A late draft pick in 2006, Port Adelaide utility Justin Westhoff has proven a smart and enduring choice

HE was pick No. 71 in the 2006 AFL national draft - and the late gamble on Justin Westhoff has delivered again and again

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JUSTIN Westhoff is reminding all just how much guessing there is to an AFL draft ... or the sharpness Port Adelaide recruiting manager Mick Moylan had in his calculated gambles.

Westhoff, the Power’s oldest player at 31, was pick No. 71 (that is the fifth round) in the 2006 national draft. Remarkably, Port Adelaide’s pick before Westhoff - at No. 55 - was Robbie Gray, three times an All-Australian and club champion at Alberton.

So much for the need for first-round draft picks to fulfil the recruiting manager’s mission of finding 10-year, 200-game players.

Of the 80 players called to the AFL in the 2006 national draft, only 10 have reached the 200-game milestone (and Gray will join this group this season).

It is an impressive list - Crows midfielder Bryce Gibbs (pick No. 1), Port Adelaide captain Travis Boak (5), Geelong captain Joel Selwood (7), Richmond forward Jack Riewoldt (13) and premiership team-mate Shane Edwards (26), North Melbourne ruckman Todd Goldstein (37), father-son picks Tom Hawkins (40) at Geelong and Josh Kennedy (41) at Hawthorn (now Sydney) and livewire forward Lindsay Thomas (53) at the Kangaroos (now Power).

There were six players chosen in the 2006 national draft who never played an AFL game.

Westhoff tonight (Thursday) will play his 238th AFL game - and next week, in the Friday night blockbuster with Melbourne at Adelaide Oval, join Power premiership hero Chad Cornes at No. 4 on Port Adelaide’s AFL games record.

Justin Westhoff battles Trent Cotchin in 2018. Picture Sarah Reed

Justin Westhoff kicks under pressure in 2008 .

Considering the top-four names on the tally board are all early draft calls or original Power squad members - Kane Cornes (300 games, pick No. 20), Warren Tredea (255, inaugural squad), Peter Burgoyne (240, inaugural squad) and Chad Cornes (239, No. 9) - Westhoff’s success and durability is a further tribute to Moylan’s call at No. 71 at the 2006 draft.

Westhoff is currently in a 112-game run of consecutive games that started in round 17, 2013.

And the man they call “Humphrey” - for choosing to say little, although when he does speak his team-mates take note - is not intending to close his career soon.

Westhoff notes “me and the club are in a pretty good place - and I want to play on”. His contract should again trigger into an automatic renewal in the next month, as it did last year.

Westhoff’s form - which has held up while playing so many different roles this season, from ruck to sweeper in defence and playmaker from a wing - justifies passage to Season 2019 in which he would challenge Tredrea’s place at No. 2 on the games tally at Alberton.

Moylan, now working the recruiting program for WAFL club Swan Districts after stepping away from the West Coast-East Perth empire, did do extremely well in that 2006 draft with Boak, Gray and Westhoff still playing key roles at Alberton.

But what was it with Westhoff at No. 71.

“Just his temperament on field,” says Moylan recalling Westhoff’s SANFL start at Central District. “Even though he was in very strong side at Central, his ability to read play and athleticism for tall player playing as one of three forwards was of AFL quality.”

This has proven true.

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