TO THE untrained eye, it’s hard to tell the tall, lanky, floppy-haired Westhoff brothers apart, but on Friday night one thing became blatantly obvious and that was their tendency to look for one another.

On a handful of occasions second-year forward Justin tried to spot up the younger Matthew on the lead and both agreed they had got carried away with brotherly love.

“I tried to get Matt in the game early, but after spending so much time kicking the footy around together in the backyard, you tend to pick him out more than anyone else,” Justin said with a laugh.

The duo played underage footy together, alongside eldest brother Leigh, for Central Districts, but Friday night’s family affair was the first time in a long time, the Westhoff’s have been able to see two of their offspring play in the same forward line.

“It was great. Running out with a brother is always good and we haven’t had too many opportunities to do that lately,” Justin said.

“All the family were there and they were pretty rapt with us playing together, so hopefully it’s one of many.”

Matthew had the chance to join the elite group of players to score a goal with their first kick in AFL, but his set shot faded away to the left, despite some timely advice from Justin.

The 20-year-old debutant made amends late in the second quarter when he got on the receiving end of a precise Robbie Gray pass and found himself running into an open goal.

“I didn’t really know what to do,” Matthew said of his shot 15m out.

“I hesitated a bit, but the boys got around me afterwards, so it was good.”

Friday night’s 31-point loss to Collingwood saw Port Adelaide slip to its worst-ever season in the AFL and Justin, who had a dream start to his career in 2007, said it had been tough going for the players this year.

“It [the worst season record] is probably more of a disappointment than an embarrassment. Last year we really stood up and were one of the benchmark teams of the competition, so to dish up what we have done this year is disappointing,” he said.

“We don’t really want to call it a development year, but to have all the young guys come in and play roles, hopefully it’s keeping the supporters interested in what we can do in the future.

“Coming from last year to this year, there’s a little bit of frustration within the team. Things aren’t flowing on to the level they were last year.

“Our confidence is pretty low, whereas last year, we were flying and everything seemed to be working. This year we’ve had to work a lot harder for goals and our kicking obviously isn’t as good.

“But hopefully, we can finish off the last two games with a couple of wins. I know the boys are really looking forward to that and, hopefully, taking some momentum into next year.”