A poll, Blatantly ripped off idea from Rooboy. Hawks best ever Full Back

[Grendel]

Should we do a North board and have a run through on our best ever players, posistion by posistion?

If its going to be done, then in the time honoured tradition lets do it,

'FROM THE BACKLINE'.

Hawthorns best ever Full Back, really i guess its a choice of two, Langers or Moore.

For me its Langers. Could do all that Kel could (maybe not quite as good a judgement of the ball as Kel) and slightly taller, slightly quicker and a little bit more adaptable. Kel while always in the shadow of Dench (to me the best Full back ive seen) and Southby, played more games than either. Langers was the consumate Hawthorn Captain, and lead by example. His showing of the jumper at the end of THAT game, and his overall acheivments after what was (sometimes forgotten now) a shaky start to his career, means he gets my vote.

Please submit your choices if you feel its worth doing.

Cheers.

[BUBBALOUIS]

Grendel i was lucky, as you, to see both Langers and Moore, and i just cant split them, Kel was shadowed by Southby, but then thats no disgrace, it was always reassuring to see Kel fly for a mark or an astute punch when required. I'll go with Langers though because during his era, the lot of the forward was made easier with the quicker movement of the ball, both had great forwards to mind, Templeton,Mckenna etc for Moore and who would forget the great Kernahan vs Langford duals, not to mention Plugger. So for me its Langers by a whisker. Cheers

[Hawkforce]

Langford. While Moore was great defensively, Langford's ability to run up the ground and hit Dunstall on the chest was perhaps the most debilitating thing to happen to an opposition side.

That and the sight of an angry Dermott or Lethal of course!

[dutchy_rules]

i think on athletism you would have to give it to langers.... for mine he would be slightly ahead of moore, even though i only saw the last few years of moores footy. i used to love watching the langers vs kernahan contests... for mine langers was the best full back i have seen.

[goatmaster]

Langford for me. Pretty much the same reason as anyone else.
Just by the by does anyone else think he would have been a great centre half forward if we hadn't had Dermie at the time?

[Danny Chook Fan Club]

I've got to go with Langford too, but by the barest, barest margin. Look at the opposition Moore had to deal with: Wade, McKenna, Jesalenko etc. So many great full forwards in his time, whereas Langers only had to play on one truly great full forward in Lockett, and rarely did he get Ablett.

Also a consideration is that Langford would strongly challenge Knights or Mew as Hawthorn's best ever centre half back. He played some absolute corkers there.

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He's blonde, he's quick
He's got a massive ... err ... kick
Danny Chook! Danny Chook!

[RogerC]

Too close to call. Although I have to admit to some bias. The Hawthorn side of the mid to late 70's could do no wrong in my eyes. I was too young to analyse them critically, and my biggest source of information was Footy Cards. I had the impression at the time that Stuart Trott was a vital cog in the side becuase that was the Hawthorn card I had the most of. I had Wayne Bevan and Michael Cooke too, and I can't recall anything about them. I worshipped Kelvin Moore. It was him, Knights, Matthews, Moncrieff (for some reason), O'Halloran, Hendrie and Geoff Ablett.

From the 3rd quarter of the 1984 Grand Final I became much more critical of the Hawks. (I still can't believe we lost that one. Until then I didn't believe a team could let me down.)

The upshot of it is, Langford I criticised. Moore I never did. You can compare their merits, but it's all lost on me.

Cheers.

[thommo16]

I know I'm showing my age here, but I would have to say Langers because he is the only one I have really seen play, but I also think that Hay could be of his class (not putting any pressure or anything)

[ricohawk]

Steve,it's not often we disagree but as you'll have seen from my TOC I'd have to go for Kel.
Whilst I love to see a FB turn defence into attack the main function is to stop the FF getting the pill and I believe Kel did that better than ANYBODY. He had the most amazing judgement I've ever seen and had that inate ability to direct play. I also reckon he had more quality opponents to deal with.
Dont get me wrong,I loved Langers but I reckon Kel was one of the truly great players of VFL footy.
For what it's worth I reckon Twiggy has some of those same abilities and may be on the verge of something big...just watch him when he hasn't got the pill,he's always directing the play....a very special talent.

-Rico

[Hawks_Fan]

I didn't see Moore play, I'm just a bit young. But I did see Langers play and he was my favourite. A truely great player.

Three things that stand out for me about Langers are (in no order):
1) When I was 10, I walked by the trainers room after practice, when the doors swung open. I looked up when I saw this giant of a man standing there. It's was Langers. I was blown away by his size.
2) In the mid-90's (I think it was the same year as Dunstall got his 1000th goal), I saw Langers mark more marks than the entire Richmond team in the 3rd quarter. It was awesome to see him kill the opposition that day. Everytime the ball went into defence, he would mark it and kick it back into attack.
3) Melbourne Vs Hawthorn, 1996. The last game of the season and looked like the last game Hawthorn would ever play. After an awesome game when Hawthorn won by just one point. Langers stood near the crowd, took his jumper off and waved it to the crowd. What a legend!!

[Grendel]

Rico my friend i do agree with you re Kels ability to read the play. His knack of being in the right place at the right time was extraordinarly good. Still going with Langers by the slimmest of margins though.
So far voting is

Langford 7
Moore 2

One other thing, how long should we keep the thread open? Does a month sound to long?

ps thanks for the input, the boards really kicked off since youve come over Everyone knows that you want info on the Hawks then Ricos the man to see!!

Cheers Mate


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Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before.

[elt]

Langers for mine. A true Hawthorn champion and I remember that Richmond game Hawk_Fan. It was Langers at his best. The jumper waving on THAT night just took the cake http://www.bigfooty.com/ubb/wink.gif

P.S. nice sig btw Grendel.

[Grendel]

Okay so far its Langford (8) by a fair margin Kelvin (2).

Pretty clear cut to Langers. Anyone else whos yet to cast a vote please, feel free to do so. http://www.bigfooty.com/ubb/smile.gif

[RogerC]

You can mark me down for Langford. I've had a bit of a think about it, and his case is the stronger. Moore - hero. Langford - logical selection.