent is playing solid but not great footy and no one else has really stepped up to take the mantle) ivan maric is probably the number one ruckmen this year... has been in real good touch.

 

[vast]

I would still say swallow is the best, the kid was playing well beyond his years prior to his injury. GAFF is still a gun though.

 

[Morris Major]

He has plenty of competition, IMO most people would pick Darling as the best so far

2010 draft is ridiculously good, no doubt there'll be plenty of stars from that list of players

 

[SirJimi05]

Why do receivers spud it up in finals? Because finals = contested. To go deep in September you need quality inside mids. Of course it's good to have outside players as well, but they are not nearly as important as inside mids.

Peter Matera
Darren Jarman
Michael Long
Maurice Rioli
Andrew Embley
Steve Johnson
Andrew McLeod x 2
Kevin Bartlett

Pretty sure all of these guys except for Jars won Norm Smiths. You'd struggle to find as many pure inside mids that have won Norm Smiths.

 

[SirJimi05]

Think Cox is a certainty for AA and Waters a near certainty.

Rest is a raffle.

Cox? When NN has played he has clearly been better than Cox and I actually think Cox has been a little underwhelming, compared to the standard he has set for himself.

Waters definitely in the mix for a HB role.

 

[jabbers]

Best Wing in the AFL at the moment. Helps playing in a good side with lots of inside ball winners though. Spot on with his coverage of the ground though - amazing

Sidebottom says hi!

 

[Underdog]

Cox? When NN has played he has clearly been better than Cox and I actually think Cox has been a little underwhelming, compared to the standard he has set for himself.

Cox has been very good but I think many are remembering his 5 goals he kicked last week.

As you said, in terms of genuine ruckmen, Nic has been better.

 

[94_Eagles]

Leave this for the Eagles board.

Why are there so many of these circle jerk threads?

Every week it's a new one.

It's embarrassing.

 

[nicko74]

So far based on the draft and list above

1. Gaff
2. Darling
- Gap
3. Heppell
4. Bennell
5. Swallow
6. Parker
7. Prestia

The rest

Get over yourself mate

 

[Underarm]

Huge call given the awesomeness of Swallow, Bennell, Heppell as well but for me so far Gaff has surpassed all of these blokes and outside of WA he is flying under the radar big time.

Definitely a great player, Its what you expect from a player taken essentially first in the draft. Its tough to know just how good the GC players really are at the moment.

 

[Galileo9]

Leave this for the Eagles board.

Why are there so many of these circle jerk threads?

Every week it's a new one.

It's embarrassing.

absolutely. Mods should move this to WCE board.

 

[Eastern Rangers]

Sidebottom says hi!

Yep. Not much between them but enough.

 

[hank31]

Cannot fathom the crap some WCE fans are spruiking in this thread.

We get it, you guys feel we dont care about you in VIC, doesn't mean everytime one of your players strings together a couple of nice games you need to ram it down our throat.

FFS yes he is impressive. But not anymore so than a fair few others from the same draft.

WCE fans wonder why nobody takes them seriously on BF, threads like this are exactly why. Biased bull crap that was a waste of time reading.

 

[Underdog]

WCE fans wonder why nobody takes them seriously on BF, threads like this are exactly why. Biased bull crap that was a waste of time reading.

Then don't read it?

I suspect what you think of certain posters on an online football forum is the least of their concerns...

Additionally, to not be able to make a distinction between posters going over the top and level headed posters purely due to the team they support is pretty ordinary and petty.

Negatively stereotyping all fans of each team is merely going to stop people taking YOU seriously and stop reading your "Biased bull crap".

 

[pantskyle]

Cannot fathom the crap some WCE fans are spruiking in this thread.

We get it, you guys feel we dont care about you in VIC, doesn't mean everytime one of your players strings together a couple of nice games you need to ram it down our throat.

FFS yes he is impressive. But not anymore so than a fair few others from the same draft.

WCE fans wonder why nobody takes them seriously on BF, threads like this are exactly why. Biased bull crap that was a waste of time reading.

And who takes you seriously because that is one of the funniest post I have ever read on bigfooty.

Or are you upset that he stayed with us and didn't join your mob like a few of your fans thought he would?

 

[hank31]

Not upset at all. IMO we never had a chance. You Pantskyle are one of the worst, most biased posters on BF. Is that better for you underdog?

There are plenty more.

Anyone who mentions his name in the same sentence as AA this year are out of their minds, and to also follow up with 'he is the best gut runner in the comp' makes it even worse.

Do you guys actually believe what you post or is it all just a troll?

 

[ROYAL EAGLE]

absolutely. Mods should move this to WCE board.

Agree can this thread be moved to WCE board please ?

 

[hank31]

See ^^^ Pantskyle your own supporters are ashmed of the crap you peddal on the main board.