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.
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’.
“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.”
Franko
Guest
Great game, wish it went for 2mins longer. Hopefully we take this pain in to preseason and go again next year. Bloody stings at the moment though... (Oh, add Ryder and we're a massive show next year)
PUBLO
Guest
Port seem to be replicating Geelongs throwing the ball trick instead of handballing. It must be difficult for the umpires to see it clearly.
Hippoty Hop
Guest
Sorry mate. I think you were looking through the wrong glasses. And stupidity if you think the umpires or afl have an agenda.
Michael huston
Guest
Yep. Best performances were Hawthorn over Geelong and Sydney over North. Clearly the two best.
AR
Guest
Spangher's holding the ball (when he, literally, was not holding the ball) also led to a Port goal.
Mango Jack
Guest
Take it, Ian, and enjoy. Hawks dominated the 2nd and 3rd qtrs and built enough of a lead to get the job done. But I would drink it before next Saturday. I fear it may not be pretty for us.
Ando
Guest
-- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
Ando
Guest
Are you kidding Big Al!?! Freo went out in straight sets and were lucky to be so close to sydney at the end... And then got beat by port!! Hawks Sydney best GF by a margin! -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
ian
Guest
Pt so did not deserve to lose (and I'm a rabid hawks supporter). I will struggle to accept the bottle of red from a work colleague however good manners dictate that I must.
Olivia Watts
Roar Guru
Pressure will do that to anyone Radelaide. Your boys were very darn good against top opposition and the future looks bright por the Power. Sing your song loud and proud and see you up near the top next year.
BigAl
Guest
Well here we are with the Grand Finalists for 2014 - and sadly I feel that the best 2 sides in this years finals are not amongst them. Freo and Port Adelaide put on better finals performances. Port Adelaide in particular. As an interstate side playing a super professional Hawthorn at the G, to come back from where they were to almost snatch it was . . . SPECIAL !!!
Radelaide
Guest
I can't FREAKING! believe it,. after last week you would've thought they weren't going to miss too many easy ones and here we are our best kicks for goal putting us out the finals.
Lroy
Guest
Great game.. Port will rue their missed chances early.. Power exposed a serious lack of pace in the Hawks midfield... Jetta will be licking his lips. Looking forward to the looming war next week ;-) Port have a lot to look forward too... good side across the board.
Mango Jack
Guest
I can't work out whether Hawthorn felt they had it in the bag and took their foot off the pedal, or Port went up an extra gear. Bit of both, I suppose. Certainly Port were dominating the contests in the last qtr. Let's hope Lewis is OK. Losing him will just about seal their fate, I think.
Jack Smith
Roar Guru
I thought umpires where crap both ways, this from a neutral. Basically, there were numerous crap umpire decisions throughout the game. Luckily, it was poor both ways. Ebert's decision to play on may have cost his team a GF berth for 2014 though. Don't know why you would play on with that many players around you. He had to run to the side of Roughead and Gunston, and Hodge clearly wasn't that far away. That mark though by Wines I think. Courage.
Gremlins
Roar Rookie
Agree re the umpires. I usually don't notice them, but was increasingly frustrated as the game went on. At least one Port goal was "an umpire's goal". I found myself asking the footy gods if Hawthorn could have an umpire too. Also agree re Langford. Apples don't fall too far from the trees, do they? He did a magnificent job on Boak. I was also enormously impressed with Monfries's efforts. Yes, I barrack for Hawthorn and have done for 60+ years, but usually find myself applauding the opposition as well, and Port deserved all accolades yesterday. Watch out for them next season. Not a classic game, but enthralling and full of suspense.
Olivia Watts
Roar Guru
Michael H., as usual, your comments are spot on. This finals series has seen some true breakout games by younger players and that is something which delights Club and fans alike. Langford's game last night was top shelf. It wasn't the most skilful game I've ever watched but for pressure, desperation, one percenters and sheer excitement it would be hard to go past. There will be tired and sore boys on both sides after it and, as a Sydney member, that is music to my ears. Coach Longmire was an interested onlooker last evening and I hope he saw what was needed to beat the Hawks in the Big One. I'm counting the days to what should be a great game.
AB
Guest
Yep, it seemed that way to me too. Normally I don't complain about the umpires, because so many teams' supporters use it as an excuse. If a team is good enough, they'll win regardless. But last night the Hawks seemed to be on the wrong end of most of the mistakes, to a greater extent than I can remember for a long time. Not so much that the frees awarded against them were wrong, more a case of the umps consistently missing frees that should've been given against Port. Schulz's blatant throw (that led directly to a goal) was the worst, but Roughead in particular was stiff not to be given another 2-3 frees for holding. I don't think there was any bias there, just the umpires being a little bit reluctant to blow the whistle in a final.
Anthony
Guest
Hippoty Hop - you were looking thru the wrong glasses. Too many frees against Port Adel after the 1st 1/4ter. Not to forget the last 4 minutes. The AFL got the GF they wanted. Thank you umpires & ball-boys.....
Hippoty Hop
Guest
Not trying to take anything away from Port but...Boy O boy as a North boy. Hawthorn were hard done by the 50-50 umpiring decisions in this game.