Toast Hoff

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raman said:
For best results cellar for 30+ years.
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I played against his old man when he would have probably been in his 40s so you could be onto something.
 

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rogerjames said:
Sums up my attitude. Hoff has always had tonnes of talent, in fact he's a freak skill wise for his height but I often felt his application was not there. He'd play a great game every few games but not much in between. Last year he was consistently good, often brilliant. So far this year looks the same. Hes become one of my favourites because hes so reliable now.
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Nah, he's always been this good, always been one of the hardest runners on the team, it's just become cool to notice it after all these years.
 
In today's game a utility player is often labelled such because they don't really fit in anywhere and are unable to lock down any position but the coaches want to give the player a game. In Westhoff's case, such a notion would be a complete falsehood on his ability. I'm not sure there is another player in the league who can play as many positions at the level of the Hoff. Wing, on-ball, KPF, loose man in defence, high half forward, and ruck in a pinch. Such a luxury to have. If he played for a Victorian club my goodness he would be talked about on the same level as precious Trent Cotchin and co.
 

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For all his 250 games and onto 250 games more!
 
The Hoff is always the sneaky beneficiary of a forward set up with two other competent talls. While he can be gloved when he is the go to forward, no one can handle a rogue third element with his athleticism and height. It's one of the reasons we should always play a couple of other forwards, even if one of them isn't that great. They allow westy to do his ghosting around/into the 50 thing.
 
TeeKray said:
Nah, he's always been this good, always been one of the hardest runners on the team, it's just become cool to notice it after all these years.
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No he hasn’t, it’s taken him 10 years who to work out how to play. I remember seasons where he had the half hearted tackle Eg throwing the one arm out or minimal game impact.

Justin now has brought his work rate up to influence a game for larger periods of time.
 
FishingRick04 said:
No he hasn’t, it’s taken him 10 years who to work out how to play. I remember seasons where he had the half hearted tackle Eg throwing the one arm out or minimal game impact.

Justin now has brought his work rate up to influence a game for larger periods of time.
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Nah. Westhoff has consistently been one of the hardest workers and runners for years now. Most of that just went unrecognised or was unrewarded when we were terrible. Many of his so called poor efforts came after being gassed from being one of the only ones who was repeatedly sprinting, or actually just because he looks laconic and appears to move easily, rather than his actual effort. He has routinely sacrificed his personal game to fill gaps and play a roll in the team, but now we get the benefit of playing him to his strengths. Because of all his varied roles, he has become a near impossible match up for oppositions now.
 
Moo87 said:
Nah. Westhoff has consistently been one of the hardest workers and runners for years now. Most of that just went unrecognised or was unrewarded when we were terrible. Many of his so called poor efforts came after being gassed from being one of the only ones who was repeatedly sprinting, or actually just because he looks laconic and appears to move easily, rather than his actual effort. He has routinely sacrificed his personal game to fill gaps and play a roll in the team, but now we get the benefit of playing him to his strengths. Because of all his varied roles, he has become a near impossible match up for oppositions now.
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I disagree. There were seasons we he hardly influenced the game. However yes the 10 years of development the club and Justin are now reaping the rewards.
 
FishingRick04 said:
I disagree. There were seasons we he hardly influenced the game. However yes the 10 years of development the club and Justin are now reaping the rewards.
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Which seasons?
 
Westhoff has been elite since Ken came to the club and recognised that his greatest strength is his ability to get up and down the ground.

We drafted entire plays around that ability - who could forget the “W” sign players would make which meant “Westhoff back”?

The only thing stopping him from reaching 300+ games is his desire to play. He could play 400 if he wanted to.
 
IMO Hoff got a bad wrap from supporters early in his career for 3 reasons:

1 - People expected him to be a Tredrea replacement after kicking so many goals in his first year as second banana in a high functioning team in '07. But he was never going to be that player.

2 - His laconic nature made him a target for ridicule in a poorly performing team, even though his GPS numbers would've shown he was always one of the hardest workers in the team.

3 - The after the siren miss against Gold Coast made him some sort of poster boy for the shambolic Primus era, even though he was one of our best players during that time.

I'm glad he's finally being recognised. No doubt Ken has gotten the very best out of him but he's always been a highly effective player for us literally from game 1.
 
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