I never thought he would become such a contested clunking beast. Thought he would be more of a clever Gunston type.
He’s become a fabulous player.
I don’t think he had kicked 50 in a year at that point
He’s a mix of strong for his size, good hands, and plenty of football smarts.
He just finds ways of impacting games even if his opponent is beating him.
I do wonder how he would be doing now in absence of injuries during 2021/2022, though. Missed a non-insignificant amount of football.
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Certainly by the time you get to round 20 or whatever he was asked about Langford’s AA chances and said “and to think, in round 1 he played defense, we probably cost him. I still think even into the future, he’s capable of playing every position on the ground.”
Round 2 he said moving Langford forward was Dale Tapping’s idea and on whether it was permanent “we’re really keen to settle him down, he played a really important role for us last week”
Round 4 was still the “we throw Langford around, here, there and everywhere” stage, having played defense again in round 3.
Round 7 (in which Langford got 70% of his possession in the defensive 50) was “While the preference is to settle most of our players down in a postition so they can grow and develop in that role, he’s equally capable of playing in all three parts of the ground.”
I don’t think Brad’s been particularly stubborn about Langford, he didn’t play him down back for months on end or anything. But the transition from wanting to settle him into a role down back to he’ll be moved as necessary, to he can play anywhere equally well, to he’s a forward who’s capable of being played elsewhere, was a process that took most of the season. Which is fine, change your mind based on evidence, good coaching, but it took quite a while to just say he’s a forward.
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Peter Wright was just mean to be a Forward/Ruck until he kicked 50 goals too.
Nah, it was Knights forcing Lloyd in to retirement early, that forced Langford forward in round 2.
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Langford has had a lot of coaches and none of them worked it out. Anyway, the point is moot, he is knocking on the door of elite forward territory. Which is pretty incredible and I really trust him as a footballer and see him really cashing in over this part of his career.
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I think if Barnz’s point is that Langford made it as an elite forward in spite of Essendons revolving coaching staff he would be correct.
yeah pretty much, just didn’t like the insinuation that kyle was gifted this opportunity because brad the saviour gave it, when it wasn’t his plan, and the peter wright surgery forced it. splitround really chronicled the sentiment much better.
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He’s good at forwarding.
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I think on a side note, we obviously would love to have 2 Nick Martins but truth is Kyle brings a lot of that to the team fwd of centre but has been playing deeper and deeper this year. His pass to Stringer on the weekend was next level.
He gets the ball from A to B real quick with some of his field kicking, something Martin hasn’t quite mastered.
I think one of strength of Martins field kicking is that he has good touch and finesse in his kicking and can change the angles on both left and right side of body.
His decision making and field kicking from stationary position after taking a mark is the area he is working on.
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It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that Curnow and McKay could finish 1, 2. Wouldn’t have thought that teammates would have finished top 2 very often, if ever.
3 if you count Stengle…
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Langford and Fritsch are very similar, neither dominate, but neither can be contained. The gunstan role
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Longmire/Carey?
Probably not…
sigh Off to google I go…
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Hawkins/Cameron kicked the most goals in 2022, but Curnow won the Coleman, which I will happily now call illegitimate.
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Okay…Hudson/Matthews - 1977.
I can rest now.
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Nah, absolutely not.
There are people who saw him as a forward years ago. Good mark, straight kick.
We wasted him for years.
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