Matt, 20, was hampered by a foot injury earlier in the year, but has recovered to show promising signs in his three league games for Central District this year, booting 8 goals, including 5 just two weeks ago against Glenelg. He joined his brother at the Power last year when he was selected with pick 33 in the 2007 National Draft.
Westhoff will be joined in the side by Travis Boak, who has recovered from a hip injury, and Brendon Lade, who won this week’s SANFL Player of the Week Award. Lade’s selection means the past three SANFL Player of the Week Award winners, as selected by the Power development coaches, have earned selection in the Power team the following week.
Here’s Port Adelaide’s General Manager – Football Operations Peter Rohde’s inside word on this week’s selection.
Three changes this week. Obviously we’re keen to have a look at as many new players as possible, so Matt Westhoff gets his first game. Matt’s kicked goals when he’s been given his chance in Central’s league team, so we wanted to give him his shot. It’s exciting for us to have another debutant, especially on the big stage of a Friday night game.
Ladey has forced his way back into the team with a good showing for South last weekend. He’ll add some much needed experience to the side. Boak was a late withdrawal last week, but he’ll be fine to play this week. Obviously he was close to best on ground with his centre square work against St. Kilda, so we wanted him back in the team to play a bit more on the ball.
We’ve had a good look at Fabian over the past few weeks and we wanted to get Ladey back into the side. Stewie is a bit stiff, but with Mitch Farmer coming into the team two weeks ago, we want to give him some more games. Nick Salter has pulled up with some back soreness, but we were happy with what he showed in his first two games.
Finally, we’d really like supporters to get to the game early on Friday night to show their appreciation for a club legend in Michael Wilson. He’s given a lot to this club and it would be great if our supporters could give him a great send-off.
Speak to you all again next week.
The Power’s final team to face the Magpies, as named at 4.30pm on Thursday, is as follows…
B: Michael Pettigrew, Alipate Carlile, Nick Lower
HB: Jacob Surjan, Troy Chaplin, Peter Burgoyne
C: Domenic Cassisi, Kane Cornes, Travis Boak
HF: Tom Logan, Damon White, Danyle Pearce
F: Justin Westhoff, Daniel Motlop, Brett Ebert
Foll: Dean Brogan, Shaun Burgoyne, David Rodan
Interchange: Matthew Westhoff, Mitch Farmer, Brendon Lade, Ryan Wiliams
Emergencies: Robbie Gray, Paul Stewart, Toby Thurstans
IN: Travis Boak, Brendon Lade, Matthew Westhoff
OUT: Nick Salter (lower back), Fabian Deluca, Paul Stewart(omitted)
