Barossa Valley greats Justin Westhoff and Shannon Hurn open up on footy journeys ahead of region’s first Gather Round games
Justin Westhoff’s dad was a beloved Barossa Valley footy great. For the first time, the Port legend opens up about his father’s tragic death and what the Barossa means to his family ahead of its Gather Round debut.
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One of the Barossa Valley’s most well-known exports, besides wine, talks with pride when he is asked about what footy means to the South Australian tourist region.
“It’s kind of a religion up there,” Port Adelaide great Justin Westhoff tells this masthead.
“A lot of community events and a lot of people’s lives revolve around footy, and bringing the community together.”
Football clubs were formed in the Barossa Valley almost 150 years ago.
The local Aussie rules association was inaugurated in 1908.
Barossa Valley towns have hosted state carnivals, SANFL teams and AFL pre-season matches.
Nothing will compare to the event coming this weekend – Gather Round.
North Melbourne takes on Gold Coast on Saturday then Fremantle plays Richmond on Sunday in the first matches at the newly redeveloped Barossa Park at Lyndoch.
“There’s definitely a bit of a buzz around the area,” says Westhoff, who retired from the Power in 2020 after playing 280 games and winning a best-and-fairest.
“We were probably a little bit jealous that Mount Barker got it before us.”
Westhoff lives in the Adelaide Hills and loves raising his four children there.
But he still uses “we” and “us” to describe the Barossa Valley.
His parents, Danny and Robyn, moved to Tanunda from Eudunda for more sporting opportunities when Westhoff was six or seven.
Danny played footy for Tanunda, Robyn was a netballer at the club and their three sons, Leigh, Justin and Matthew, took little convincing to follow their father into Aussie rules.
“There’s always that one family that’s there at 9am putting up signs around the oval,” Westhoff says.
“We were playing moddies (juniors) and Dad was the coach.
“Dad would play A grade, Mum was playing seniors in netball and we’d be there until last drinks.
“Dad would mark the lines on a Friday night and we’d be running amok in the change rooms, using the tackle bags to take speccies.
“The club used to be our babysitter … because there was a period where Mum and Dad had an hour overlap playing at the same time.
“So we’d just be running loose, which was an amazing time growing up.
“My heroes were the guys playing in that A-grade team with Dad – it wasn’t AFL players.”
In 2004, Westhoff lined up for Tanunda’s top side with his two brothers during a SANFL bye for Central District.
Joining ex-Bulldogs player Leigh and former Central District and Power forward Matthew for a swan song season at their junior club in 2021 was “a cherry on top” of his career.
“Us three boys were the kids in the change rooms after the game watching Dad and now my kids and Leigh’s kids were doing the same thing we did,” he says.
“That’s what I love about footy and community footy.
“It was a pretty big full-circle moment for Mum and Dad.”
Danny was a much-loved Tanunda stalwart.
The tough centre half-forward had been involved at the club since the 1990s, leading the Barossa Light and Gawler association’s goalkicking in 2001 and playing in a premiership alongside Leigh the next season.
Danny was Tanunda’s president when the club won another A-grade flag in 2019 and the brothers reunited to play together two years later.
“Obviously it was a massive part of his life,” Westhoff says.
“Mum was treasurer and was a big part of it as well.
“Dad did a lot of things under the radar where people probably wouldn’t have realised how much influence he was having on certain things happening.
“He was just a great clubman.”
In 2023, Danny died, aged 59, after crashing his motorcycle in an accident in the Barossa Valley.
“There’s not a day that goes by where you don’t think about him,” Westhoff says, opening up publicly about his Dad’s death for the first time.
“Bringing kids up myself, to miss out on and my brothers’ kids miss out on him sharing his wisdom he bestowed on us … it’s very, very sad.”
One thing that stands out from the time of his Dad’s passing is the support of the Barossa Valley community.
“It was definitely overwhelming,” Westhoff says.
“The whole Barossa Valley were unbelievable.”
Westhoff reckons his Dad would have been rapt with Gather Round coming to the region after two years of missing out.
“He was a footy tragic,” he says.
“He definitely would’ve loved to see the facilities, the oval and the next progression of the Barossa.”
Westhoff himself was very impressed with the $45m Barossa Park redevelopment when he visited the new AFL ground just before Christmas “for a sticky beak”.
“I’m a Tanunda tragic so I was probably a little bit jealous that it was going to Lyndoch,” says Westhoff, who still goes to as many of his former club’s Barossa games as he can.
“But playing footy for so long and knowing what it brings to certain communities, and having it back in my home region is exciting.”
West Coast premiership captain Shannon Hurn, another proud Barossa Valley product, shares that sentiment.
He remembers going to Port Adelaide’s practice match against the Western Bulldogs in Nuriootpa in 2003, never imagining the region one day holding games for premiership points.
“The AFL was always deemed to be a city thing,” says Hurn, West Coast’s games record holder.
“I’ve got a lot of mates in the Barossa who are excited for what it’ll bring to the area and a lot of kids are excited to see an AFL Gather Round game up close.
“But the kids will also be able to go ‘maybe I will be able to do that’ and aspire to play sport with your mates, even if it’s not AFL.”
Hurn grew up on a sheep and cattle farm in Angaston, then played juniors for the club, the fourth generation of his family to do so.
“I must have been three or four when Dad was playing football for Angaston and coaching the under-17s,” he says.
“I was always there at training, you’d kick the footys back and then I played when I was seven or eight.”
Like Westhoff, Hurn attended Nuriootpa High and went on to play SANFL for Central District before getting drafted.
Hurn skippered the Eagles’ premiership in 2018, retiring five seasons later after 333 matches.
The 37-year-old, nicknamed “Bunga”, will miss a third consecutive Gather Round due to his development coaching role at West Coast.
Settled in Perth, Hurn returns home to Angaston every Christmas and is aiming to move back “at some stage”.
“I enjoy helping out on the farm with Dad, who always leaves some of the harder jobs for me,” says Hurn, whose sister, Ashton, is the local MP for Schubert.
“There’s always fence posts we’ve got to dig out, which is no stress because it keeps you fit.
“It’d be great to be able to keep the family farm going.
“It was a great upbringing.”
Westhoff also hopes to eventually shift back to Tanunda, where his Mum and Leigh still live.
For him, the Barossa represents family, community, footy – and experiencing all the tourist region has to offer.
“The Barossa means a hell of a lot to me,” says Westhoff, now coach of Port Adelaide’s Next Generation Academies, the Power’s welfare co-ordinator and a co-owner of sustainable food business Forage Supply Co.
“There’s a lot of untapped places – whether that’s little wineries, bars, cafes – that I know the locals know about.
“Hopefully people don’t just stop at Lyndoch, they continue further and see what it’s really about.
“The Barossa is a little bit old-school and I think it needs to be pushed to do things outside what they’ve done in the past … that open us up to different, younger audiences.
“Gather Round will definitely do that.”
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