Chris Langford

Remove this Banner Ad

Collins-Langford-Ayres

Collins-Langford-Ayres

Hall of Famer
Veteran 10k Posts 30k Posts Hawthorn Knockout Tipping
Mar 23, 2007
34,930
23,534
Where Premiership dreams are made...
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Other Teams
Man U, Canucks and 49ers
Having grown up in his era, I still don't understand why he is not rated in the discussions about the greatest full backs.

Just read an article about where Rance sits and the comparisons were Fletcher, Scarlett, Dench, Silvagni....

Langers played against the absolute best, like Lockett, Modra, GAblett and even ended on Carey.

He rarely had a bag kicked on him. If I was rating the best key defenders I have seen play I would go:

01. Langers
02. Scarlett
03. Rance

Still think he should have been in our TOTC ahead of Moore. Anyone else feel he is criminally under-rated.
 
Collins-Langford-Ayres said:
Having grown up in his era, I still don't understand why he is not rated in the discussions about the greatest full backs.

Just read an article about where Rance sits and the comparisons were Fletcher, Scarlett, Dench, Silvagni....

Langers played against the absolute best, like Lockett, Modra, GAblett and even ended on Carey.

He rarely had a bag kicked on him. If I was rating the best key defenders I have seen play I would go:

01. Langers
02. Scarlett
03. Rance

Still think he should have been in our TOTC ahead of Moore. Anyone else feel he is criminally under-rated.
Click to expand...
Doull was better than all those mentioned
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Collins-Langford-Ayres said:
Having grown up in his era, I still don't understand why he is not rated in the discussions about the greatest full backs.

Just read an article about where Rance sits and the comparisons were Fletcher, Scarlett, Dench, Silvagni....

Langers played against the absolute best, like Lockett, Modra, GAblett and even ended on Carey.

He rarely had a bag kicked on him. If I was rating the best key defenders I have seen play I would go:

01. Langers
02. Scarlett
03. Rance

Still think he should have been in our TOTC ahead of Moore. Anyone else feel he is criminally under-rated.
Click to expand...
What a load of s**t

Rance at 3 ? :think::)

But I agree, Langford is highly underrated.
I loved watching him play
Hard to pick between him & Moore, would’ve been a great discussion at the TOTC selection table
 
Yes, very underrated player. Not sure why he doesn't get the same wraps in the media as other full backs (not that Chris would give two hoots about it).

I remember the year at the end of his career where he was working in Sydney full time, not training with the club during the week and flying down on weekends to play and he was still one of the leagues best defenders.

Gotta be a pretty good player to pull that off! Imagine a player doing that today, inconceivable.
 
Where does Silvagni sit in your list of full backs CLA?

Langers was a great footballer, no doubt. He is a Hawthorn great and that is good enough for me. In these sorts of things, you will never get consensus on who is the best.

This question of best actually came up recently in a tribute to Hodge. In the video which I saw on YouTube, one his fellow players described him as Hawthorns greatest ever captain. I grew up watching Lethal and Tucky and that is a big call.

Maybe it's true and maybe it isn't, but I think we tend to rate the current players more highly because our memory of them is more recent.
 
Silvagni was a great footballer and fullback, no doubt, but his place in the team of the century was controversial at the time and has somewhat diminished Langford's standing bc scribes tend to take one fullback from each "era" to compare them all. Since he won the FBOTC, Silvagni makes the lists and Langford does not.

Rance would be smashed 1 on 1 against the best full forwards of Langford's era bc he is terrible defending the lead.
Rance's best attributes are his team play, zoning off and reading the play to be third up.
Still, he is probably the best of his era as a KPD so I don't want to be too critical.
 
Of all of the great full backs, Langford was the most attacking. Turned last line of defense into a goal at the other end so many times. (Of course he had mew and ayers to feed.) But COmparing Langford to Silvagni is like comparing Hawtorn to Essendon, one always played within the rules. The amount of holding off the ball committed by silvagni was insane.
 
I'm sure he is held in the highest regard from his peers and the club, for good reason and got on the beach for the Hawks TOTC. Doull, Silvagni and Langford had arguably the toughest time in the loneliest position on the field against some of the greatest power forwards from the 80's/90's. Langford gave away a few inches and about 25kgs to Lockett but had a good leap and regularly performed very well. Best FB for Hawthorn I can recall seeing.
 
Last edited:

(Log in to remove this ad.)

