The Moment on Monday: Justin Westhoff was axed from the Power’s team last week then showed everyone what it meant to be back in Showdown 47
Justin Westhoff is Port’s oldest and arguably most respected player but when Ken Hinkley swung the axe it was the honesty he needed to hear. He opens up on how it reminded him what footy means to him in this week’s Moment on Monday column.
- Port hopeful Lycett will be fit for Lions
- Clubs to award retrospective Showdown medals
- Pyke apologises to fans for ‘embarrassing’ loss
- Match report: Power talks tough, plays tough
- Mr Showdown strikes again for fifth medal
Justin Westhoff has spoken about how the honesty session and axing from coach Ken Hinkley reminded him what football still means to him — and he made that loud and clear to everyone else with his actions in Showdown 47 on Saturday night.
Westhoff is Port Adelaide’s oldest (32) and most experienced (261 games) player and its reigning club champion so when he was dropped to the Magpies after battling for a month he said it almost came as a relief.
“Kenny has just been honest with me and my form, this year he has been really honest not only with me but the whole team,” Westhoff said from the Power rooms.
“No one’s spot is guaranteed each week and obviously I was battling a little bit, not having the impact … when you’re not performing players know they’re at risk and I put myself in that position so it was up to me to go back and do what I needed to do.
“So I have to give credit to Kenny and the coaching staff for being as honest as they are with someone like me, and to have faith in me to bring me back and trust me to do the role they require.
“To be honest over the last few weeks he just wanted to get my confidence back in my game.
“Speaking pretty closely with him it was out of Kenny’s hands, it was up to me to perform the way I want to perform and I still want to be around and be among these guys and do what I can for the team.
“I’m proud of myself the way I could come back and play the way I did and get a good win.”
Westhoff had 37 disposals and kicked three goals on a wet and dirty day for forwards in his one and only SANFL game against North Adelaide last weekend, and his senior recall was a fait accompli.
“Go back, enjoy it, work with everyone else and you know it will turn at some stage,” he said.
“It’s as simple as that and that’s kind of been my motto my entire career.
“When you’re not playing well you’ve got to train hard and I pride myself on that and putting myself in the best position possible.”
If you needed any convincing of what it meant to Westhoff to be back in the team on Saturday night it came three minutes into the third quarter when Showdown 47 was still very much on the line.
Port was leading by two points when Taylor Walker kicked inside 50m and hung the ball high in the air between Alex Keath and Rory Sloane.
Westhoff tracked the flight of the footy and running into on-coming traffic, got crunched between the pair as all three went down like ten-pins and the Power won the footy.
“I think Keath was a little bit worse for wear, I didn’t really see him to be honest,” Westhoff said.
“It hurt a little bit but we have a lot of guys who do the same thing.”
Brad Ebert for one, whose courage to repeatedly put his head over the ball and fly for marks after missing over a month with concussion this season typified that.
“Absolutely,” Westhoff said.
“Especially after this year, for him to do that is pretty important and that always builds momentum in the team and it’s hard to stop when you get a roll on.”
Two minutes after Westhoff’s goal-saving effort down back he marked on the lead and kicked a goal to start the avalanche which buried the Crows at the other end.
And he celebrated with a fist pump and a ‘come on’ — which by Westhoff standards is pretty animated.
At his pre-game press conference on Friday Hinkley said he just couldn’t ignore a player of Westhoff’s record and experience at selection for such a big game.
Just over 24 hours later after Westhoff’s 23-disposal, 16-mark and one-goal performance, Hinkley couldn’t help but smile, having been completely vindicated.
“Robbie (Gray) goes OK at Showdowns but I thought Westy might have been close (to the medal),” Hinkley said.
“Good people … Justin is a great person at our footy club and been really highly held by the playing group as the type of bloke he is and the people they’d like to be.
“Westy is a great role model and I’m really pleased for him to respond like he did.
“I said it was the hardest week I had in football to drop Justin Westhoff and Paddy Ryder — two boys who have been around for a long part of it and Westy more than anyone so I’m just proud of him, good on him.”
Westhoff has played in 10 Showdown victories but none as big as Saturday night.
“It feels bloody good to be honest,” he said.
“After a pretty disappointing week, Showdowns are always a big build up and we’re pretty much starting from the bottom again.
“The coals have been on the midfield to perform well and we need to do that consistently if we’re going to do any good this year and I thought they played unbelievably.
