I expect Lang to become established in best 22 very quickly now. There was a strength and confidence in his last match which has been missing previously, and he looked like he belonged. Laverde still needs a breakout game where he kicks 4, maintains pressure and gets a clearance or 2. If he stays fit that won’t be far away.
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In our midfield right now he is understandably behind the following who haven’t been passengers:
Hep. Zerrett. Zaka. Smith. BJ.
And Stringer is getting more and more midfield time.
The only player if we are to start building for future who would miss would be Goddard but he’s still in our best players weekly so ain’t going to be stepping aside.
As such it’s now Lang holding a spot that Parish, Mutch, Clarke & Myers gunning for IMO
And Guelfi holding one that Mutch, Colyer soon and to a lesser extent Parish after also.
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BJ gone at year’s end… you need 6 or 7 going through midfield, and a couple of dedicated inside extractors at least. Plenty of room for Lang at his best - up to him now.
I’m not so sure about that. But even if so he’s not being shifted out for development path unless we out of finals contention which we aren’t given only 3 games out of top 4.
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Fair nuff - reckon time’s catching up with BJ - should leave on a high
in contrast to Jake Carlisle who joined St Kilda on a high…
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This is the part that doesn’t make sense.
Langford is not “holding” anything.
He has been in this place before where he gets a week or two and then he’s out. Until that changes I would rather not assume he’s holding anything.
Parish and Myers are the obvious two players that Langford should be getting games in front of.
If he’s not holding down that spot which other players are gunning for, then what would you call it? I know he’s been dropped in the past based on a decent game but If he plays a very good game, he stays in. Simples.
You must have missed my point that we retain players in our side even if they aren’t performing well yet Langers gets dropped at the sniff of a bad game.
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I think the feeling is that now he needs to work to hold his spot.
Though, I also think its time for the club to give him some leeway if he has the odd sub par performance. Just put him for six weeks and see what he does.
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I personally think he has earned the right to play.
He cant do any more at VFL level.
He was excellent last year as well as this year.
I agree. Play him for a large block of games. If he’s stinking it up then he’s pretty well done anyway. If he’s going ok to great, then stick with him.
He has earned right to play as in side at present and he has effectively ejected Parish out
He now has to play well enough to hold his spot from the chasing pack or play better than some of his more established counterparts so it’s them that get dropped not him if changes are made.
Can’t be deserving of a spot just because. It’s about performance. Well at least it should be!
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As far as I can see, he’s not competing with Parish for game, but rather Myers (or Goddard).
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Why not though?
Not 10 goals but 2
I mean Jerret has a 30 possession 3 goal game to his name.
If Langford continues to have mid teen possession games his spot will allways be at risk.
He deserves a shot, he’s got it. But he needs to take it. Take the decision out of the selectors hands. It’s his 4 th year on the list. Have the break out game everyone has been looking for.
Personally I’m not that interested in 20 possession games with a few tackles and clearances. That means his ceiling is David Myers. We need better, he’s capable but he needs to deliver.
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But even with 16 possessions like last week he was far more effective than most of Myers games and i’d say a large portion of Parish’s. Many of his possessions are very damaging.
But I agree, I want to see a few big games so he takes it out of the selectors hands.
Just on Jerrett, when did he have a 30 tackle, 3 goal game? The only 30 possessions game I remember him having was 2014 v Carlton. He didn’t kick a goal in that game.
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You repeated yourself.
I will as well.
Essendon has a history of playing players when out of form for seasons on end without giving youngsters a go.
Myers is just one example of it and there are many more.
We have always had coaches favourites rather than play the kids.
I could have swore he did, but on second thoughts probably not.
The problem is he is judged a lot more harshly than his team mates, he had a good round one game and poor round 2 game as did the majority of our team but he was first on the chopping block. It’s a similar situation to last years game against Brisbane where he was far from our worst but also dropped. He then doesn’t get dropped for a game or 2 or even 3, he gets sent back to the seconds for big chunks. He’s VFL form over the last 2 years suggests that he has earned the right to get a good run at it. I hope if he does have a quieter game on Saturday that he doesn’t get dropped. He deserves block of 5 plus games to see what he can do
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When they have credits in the bank to be expected.
Early season he would not have even been in team if not for Myers injury on eve of season. This the selection committee and coaches had decided based on the whole preseason output.
Played ok game rd1 but had about 80% uncontested footy. When the heat was on vs Freo didn’t get near it much and disposal was very poor. He’d have been the worst of our midfield group IIRC. Myers fit again, in he comes.
It’s just the way it is.
Same goes for previous year, was given first opportunity as 3rd tall. When wasn’t working as we liked, Stewart came in and hasn’t looked back. And then Langford given the year developing his mid craft in the 2’s (which worked)
Need to take opportunity when it’s presented.
I think he did last week. Hope it continues. His contest work, pressure and skills were great.
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