28 minutes ago, binman said:

Playing so well as a wing because that's his role for the foreseeable future. And by foreseeable future i mean at least this season and next.

As i've pointed before King is using him in the exact same role he used Dempsey in at the Cats - a winger who is key to transition, kicks goals, and on offence pushes deep forward, often all the way to the goal square (where like Dempsey, Langford is scoring goals from) creating a match up problem inside 50.

Teams can only carry one inside mid AFL these days - clubs use one max at centre square clearances and atm that's clearly Steel and Sparrow waxing, with Viney in the mix when back in the side.

There's simply no spot for Langford as an inside mid atm, and as i say not the foreseeable future. Which is not say he won't get involved in stoppages around the ground - he is already - just that he won't be starting centre bounce mid

Mids now need breakaway acceleration and speed, which is why Koz has become one of the very best mids in the AFL and why Windsor is one of our starting mids and is running at aprox 80% CBAs. Langford has an ok cruising speed, but acceleration will never be his go - and it's not like he has elite hands and kicking skills that very best mids have.

Clearly the tall winger that supports transition and pushes deep forward role is a critical part of King's game plan and as such he needs player who can execute it to high level - which is precisely what Langford is doing (with his game on the weekend being the exemplar).

Here's my tip - at some point in the next few weeks it's going to dawn on the media how effective Langford is in the wing role. Robbing Peter to pay Paul to move him from that spot and into the middle where we have a surfeit of players who can play an inside mid role.

It’s a testament to the kid, the FD, King, the club psych probably… to get this bloke to play a game like that ‘out of position’. He’s a point of difference out there on the wing (so is Culley and Fritsch when they go there) and it is why the best teams are so ‘deep’ - it is not the ability to bring kids up from Casey, it’s the ability to have ball winners across the ground so when you lose someone - you can more easily adjust your team and get a ball winner in the middle or have someone suddenly go to the backline and excel (Langdon).

It’s really promising for Langfords and Langdons careers and our short to medium term chances to win a critical sum of games.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by rpfc

Healy used to as negative about the dees as Tony Shaw. He is much more positive now then he was 10 years ago. Gary Lyon was just as negative and is now more positive than not. It seemed to me having watched it twice, Healy was trying to find points of difference because to my ears he was Barracking strongly.

I didn't mind Healy's criticisms of Langford.

I do mind his commentary - whether it's one of our games or two other teams playing. He's woeful - and like so many of the ex-footballers doing so called 'expert commentary' seemingly dead lazy in terms of doing their own research and keeping up with where the games is at.

And i don't say this lightly or flippantly, but like many ex-footballers calling footy i often find myself wondering if CTE is an issue as his calls are full of muddled phrasing and basic errors.

Healy is a figjam but he pointed out that Harvey kicks a lot of helicopters.

He is absolutely right about that.

12 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Couldn't make it to the ground on Saturday, so have watched the game on Kayo a few times now. One thing that stood out for me was Gerard Healy bagging out Harvey Langford's kicking, not once, but multiple times throughout the game.

Like has he actually really watched the guy play more than once? To say it once was maybe a first impression or off the cuff comment, but he was so persistent, that I really feel as if he had formed a strong oppinion and holds this against Harvey. Personally, while I don't think Langford has really fully hit his straps this season and/or has progressed massively in his 2nd year as we might have ideally have loved, I think the kid is doing OK and his kicking is one of the last things I'd hold against him.

On the flip side, both Gerard and Brad Johnson, seemed to be onto the fact that Kade Chandler is fast becoming one of the quality players in the competition for what he does and I do wholeheartedly agree with that assessment.

Anyways, back to the point, I know Gerard was a player that Mark Jackson couldn't stand and I've got to say, I think I understand why. Smug and arrogant. At least his brother blead red and blue.

Have a look at our first goal. Langford almost hit the post from 6m out!

9 minutes ago, binman said:

I didn't mind Healy's criticisms of Langford.

I do mind his commentary - whether it's one of our games or two other teams playing. He's woeful - and like so many of the ex-footballers doing so called 'expert commentary' seemingly dead lazy in terms of doing their own research and keeping up with where the games is at.

And i don't say this lightly or flippantly, but like many ex-footballers calling footy i often find myself wondering if CTE is an issue as his calls are full of muddled phrasing and basic errors.

Daisy Thomas is one of the few that is informative about team structures, running patterns etc

A little off topic but I find Healy is very Melbourne biased in the commentary. He's not far off barracking for us - he must be very annoying for other team fans when they play us.

