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JUSTIN WESTHOFF is listed at #101 on the Port Adelaide all-time AFL playing list, wedged between #100 Robbie Gray and #102 Travis Boak.

In many ways the bearded utility has unfairly lived his 12-year career in the shadow of Gray, the 2014-15-16 club champion, and Boak, the 2011 club champion and a six-year captain.

Not any more. Not after Westhoff confirmed his own special place in club history when he claimed the 2018 John Cahill Medal in a nail-biting vote-count on Friday night.

In a wonderful and fitting tribute to the magnificent career of the former Central District junior, taken at No.71 in the 2006 AFL National Draft, Westhoff is the oldest Port Adelaide club champion.

Using 1 October as a benchmark date for comparison purposes to compensate for the club championship dinner being held on different nights each year, Westhoff was notionally 32 exactly. He celebrated his 32^nd birthday on 1 October.

Westhoff surpassed Warren Tredrea as Port’s oldest club champion. Tredrea was aged 30 years 281 days when he won his fourth Cahill Medal in 2009.

The youngest club champions have been Chad Wingard (2013) and Jackson Trengove (2011). Both were short of their 21^st birthday.

Westhoff also easily had the longest wait for his first John Cahill Medal at 248 games. Brendon Lade was second longest at 170 games.

Inaugural winner Darren Mead and 2000 recruit Brett Montgomery won the Cahill Medal after 22 games for Port, while Adam Kingsley was 34 games.

But Westhoff’s popular win on Friday night went further than that – he was also the oldest best & fairest winner in the AFL this year.

Only two others were beyond 30 at the comparison age of 1 October – back-to-back North Melbourne club champion Shaun Higgins was 30 years 211 days old, using the 1 October benchmark, and first-time Gold Coast winner Jarrod Harbrow was 30 years 75 days.

The youngest B&F winner in the AFL in 2018 was second-time Carlton winner Patrick Cripps at 23 years 197 days.

Moreover, in a further confirmation of the magnificent achievement of the now 199cm ultra versatile veteran, Westhoff became the 11^th oldest AFL club champion this century.

Essendon great James Hird, well beyond his 34^th birthday when he won his fifth Bombers B&F in 2003, is the oldest since the turn of the century, ahead of Hawthorn’s 2016 winner Sam Mitchell, Gold Coast’s 2017 winner Gary Ablett, and Carlton’s 2003 winner Andrew McKay, who were each beyond their 33^rd birthday.

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