I feel like he’s joining the club of players who play midfield in the VFL then get sent to die on the forward flank in the AFL. I’m not exactly bullish on him, but playing him in the midfield seems like the most straightforward way of finding out if he can play in the midfield.
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Think some of the comments on here are very harsh regarding kyle yesterday.
He played very limited minutes yesterday and I actually don’t explicitly don’t recall him being in too many centre bounces.
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He had an opportunity. As a fringe player he needs to take every opportunity given to him instead of looking at reasons why he couldn’t. Heppell, Sam Draper, Joe Daniher, Josh Green and Jake Stringer all had similar minutes. Draper took the opportunity and found himself capable of 3 tackles and some nice hitouts. Langford barely touched the footy and didn’t even lay a tackle. Green was poor too and he must do better than yesterday’s performance. Heppell was fine. Joe Dan and Stringer have enough credits in the bank to warrant some leeway.
Langford will have another opportunity against the Cats. No excuses that he didn’t have the right matchup, didn’t play enough time, etc. He has to take the opportunity handed to him and force his way to make some impact on the game.
Before yesterday’s game, he was taking up a bench spot in our best 22 (some would have him in our best 18). After yesterday’s game, he hasn’t shown enough to push into the best 18 and he’s as much chance of playing VFL by the beginning of the season as he is of playing AFL.
It’s up to him to take the opportunity. However small it is. It won’t be handed to him on a platter.
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The frustrating thing about your sentiment is that there’s so much deadweight on match day that just gets a free ride in previous years of Essendon team selection.
He played 60 odd minutes and touched it what, 5 times? That’s a very poor return
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I can’t see who’s spot in the midfield Langford would take during the season last year. Jobe had a poor season, but still performed better than Langford. As poor as Myers was, he was performing better than Langford. Parish was performing better than Langford. He’s definitely nowhere near Heppell and Zerrett’s play level.
Yes, Langford smashed the VFL and got some gametime when the above weren’t available through injury, but he didn’t take that opportunity and show that he’s improved at AFL level enough to push those guys out of a spot in our midfield.
Turn to this season and the guy standing in his way for a full time midfield spot is David Myers. He won’t be getting games ahead of Heppel, Zaharakis, Dev Smith, Parish or Zerrett. McGrath will be trying to earn some time in the midfield mix too.
After yesterday’s game, in the limited time he had, Langford hasn’t earned a spot in our midfield ahead of Myers.
My biggest problem with Langford has been his intensity and want for the contest. Laverde has it, but he can’t get on the park. Langford apparently has it at VFL level but at AFL level he hasn’t shown enough on a consistent basis. He’s now had two good midfield pre-seasons. He will have the opportunity all season to show he has improved and to earn more time in this midfield mix.
If he isn’t good enough to pass Myers this season, then he won’t be the midfielder we are hoping he’d be. I hope he comes good, but I’m not holding my breath waiting for it. If Langford doesn’t take his opportunity this season, then we’ll likely go hard at a midfielder through free agency (Wines) and he’d have even less of a chance of getting into our midfield.
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He had 42% game time - I’m not even convinced he was playing midfield and I’d love to know how many centre bounces he started.
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whats the point of even playing him if hes only going to play 40%, and not even in the position he has trained the whole preseason in?
defies logic
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He may have been a gastro victim? Hopefully he’ll have a better crack in 2 weeks.
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Eww.
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A case of laconic diarrhoea?
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Which one of you is making up stats and passing them off as fact?
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Just sped through the replay to see how many centre bounces he was at. I didn’t think it was many, hence my earlier comment about him not playing mid. He was at 7/28. For comparison Heppell was at 11.
While doing that I noticed that he doesn’t go at the ball at centre bounces. I’m not talking about intensity/aggression, he quite deliberately didn’t move towards the fall of the ball at all, like he was waiting to receive the handball out once somebody else won the clearance. That’s a perfectly legitimate way to play midfield, but I would have thought his role would be to hit bodies at the fall of the ball, letting one of our myriad smaller/faster do the receiving work.
Weird role assignment if that’s what he’s supposed to be doing, bad discipline if it’s not.
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It’s actully a thing that they don’t want everyone going at the ball. Otherwise you can have 3-4 guys down and no one still on their feet if the ball spills. Is that the role asked of him all the time, we don’t know - possibly that’s where they ideally want him, but also should’ve gone in a few times and didn’t?
Perhaps one of the gameplan adjustments Woosha referred to.
He should’ve played in front of Myers and Howlett and Bird last year; they were all very very obviously on their way out and absolutely useless when it came down to it.
We should go hard after Wines regardless. Between you and me, I think we might just be able to find him a spot, even if Langford goes berserk.
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There is no “don’t go at the ball” role. If you are inside or outside the contest depends on when you get to the contest.
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100%. As I said, I think it’s a perfectly valid role but I also think it’s a weird role to give to the 6’3" guy while the two 5’11" guys slam into the contest. Regardless, for that game it at least partially answers the question why he didn’t win any centre clearances: he wasn’t trying to.
if langford isnt going to be a crash and bash midfielder then i fail to see what sort of midfielder he will become apart from a slow and useless one.
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At what point has he ever looked crash and bash? He’s got very good vision and good disposal and hr moves pretty well. He should end up pretty good at finding targets out of congestion.
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On one hand people can’t deal with him playing midfield because he has the build of a flanker; on the other hand they can’t deal with him because he plays midfield a bit like a flanker.
He’s not an obvious, straightforward nugget mid but I think he will end up being very effective in there.