For this reason I find he is normally more knowledgeable about Melbourne than the average commentator... which was why I found his comments on Langford a big surprise. Surely kicking is Langford's biggest strength. It was very odd.

Healy also continually mentioned King's name in 2024 and 2025 as a leading coaching candidate as he saw something in him during his GC caretaker games in late 2023.

I know he left us in the mid 1980's but i'm pretty sure we're his second team.

19 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Have a look at our first goal. Langford almost hit the post from 6m out!

I almost had a conniption fit with that kick. It was sort of weird - instead of just running straight at the goals and kicking straight he angled the opposite direction and kicked it across his body. It must have come pretty close to hitting the post.

Fitter also caused me some heartburn when he played on in the goal square and kicked it on the outside of his boot.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by binman

Since fox got the rights to provide its own commentary for every game, Gerard Healy is my new BT. My heart sinks at the beginning of every Dees match he calls, and he seems to (request?) a lot of them?

There was a farcical moment a few weeks back where he “expertly” pointed to a passage of play that typified the brilliance of the modern game, then proceeded to call the replay which in reality turned out to be a chain of clangers and dumb luck and as ugly as hell.

FWIW I thought his call on Langford’s kicking was pretty accurate, but boy when he stumbles across a point he deems worth making he doesn’t half bang on about it for the next two hours…

Well beyond pasture.

23 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Have a look at our first goal. Langford almost hit the post from 6m out!

I'm taking that as being more situational awareness of gathering the ball and then almost ending up on top of the goals.

To be honest, I've never noticed the helicopters that people are mentioning, because I've always found Harvey's field kicking to have good trajectory through the air, well directed hitting their mark and to players in good positions. His set shots for goal are generally pretty reliable this season too.

If I had any chip on him this season, I'd say that he looked a bit off and hadn't been winning enough of the ball, but was tempering that with him only being a second year player and that perhaps he was also attracting more opposition attention. I honestly don't think we should be putting the pressure on our talented youngsters to be delivering A Grade performances and carrying the team on their shoulders every week. I am hoping they mature and develop so they deliver for the team in future seasons and anything they do deliver in the now is a bonus.

There are players we have that I feel do need to fix up their kicking, but Langford isn't one of them, so I found it a very odd series of comment from Healy, which seemed overly critical, at the same time as being ill informed and off the mark.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

24 minutes ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

the helicopters

If one of his kicks hit Mabior Chol in the head and knocked him over, would it be politically incorrect to say "Black Hawk Down"?

23 minutes ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

I'm taking that as being more situational awareness of gathering the ball and then almost ending up on top of the goals.

To be honest, I've never noticed the helicopters that people are mentioning, because I've always found Harvey's field kicking to have good trajectory through the air, well directed hitting their mark and to players in good positions. His set shots for goal are generally pretty reliable this season too.

If I had any chip on him this season, I'd say that he looked a bit off and hadn't been winning enough of the ball, but was tempering that with him only being a second year player and that perhaps he was also attracting more opposition attention. I honestly don't think we should be putting the pressure on our talented youngsters to be delivering A Grade performances and carrying the team on their shoulders every week. I am hoping they mature and develop so they deliver for the team in future seasons and anything they do deliver in the now is a bonus.

There are players we have that I feel do need to fix up their kicking, but Langford isn't one of them, so I found it a very odd series of comment from Healy, which seemed overly critical, at the same time as being ill informed and off the mark.

I have been watching Langford with regard to him avoiding heavy contact thinking it was maybe a second year player thing, he didn't like contact, or it was a flaw in his game but I am coming around to the view he is being coached to use his running power to get to positions that provide outlets and goal scoring opportunities. The number of times he 'pops up' in the right spot and often with a mismatch in height to his advantage is beyond coincidence.

He was so well prepared 15 years ago that he barely knew the name of his co-commentator or the team he was calling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHq9VA9opy0

This must be a generational thing, where Gerard Healey's "betrayal" makes him an unforgivable in some people's eyes. To me, he's just a run of the mill uninsightful commentator like most of the rest. My only gripe with him in particular is his penchant for the phrase "at the present time". Don't think I've ever heard him use the word "now" in my 20 years of listening to him commentate.

Harvey Langford is a great young player with heaps of ability and potential, but as Gerard Healy rightfully pointed out, he needs to work on his field kicking. Some of his kicks on Sunday were absolutely terrible, but didn’t really hurt us. Healy rightfully pointed out that he should be spending time with Bailey Fritsch to learn how to be a better kick. Langford is a good set shot, but under pressure, his ball drop is poor.

