22 possession is good enough considering he isn’t playing as a full time midfielder, it’s the 2 goals a game he needs to maintain. 22d and 2g is the ideal contribution for a mid/for
I was simply saying what his next goal needs to be that he should work towards, which is increasing the number of times he gets it a game. And I pointed out how other teams will react to him if he gets to that target. I wasn’t criticising the game at all.
At the moment since he’s got back into the side, ignoring the game after he was concussed, he’s got over 20 possessions 5 times in 12 games. Which is fine for a player with less than 50 games. Especially given he’s been pushed forward a few times. But if he wants to be everything I think he can be, he needs to aim to get his average disposals into the twenties. Then he’ll be a real weapon.
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Dexter Morgan
Early in the game against saints we were having a few Essington moments, but when Langford got the ball I just knew he’d do something sensible.
it’s the haircut.
James hird had 1 season where he bettered 22 touches per game.
And you reckon that should be par for a 3rd year in his first year of midfield?
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Um, where did I say he should aim for that this year? I said it’s what he should target, with I would have thought the clear implication that “target” implies in the future.
If we plan to always play Langford forward as well, then lower averages is fine. I think the plan is to be more midfield. And my understanding was that midfield average possessions are all much higher across the league than in the 90’s/early 00’s, which would make the Hird comparison less apt.
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You’re giving him a few years to match J Hird-Brownlow year levels. Very generous.
He did spend a bit off the field with the shoulder stinger, what was his TOG, 22 and 2G seems allot for 65-70% game time.
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What is really fantastic about The, Redman, Francis, Tippa, Conor, Stringer and McNeice is their low penetrating passing. It’s so important in the modern game to be able to break the lines and spot up team mates in attacking positions. Barring injury we should be well served next year and beyond.
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I’m not “giving him” anything. As I said before, but you seem to be unable to comprehend, I said it should be his target. Or what do you think his target should be? Something reach like I’ve proposed? Or something soft and comfortable like 15 disposals a week and 0 goals? But then, since you somehow interpreted as the “target” as being what he should achieve for 2018, maybe you just have reading misapprehension.
Also nice how you totally disregard my comment why Hird is not a good comparison anymore, because its been over two decades. But you also then doubled in on the stupid, and changed it from Hird’s career average (22 disposals) to his Brownlow year (23.6 disposals). Did you know that those 23.6 disposals in 1996 meant Hird had the 12th highest average disposals for the year? Do you know what is the equivalent to the 12th highest average in 2018? 29.30 disposals a game, way more than my suggestion of targeting an average of 22. So do you realise how stupid a comparison you’re using, 1996 and Hird vs. 2018???
An average of 22 disposals a game would put Langford around the 70th - 80th highest averages in the league this year. And yes, I think as a target over 2019/2020, that Langford should try and achieve (and exceed) that, and get into that kind of range. I think he has the talent, and should shoot for the stars.
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Langford turns to Hird to become the next ‘big’ thing
15 August 2018 — 9:03pm
Since early last season Kyle Langford has taken a series of steps to meet a request from his coach John Worsfold to fill a vacancy and become the bigger bodied midfielder that the Dons needed as Jobe Watson finished up.
Langford, a key position player who had barely played in the middle at his junior club Macleod and the under-18s, went back to the VFL to learn midfield craft. He took up daily mindfulness – ‘‘five to 10 minutes’’ before bed. Aerobically fit, he worked on his speed and power.
Quietly, he also called his former coach, James Hird, this year and asked for some guidance. Hird, who had coached Langford in the then half-forward’s first season (2015), happily took on a role as a mentor for Langford.
Langford couldn’t be Watson. ‘‘They didn’t want me to be a Jobe because Jobe’s Jobe. I want to be a Kyle kind of thing. But they knew there was going to a void once Jobe left and they saw me as that player.’’
Langford said Worsfold approached him after Essendon’s round four defeat by Adelaide last year, telling him: ‘‘I want you to be a midfielder, so I’d rather you go back to the VFL and work on that.’’
Consequently, he played only six senior games in 2017. ‘‘I was learning my craft.’’
Hird communicates with Langford every week, either on the phone or by text, in a relationship that was suggested by Essendon’s recruiting boss, Adrian Dodoro. Hird watches Langford and provides subsequent feedback and advice, in an arrangement that has been approved by the ex-coach’s successor.
‘‘I reached out to him probably around round four, round five this year, and just asked to catch up for a coffee,’’ Langford said of his relationship with Essendon’s former champion and coach, who remains in contact with others at Essendon but has had no formal role at the club since his contentious exit in 2015.
