Gaff to meet punch victim
SUSPENDED West Coast star Andrew Gaff will soon meet with Andrew Brayshaw in an attempt to make peace with the injured Fremantle player.
Gaff on Tuesday night was suspended for eight matches by the AFL tribunal – the longest ban for a single on-field act in a decade – for striking Brayshaw with a blow that broke his jaw.
Brayshaw’s father, Mark Brayshaw, expects the face-to- face meeting between Gaff and his son to happen within days.
The meeting will be facilitated by another of Brayshaw’s sons, Hamish, who is a close friend of Gaff’s and a West Coast teammate.
“Thankfully, Hamish is in a position to connect the two Andrews hopefully in the next day or two ... and the two of them can shake hands and move on,” Mark Brayshaw told SEN radio on Wednesday.
“It can potentially get nasty but I’m really hopeful it won’t.”
Gaff’s suspension is the longest in the AFL since St Kilda’s Steven Baker was banned for nine games in 2008 after being found guilty of four separate offences in one game.
It’s also the equal longest suspension for a single act since Essendon’s Dean Solomon was outed for eight matches for striking Geelong’s Cameron Ling, breaking his cheekbone, in a 2008 fixture.
Gaff again publicly apologised to Andrew Brayshaw after being banned.