Healy was also very positive about Daniel Turner’s reaction when Petty made the turnover in the third quarter. Turner just stood the mark, no remonstration, which Healy pointed out.

I generally can’t stand Healy as a commentator, but he was bearable on Sunday.

2 minutes ago, Chook said:

This must be a generational thing, where Gerard Healey's "betrayal" makes him an unforgivable in some people's eyes. To me, he's just a run of the mill uninsightful commentator like most of the rest. My only gripe with him in particular is his penchant for the phrase "at the present time". Don't think I've ever heard him use the word "now" in my 20 years of listening to him commentate.

In my younger, "white-eyed" demon days I regularly got upset with stuff like 'Dippa' flattening Robbie, Matthews flattening Steven Smith, Sandy Roberts acting like some big know-all, Crackers and Stan subtly jibing about The Dees, and famously RDB31's betrayal of the red and blue. Coincidentally we always seemed to be losing through that era. But what about Xavier Taylor's mum saying she was so excited about her son going 'to a good club'? And look at the fab four (Richmond, Essendon, Carlton, Collingwood) who would ever thought that they would be one day languishing whilst the Dees seem to be rising like Lazarus from their '21 slump. Rant over. PS now i save my grudges for the AFL, in particular it rubber-stamping 'football acts' committed by an unnamed person from an unnamed club...

1 hour ago, bush demon said:

In my younger, "white-eyed" demon days I regularly got upset with stuff like 'Dippa' flattening Robbie, Matthews flattening Steven Smith, Sandy Roberts acting like some big know-all, Crackers and Stan subtly jibing about The Dees, and famously RDB31's betrayal of the red and blue. Coincidentally we always seemed to be losing through that era. But what about Xavier Taylor's mum saying she was so excited about her son going 'to a good club'? And look at the fab four (Richmond, Essendon, Carlton, Collingwood) who would ever thought that they would be one day languishing whilst the Dees seem to be rising like Lazarus from their '21 slump. Rant over. PS now i save my grudges for the AFL, in particular it rubber-stamping 'football acts' committed by an unnamed person from an unnamed club...

As do I. It's no coincidence that the most passionate hatreds are those held by the older generations. I always hated Collingwood because I was supposed to. But now I hate them for a reason. In ten years time or forty, that hatred will remain as strong as it was when it was born on Qualifying Final night and the week that followed it.

The young kids will need to find their own reason to hate. I'm sure one will present itself. It always seems to.

2 hours ago, Chook said:

This must be a generational thing, where Gerard Healey's "betrayal" makes him an unforgivable in some people's eyes. To me, he's just a run of the mill uninsightful commentator like most of the rest. My only gripe with him in particular is his penchant for the phrase "at the present time". Don't think I've ever heard him use the word "now" in my 20 years of listening to him commentate.

He uses too many words a lot of the time.

Eg. "They took their foot off the proverbial accelerator"

16 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Couldn't make it to the ground on Saturday, so have watched the game on Kayo a few times now. One thing that stood out for me was Gerard Healy bagging out Harvey Langford's kicking, not once, but multiple times throughout the game.

Like has he actually really watched the guy play more than once? To say it once was maybe a first impression or off the cuff comment, but he was so persistent, that I really feel as if he had formed a strong oppinion and holds this against Harvey. Personally, while I don't think Langford has really fully hit his straps this season and/or has progressed massively in his 2nd year as we might have ideally have loved, I think the kid is doing OK and his kicking is one of the last things I'd hold against him.

On the flip side, both Gerard and Brad Johnson, seemed to be onto the fact that Kade Chandler is fast becoming one of the quality players in the competition for what he does and I do wholeheartedly agree with that assessment.

Anyways, back to the point, I know Gerard was a player that Mark Jackson couldn't stand and I've got to say, I think I understand why. Smug and arrogant. At least his brother blead red and blue.

100% here to hate on Gerard Healy, six-year-old me hasn’t forgiven him for leaving us 😂

5 hours ago, Damo said:

Healy used to as negative about the dees as Tony Shaw. He is much more positive now then he was 10 years ago. Gary Lyon was just as negative and is now more positive than not. It seemed to me having watched it twice, Healy was trying to find points of difference because to my ears he was Barracking strongly.

He actually supports MFC

I think he is a perfectly good commentator. Comments about Langford ( whom he rates so highly) are more constructive than destructive

His pompous negativity is draining.
He arrives with a list of gripes to complain about and looks for any opportunity to work them into the commentary.
He was critical of Bayley Fritsch, and other modern footballers not using their left side when under pressure... that would be the left footed Bayley Fritsch.

Better than listening to Brereton or Underwood.