PORT ADELAIDE veteran Justin Westhoff has been renowned for his versatility and his ability to play just about anywhere on the ground.
In 2020, he has found himself back in the forward line, and he is hoping to stay there as long as he can.
Westhoff has kicked seven goals in his four games so far as part of a three-pronged tall attack featuring Coleman Medal leader Charlie Dixon and the emerging Todd Marshall.
Between them they have managed 24 goals so far, including nine against West Coast last Saturday.
“It’s been exciting to play up there with not only Charlie but a few of the younger guys as well,” Westhoff told portadelaidefc.com.au.
“Obviously, Charlie is playing really well and hopefully he can continue that over the next few weeks.
“I’m just excited about the forward line as a whole and working with a few of the younger guys – Toddy (Marshall) and Zak (Butters) and Connor (Rozee) as well and I think over the first four weeks it hasn’t fallen specifically on one guy to kick goals for us so it’s been fun and the guys are scoring a lot of points, which is exciting.
“So, I’m happy to be up there as long as I can.”
Westhoff paid credit to the delivery into the forward 50, saying that was the key to the improved output on the scoreboard.
“That’s probably an area which we needed to come on a little bit and we’ve worked hell of a lot harder on that over the last six months and that seems to be coming through,” Westhoff said.
“Just a bit more composure around the arcs and getting our run going, which is pretty important with the way we play.”
Port faces Brisbane on Saturday night and Westhoff is relishing the challenge of coming up against another high scoring side.
He said the side was aiming to finish its time in the Queensland hub unbeaten.
“I think it’s going to be an exciting game,” Westhoff said.
“We’ve been scoring and those guys have been scoring pretty heavily and they’ve been in some really good form. Obviously, we are coming up here hoping to come away with three wins and that’s what we’re going into with a confident attitude.
“They’ve got some amazing players playing some really good footy so we’re going to have to be at our best to beat those guys and hopefully it’s another battle for the ages.
“Hopefully we can finish off a bit of hub life with three wins in a row.”
As the oldest player in the Port Adelaide side, Westhoff has just about seen it all, but the uncertainty around COVID-19 and the AFL fixture, particularly with the different state ruling about border closures, has been quite extraordinary.
The laid-back big man explained that the side had a positive attitude around adapting to any situation, and would continue to deal with whatever comes.
“It’s obviously been a challenge coming into the hub not knowing how long we were going to be here,” he said.
“We’ve been approaching it one week at a time, I know it’s cliché, but we can’t really afford to do much more, not knowing the fixture beyond this week so hopefully we can get a win this week and be sitting pretty at the top and going into the back end, whatever that means going forward, at the top of our game – that’s what we were trying to achieve.
“That’s the approach we are trying to take with it so let’s see how it goes.”
