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Langford shines in tight Hawks' win over Port

20th September, 2014
21

Will Langford is a Hawthorn premiership baby who will now have a massive role in determining whether they win their 12th AFL flag.

The 22-year-old had the best game of his 19-match career in Saturday night’s tight preliminary final win over Port Adelaide.

His 29 possessions and 10 clearances are career highs and those numbers also led the Hawks for the match.

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Langford also played a crucial role in the third term when he went onto Travis Boak and blunted the Power captain’s influence.

He is the son of Hawks great Chris Langford, now an AFL commissioner, whose fourth and last premiership was in late September 1991.

Will was born on July 3, 1992.

In the second half of this season, Langford has blossomed into one of Hawthorn’s frontline midfielders.

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Asked if he was surprised at how well he has gone this season, Langford admitted “certainly”.

“I suppose it’s a pleasant surprise and I’ve worked for quite a long while, as all the guys have,” he said.

“I’ve been chipping away and improving, it’s nice.

“There’s plenty more room for improvement … and we still have a massive game to come next week.”

Veteran team-mate Sam Mitchell said Langford had a light bulb moment in the last term of the round-19 win over the Western Bulldogs.

“He’s probably been chugging along and chugging along,” Mitchell said.

“The last quarter against the Bulldogs … I think he (thought), ‘aww, I can play this game and I can do it at this level’.

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“From that moment on, he’s been a completely different player.

“All up to that point was him finding his feet.

“Since then, he’s probably been one of our best players.”

While Boak nearly helped Port pull off a miracle comeback win, Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson was impressed with Langford’s performance.

“He had a pretty influential game for us tonight,” he said.

“He comes from pretty good stock, doesn’t he?

“So we’ve always had great hopes for him to emerge as a player for us.”

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