“I think we stuck to what we know works and the guys just dug in, it’s as simple as that, where as probably in the past we haven’t done that for long enough.”
GAME NOTES
CROWS V POWER
IT’S a simple six-letter word but it goes a long way to explaining just how strong Ken Hinkley’s relationship is with his players — thanks.
That’s what he said to his ruckman Scott Lycett who battled on with knee soreness for three quarters to help win the game on Saturday night.
“I’ve said that to him just now in the rooms ‘I really appreciate mate that you were able to keep going through there’,” Hinkley said post-game.
“He copped knee on knee and they look like PCL’s when you see them and they’re going to rule you out possibly but he kept going.”
WAS Adelaide’s midfield outworked or were the reinforcements lazy or flat footed?
Like last week against Geelong, if Adelaide didn’t get its hands on the ball on the inside they were slayed on the outside.
When Tom Rockliff, Ollie Wines, Sam Powell-Pepper or Robbie Gray won one of the 28 clearances between them they had Ryan Burton, Karl Amon, Darcy Byrne-Jones or Hamish Hartlett screaming past at full pace for the handball and they were away.
“We’ll have a look at that in some detail in terms of our workrate, it’s not just all with the mids I think there’s a component of our off-ball movement we’ve got to be better than we were in the second half,” coach Don Pyke said.
EDDIE Betts’ season on paper hasn’t been that bad — 26.15 from 15 games — but his impact in the past fortnight hasn’t been what we’ve come to expect and he could be headed for a stint in the SANFL.
As reporter Liz Walsh pointed out on Saturday night, it is the first time Betts has had four goalless games in a season since joining the Crows in 2014 and two of them have been in the past two weeks.
Of course it hasn’t always been about goals for Betts. He has said he’s just as happy to set them up as kick them off his own boot and he has still had three goal assists and nine score involvements in the past two weeks.
But with Chayce Jones yet to find a way back into the senior side, Tyson Stengle yet to get a game this year and Riley Knight and Ben Davis in the wings, the Crows have options.
Ryan Burton got a full crack at Betts on Saturday night and snuck forward to kick a goal in the opening term.
BRAD Ebert, Charlie Dixon and Robbie Gray all missed the first Showdown of 2019 in May but returned on Saturday night — and what a difference they make.
Dixon straightens them up and Gray won his fifth Showdown Medal but don’t underestimate the impact of Ebert who kicked three goals and laid five tackles. His courage and attack on the ball is inspiring his teammates after his battle with concussion this season.
PORT Adelaide was already the outsider on Saturday night and when Travis Boak — who has been their best player by that far it’s not funny this season — pulled out in the warm-up supporters’ hearts would have sank.
“Goes out onto the ground to do a warm-up and not a thing wrong with him,” Hinkley said.
“Bends over to pick up a groundball, back spasm, tried everything and I saw him three minutes before the game trying everything hitting and tackling people and I thought he was going to be OK, but he went out on the ground and couldn’t go.”
He was, however, replaced by his housemate Sam Powell-Pepper who was huge. He had seven touches in the first quarter and finished with 24 and five clearances. Will likely have to make way for Boak next week but got the response Ken Hinkley would have been after.
“Probably more important how good Powell-Pepper was to be sitting around doing not much and then all of a sudden he’s out there playing, he had a really strong start and we put him in the middle, good result for Pepp.”
THE 57-point win saw Port leapfrog Adelaide on the ladder with both sides 8-7 after Round 16. But the Power’s next month looks considerably harder. They have Brisbane, Richmond, GWS and Essendon. Adelaide has Gold Coast, Essendon, Carlton and St Kilda.
MR ONE PER CENTER
WHO are the unsung heroes of SA footy? The players who have an impact on their team without hitting the stats sheet. Champion Data records one per centers by tallying spoils, knock-ons, shepherds and smothers every game. Here’s the leaderboard from Port Adelaide and Adelaide after Round 16:
115: Daniel Talia (Crows)
114: Tom Clurey (Power)
96: Dougal Howard (Power)
82: Tom Jonas (Power)
80: Alex Keath (Crows)
79: Jake Kelly (Crows)
65: Scott Lycett (Power)
55: Kyle Hartigan (Crows)
55: Dan Houston (Power)
42: Justin Westhoff (Power)
SUPERCOACH TOP 10
We’ve sung his praises above but Justin Westhoff put an exclamation mark on his return to the AFL side by top scoring with 125 SuperCoach points in the Showdown. His 23 disposals was backed by a game-high 16 marks and a goal to see him edge teammate Darcy Byrne-Jones with 121 and Adelaide defender Daniel Talia who cashed in with 114 points from his 14 disposals.