The Chad and I said:
Still, he is probably the best of his era as a KPD so I don't want to be too critical.
Click to expand...
How long is an era? Is Lake or Gibson in the same era? Does it go back to Scarlett? In recent times our two boys are criminally underrated. Best peel off defender of the last ten years, Gibson without a doubt. And Rance got pantsed by Cox in a prelim, Lake would never had allowed that to happen as he would of adjusted and been the one to take the mark.
 
grumbleguts said:
Of all of the great full backs, Langford was the most attacking. Turned last line of defense into a goal at the other end so many times. (Of course he had mew and ayers to feed.) But COmparing Langford to Silvagni is like comparing Hawtorn to Essendon, one always played within the rules. The amount of holding off the ball committed by silvagni was insane.
Click to expand...
Very true. I can never remember Langford scragging or holding or other such nonsense.
He used to beat his man by using his athletic powers and football nous. In fact I doubt he was ever reported in 300 games he played the game so fair.
 
Simon Crawshay said:
Very true. I can never remember Langford scragging or holding or other such nonsense.
He used to beat his man by using his athletic powers and football nous. In fact I doubt he was ever reported in 300 games he played the game so fair.
Click to expand...
Yep. He also never found himself on the other side of reports. Players treated him with the respect he treated them. Silvagni got sent in to seven different flavours of unconsciousness by Darren Milburn.
 
grumbleguts said:
Yep. He also never found himself on the other side of reports. Players treated him with the respect he treated them. Silvagni got sent in to seven different flavours of unconsciousness by Darren Milburn.
Click to expand...
Also I think if you punched Langfords jaw you would have probably broken your hand given it was carved from the stone of Mount Olympus itself 😂
 
Yardie said:
How long is an era? Is Lake or Gibson in the same era? Does it go back to Scarlett? In recent times our two boys are criminally underrated. Best peel off defender of the last ten years, Gibson without a doubt. And Rance got pantsed by Cox in a prelim, Lake would never had allowed that to happen as he would of adjusted and been the one to take the mark.
Click to expand...
Buddy took Lake to the cleaners in the 2008 QF, doesn't lessen what he did during our premierships though.
 
Gralin said:
Buddy took Lake to the cleaners in the 2008 QF, doesn't lessen what he did during our premierships though.
Click to expand...
Buddy is unstoppable, mason cox when competently defended barely gets a touch.

At his peak buddy could kick 10 on any defender in history.

See what Sicily did to cox.

Rance made cox look like buddy. Pretty embarrassing.
 
kazzooka said:
Buddy is unstoppable, mason cox when competently defended barely gets a touch.

At his peak buddy could kick 10 on any defender in history.

See what Sicily did to cox.

Rance made cox look like buddy. Pretty embarrassing.
Click to expand...
Cox got the game on his terms and Pies isolated Rance. Cox had a day out and kicked 3

People act like he destroyed Richmond, he kicked 3 out of the Pies 15
Buddy kicked 8 on Lake but apparently that doesn't count.
 
Gralin said:
Cox got the game on his terms and Pies isolated Rance. Cox had a day out and kicked 3

People act like he destroyed Richmond, he kicked 3 out of the Pies 15
Buddy kicked 8 on Lake but apparently that doesn't count.
Click to expand...
He also took a ton of contested marks at pivotal points in the game. Rance was owned.
 
TylerDurden said:
He also took a ton of contested marks at pivotal points in the game. Rance was owned.
Click to expand...
Yeah he got beat, happens to everyone. Not saying Cox didn't beat him that day but to suggest it's proof that he wasn't a great player is a bit much
 
Gralin said:
Yeah he got beat, happens to everyone. Not saying Cox didn't beat him that day but to suggest it's proof that he wasn't a great player is a bit much
Click to expand...
I'm not saying he isn't a great player just that the hype is over the top. AA selection always tends to favour the media darlings, so I don't take too much notice of it.
 
Collins-Langford-Ayres said:
Having grown up in his era, I still don't understand why he is not rated in the discussions about the greatest full backs.

Just read an article about where Rance sits and the comparisons were Fletcher, Scarlett, Dench, Silvagni....

Langers played against the absolute best, like Lockett, Modra, GAblett and even ended on Carey.

He rarely had a bag kicked on him. If I was rating the best key defenders I have seen play I would go:

01. Langers
02. Scarlett
03. Rance

Still think he should have been in our TOTC ahead of Moore. Anyone else feel he is criminally under-rated.
Click to expand...
The fact that we have 2 fullbacks in our Team of the Century says a lot as to how highly regarded both Chris Langford and Kelvin Moore are
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Strapping Young Lad
News Christmas at Bunjil Bagora - HFC family day and open training, Sat 10th Dec
Replies
8
Views
785
Yardie
Yardie

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top