PORT ADELAIDE Senior Coach Ken Hinkley has described retiring club champion Justin Westhoff as the most respected player amongst his teammates he has ever seen.
Westhoff on Thursday told his teammates he would hang up his boots at the end of the season but he hopes to play a part in team success in his 14th and last AFL season.
The announcement came in advance of the AFL Finals so as to avoid any distraction to the team.
Hinkley has worked with Westhoff for eight years and was full of praise for a man he described as “the ultimate team person”.
“He’s selfless, dependable, reliable, whatever you need I’ll do,” Hinkley said at a press conference after the announcement.
“Today is another example of that. He’s thinking about the team and what the team’s got in front of them and hopefully he’s a part of that team.
“There’s a big month ahead for this footy club and he’s taking himself out of the picture because the questions were starting to come up.
“But he’s the most selfless person you’ll meet in the footy club.”
Hinkley said Westhoff was as respected outside of the walls of Alberton as he was within them, using an example from Westhoff’s first year in 2007 to illustrate that.
“He’s been an absolute star of this footy club and the fans, the members, there’s not a person in the football world that doesn’t love the Hoff – opposition, fans, even fans of opposition love and respect the great man and I remember his first year because I was at Geelong at the time,” he explained.
“We put Matthew Scarlett on him in the Grand Final – that’s the respect he had in his first year at the football club and still today I’m sure as an opposition club if the Hoff’s out there, you’re worried about the Hoff because you know he can do unbelievable things.
“He’s been the most respected footballer I’ve probably seen ever from his teammates and what they think of him. They just love him.
“He’s just always there. He doesn’t miss training, he doesn’t miss anything.
“He doesn’t cause one bit of fuss for the coach or the coaches, he just does whatever the team needs and that’s why everyone respects him.”
Westhoff came to the club at pick 71 in the 2006 AFL draft, a draft which also landed the club current stars Travis Boak and Robbie Gray.
It would be a fairytale finish for Port to win the premiership in his final year, but he has been out of the side on form in the last fortnight and Hinkley would not guarantee the oldest player on the Port list would get a game in the finals.
“We know how much goes on in footy, we’ve all been here before, we’re talking about hopefully four or five weeks of football,” he said.
“Who knows what goes on, he could play another three or four games and that would be fantastic.
“Because it’s Hoff, team first. If I’m part of the team I’ll do my job for you and if I’m not part of the team I’ll also do my job. I’ll be at training and influencing the young boys coming through.
“I’ve said to the boys today that if anyone in this room – and he’s played with Trav and Robbie all the way through – but anyone else who has been part of Hoff’s journey… if you can leave the game as well respected as he’s leaving this game, you’ll have achieved great things in this game.”