1. Justin Westhoff (Port) 125
2. Darcy Byrne-Jones (Port) 121
3. Daniel Talia (Adel) 114
4. Robbie Gray (Port) 110
5. Ollie Wines (Port) 109
6. Scott Lycett (Port) 109
7. Ryan Burton (Port) 108
8. Matt Crouch (Adel) 107
9. Hugh Greenwood (Adel) 103
10. Riley Bonner (Port) 99
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Tonight is just not going to get it done at any level at any time in this competition.
— Don Pyke.
TIPS
An early look at Round 17 tips:
WEST COAST over Collingwood in Perth, SYDNEY over the Blues, HAWKS to beat Fremantle in Tassie, ESSENDON to continue their charge against North Melbourne, ADELAIDE to take their Showdown anger out on Gold Coast, GEELONG over St Kilda, RICHMOND over the Giants, WESTERN BULLDOGS on a roll and will beat Melbourne and PORT ADELAIDE to upset Brisbane at home.
Last week: 6 Running total: 84.
POWER RANKINGS
1. WEST COAST (11-4)
Total domination of Fremantle in the Derby and how good to see Brad Sheppard win the medal for BOG after missing last year’s flag. Not comparative of course but he will get his chance this season. Three wins in a row puts them on top of the rankings.
2. GEELONG (12-3)
W, L, W, L mid-season stumble for the Cats but better to get that out of the way now rather than heading into September. Nothing to panic about and can get right back on track against St Kilda this weekend.
3. BRISBANE (10-5)
This was a coming of age performance from the Lions. What a mature win. To go to Giant Stadium and lead from start to finish they showed why they are a genuine top-four contender.
4. RICHMOND (9-6)
Have now won their past two and by a combined 125 points so are they back? Massive test against GWS at the MCG this weekend so we’re about to find out.
5. COLLINGWOOD (10-5)
Last week I said their form was nothing to be worried about but dropping another game to the Hawks now makes their top-four hopes vulnerable at least.
6. GWS (9-6)
The Giants have now lost three of their past four — to Adelaide, Essendon and now the Lions. The big slider this week.
7. ESSENDON (8-7)
Very much alive and kicking in the race for September with an impressive win over Sydney.
8. PORT ADELAIDE (8-7)
Wins the Showdown by 57 points and jumps over Adelaide on the ladder, they’ll be happy at Alberton this week. My Showdown Medal votes went to Robbie Gray for his influence around the ball particularly in the second quarter, Justin Westhoff who shone at both ends of the ground and Brad Ebert for his 3.0 and a heap of courage.
9. WESTERN BULLDOGS (7-8)
Port Adelaide and Geelong in successive weeks is a massive tick for their finals credentials but will they get there?
10. ADELAIDE (8-7)
Didn’t see that coming, particularly after Walker’s goal to start the third term. Not very often Adelaide’s midfielders are all down on the one night but none of them had a four-quarter impact in the Showdown — slight apology to Matt Crouch who was the pick of them. Betts, Douglas, Mackay could face a nervous week at selection. Drop out of the eight after back to back losses.
11. NORTH MELBOURNE (7-8)
Were 0-2 at Blundstone Arena this season so got back to their winning ways against St Kilda. Another tick for Rhyce Shaw.
12. FREMANTLE (7-8)
Horror show in the Derby. How can you kick 2.19? That win over Collingwood a month ago seems like an eternity now.
13. HAWTHORN (6-9)
Great win over Collingwood and I like the look of Conor Glass.
SYDNEY (6-9)
14. Needed to win to keep their finals hopes alive and even with Carlton and Fremantle in the next two weeks it now looks a bridge too far.
15. ST KILDA (6-9)
Damage done early by North Melbourne and now they go to Geelong to face the Cats on the rebound.
16. MELBOURNE (3-12)
If there’s one person at Melbourne you want with a set shot from 45m to win the game at the MCG it’s Jayden Hunt. Gun.
17. CARLTON (3-12)
Brave effort to come from 30 points down at three-quarter-time and hit the lead against Melbourne but couldn’t finish it off.
18. GOLD COAST (3-12)
The wheels are falling off now unfortunately.