The younger brother of Richmond 200-gamer Darren and former Melbourne player Damien, Travis Gaspar was capable of holding down a key position at either end of the ground, when his body allowed it. A series of injuries, primarily to his foot and his hamstrings, limited him to just 28 games in 7 seasons at the club and meant that the Eagles never truly saw the best of him.
West Coast career[]
Travis Gaspar was a first-round pick for West Coast in 1999. Making his debut in 2001, Gaspar showed promise as a strong-marking centre-half forward in 6 games that year. He managed 10 the following year before injury struck. It would remain his most productive season.
The most intriguing part of the Gaspar story came in 2005. He sat out the early part of the season injured, before making his return through South Fremantle’s reserves at the half-way mark. After some solid form in the Bulldogs’ seniors in the second half of the year, he was surprisingly plucked out of the WAFL to play his first AFL game for the year in the preliminary final against Adelaide. Perhaps suffering from nerves, he collected Ken McGregor with an elbow before the first bounce, giving away a 50-metre penalty and a goal and finding himself on a striking charge.
Gaspar escaped suspension at the tribunal during the week (arguably to even the ledger after Barry Hall was cleared for punching Matt Maguire in the guts off the ball), and took the field in the 2005 grand final in just his second appearance for the season. Unfortunately he had little effect on the contest.
After spending the successful 2006 season at South Fremantle with the occasional, but now unpleasantly familiar, injury interruption, Gaspar was delisted at the end of the year.
Post-AFL career[]
Gaspar crossed to Perth in 2007 but continued to struggle with injury and managed just a handful of games for the Demons before retiring.
Stats[]
| AFL | Gm | G | B | K | M | H | D | T | Cl | WAFL | Gm | G | B | K | M | H | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 0 | SF | 11 | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| 2001 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 31 | 24 | 27 | 58 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 7 | |||||||
| 2002 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 56 | 25 | 33 | 89 | 15 | 15 | 1 | 0 | |||||||
| 2003 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 21 | 18 | 18 | 39 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 0 | |||||||
| 2004 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 19 | 13 | 14 | 33 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
| 2005 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 4 | |||||||
| 2006 | 0 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 136 | 93 | 43 | 179 | ||||||||||
| Tot | 28 | 15 | 8 | 134 | 85 | 99 | 233 | 33 | 26 | |||||||||
| Avg | 0.5 | 4.8 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 8.3 | 1.2 | 0.9 |
References[]
http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/T/Travis_Gaspar.html