‘‘We sat down, we spoke about my football, past couple of years and what I wanted to achieve this year and the years going forward. Kind of how he viewed me as a footballer and you know he pretty much welcomed me with open arms. He said ‘I want to help you’.
‘‘He’s a hard man to get hold of, he’s so busy and travelling and the rest of it. But, you know, I talk to him every week, have a text or phone whenever it is and it’s just been a real help — just on the outside to … just communicate to.’’ Langford said he and Hird largely talk over the phone with occasional meetings. ‘‘Catch-up whenever I can, whenever he’s in town.
‘‘Woosha knows, all the coaches know. Got that all ticked off.’’
Essendon seems open to mentoring, Zach Merrett having sought out the help of Chris Judd.
‘‘He [Hird] watches my games and … he’ll send me a message kind of what he sees from the game, which might be something different from the coaches, it might be the same. It’s just another opinion. He also just helps me just mentally work things out before, how to focus on a game.’’
Langford, who works under joint midfield coaches James Kelly (midfield transition) and Hayden Skipworth (contest), noted that the coaches had commitments to many players, and that the Hird tuition was personal.
‘‘Again, these coaches have 48 players. This is Hirdy taking an interest in me, so it’s pretty individual. Yeah, it’s just something different … He’s got such a smart footy brain. I almost see it as a waste if you can’t help someone else and he’s real happy to help me.’’
Langford reckoned the advice from the former champion and coach – himself a marking forward who morphed into a midfielder/forward – had helped. He’s steadily increased his production in a joint midfield/high half-forward role. ‘‘Yeah, I found it has. It’s really helped me.’’
In his fourth season, Langford’s averaging 18.4 disposals per game, 7.5 of them contested, and he’s equal fourth in score assists at the club. Only four players have been in more centre bounces. He is ‘‘stoked’’ to have signed a new two-year contract. ‘‘I’ve put a lot of things in place, and it’s been probably 18 months of hard work. But yeah, I’ve felt that I’ve taken my game to another level where I can come into the team, play my role and have a bit of an impact.’’
Langford called his journey ‘‘a massive learning curve’’.
At 191 centimetres, Langford’s size stands out in a smallish midfield that features Merrett, Devon Smith and David Zaharakis (Dyson Heppell is 188 centimetres) and which has been much improved for the recent return of oft-injured, powerful David Myers.
Langford said ‘‘reading cues’’ and early-decision making – matters he discussed with Hird – were traits of the elite midfielders. ‘‘For me it’s my aggression around the ball, using my body and cracking in.’’
Worsfold impressed upon him, too, that he could impact upon the game without winning the ball, by ‘‘taking their best opponent, try to just make him really earn the football, be hard to play against’’. This week, that best opponent might be Dustin Martin or Trent Cotchin.
Amid the progress of 2018, there was an unpleasant moment in round 19 when Langford suffered whiplash in the last quarter of the Bombers’ victory over Sydney, as Zak Jones blindsided him with a fearsome bump, earning the Swan a two-week ban and Langford a trip to hospital, where he was cleared of (the ubiquitious) ‘‘structural damage’’.
‘‘When he hit me, my neck went so violently to the left, all the tendons and ligaments in my shoulder, just of kind of I guess, squashed and yeah I’m still feeling it a little bit. Pretty tired and sore.
‘‘When I saw the replay, I was a little bit shocked. But, you know, here I am, I’m fine.’’
He played a fortnight later he was also taken from the field against St Kilda with a ‘‘stinger’’ — copping a knock in the same place.
As he recovered on the bench last Friday, he saw another whiplash collision — this time teammate Adam Saad was collected by Saint Nathan Brown (and stretchered off), an off-ball incident that sickened Langford.
‘‘It just made me real sick — Saady didn’t brace, he was unaware of everything, kind of got hit like that. I mean, it’s pretty bad.
‘‘It’s not something that anyone wants to see in the game.’’
Langford is one of the many factors in Essendon’s own transformation from 2-6 to a team that has been finals-calibre since. If beating the Tigers and Port won’t necessarily deliver a finals berth, he doesn’t believe the Bombers have blown it.
‘‘Not blown it, because we’ve found something that we really value. So we’ve found this pressure, this brand of football that we want to – it might not be this year, but it’s going to be the next three, four, five years … it’s been a learning curve kind of year.’’
For Langford, as much as Essendon.
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“I want to be a Kyle kind of thing”
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EFA
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Caros mellowed
THE
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‘‘I just want to be what I’m destined to be, I just want to be…THE LANGFORD’’
Doubt it, she would be spitting chips at Niall’s article. Niall is off the leash from his former chief footy editor.
Top article, awesome that Hird is mentoring him as well
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What to text James…
Hi James, I have to pick a song for the DJ thread, what do you recommend?