PORT ADELAIDE best and fairest winner Justin Westhoff says he would give up his individual honour for a premiership.

The 32-year-old became the oldest winner of the John Cahill when he claimed the award at the Adelaide Convention Centre in front of more than 1000 people on Friday night.

He old polled 179 votes to finish 17 clear of joint runners up Tom Jonas and Ollie Wines.

“I’ll probably just celebrate it with Kenny and the guys in the group,” he said after the best and fairest event.

“For my family and friends who were all there on the journey with me, they ride the highs and lows., obviously it’s not a premiership but it’s the next best thing so I’ll celebrate it with them and just have that to look at for my career.

“It’s humbling to be able to stand up there with some of the greats of the club.”

The oldest player on the Power’s list polled in 20 of the side’s 22 games including three best on ground performances, showing remarkable consistency during the 2018 campaign.



It caps a wonderful week for the veteran utility who also signed a one-year contract extension with the club during the week to take him into a 13th season of AFL football.

“The longer you’re in the game, the harder it is and you just want to still be relevant within your club and to contribute,” he said.

“I feel like I’ve don’t that this year and hopefully going forward I can do that again and win the ultimate thing for the club, that’s the ultimate goal with anything you do.

“I would trade this in a second for a premiership with the guys we’ve got playing.

“But it’s a nice feeling to be standing here and to still be contributing to your club at this age, which is amazing to be honest.”

As for how long he can keep playing and contributing, the veteran utility was not keen to speculate.

But he said he wanted to keep contributing and ultimately land the AFL’s ultimate prize.

“I’m feeling pretty good and mum and dad probably blessed me with pretty good genes,” Westhoff said.

“I’m lucky to still be out there and feeling mentally pretty fresh so I think going forward the group we have is in a pretty good space and I think we’re going to be going on to bigger and better things with hopefully a few fresh faces around the club.

“I think it would be silly to put a number on anything.”

The 200 centimetre forward has played 248 games since making his debut in 2007.

He joked that he wanted to become the club’s games record holder, beating out 300-gamer Kane Cornes and overtaking another four-time John Cahill Medallist Warren Tredrea.

“I’m going for Kane’s record, he’s the games record holder and I’m going to beat Tredders this year, Westhoff joked.

“I’m just still happy to be around with such a good group.

“We have such a close group and I just want to celebrate this with them – it’s as much them winning this as them winning it.”

As to whether the 2018 season fadeout has provided more motivation to get back on the training track and work even harder, Westhoff was adamant he had more reason than that to work hard.

“I’ve got 12 years of motivation,” he said.

“I think we’re in a good space where we can go and do it.

“It’s going to be a hard slog to get where we need to be but the guys are definitely up to the challenge and hopefully wining that elusive premiership which I’ve strived for for the last 12 years. I won’t stop chasing that.”

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