AFL Player # 4: Kyle Langford

[Beerfish]

Contract Status: Restricted Free Agent 2026
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 8, boncer34

 

[eDPS]

I’ve only just seen this!

There is no evidence to suggest he can go from a 12 - 18 possession a game mid to a consistent 28 possession a game mid.

Me as much as anyone, want him to be a consistent AFL player. Not sure he will ever be a top 3 mid at the club.

He doesn’t need consistently high disposal numbers to have an impact. If he is getting around 20+ a week and kicking it more than half the time we are getting plenty out of him.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

I’ve only just seen this!

There is no evidence to suggest he can go from a 12 - 18 possession a game mid to a consistent 28 possession a game mid.

Me as much as anyone, want him to be a consistent AFL player. Not sure he will ever be a top 3 mid at the club.

Sure there is, he averaged 18 this year from 75% game time. Get that up to the 85-88% game time to match most senior mids and don’t play him forward a third of the time you’ve got another handful of touches.

 

[FlyingV]

I’ve only just seen this!

There is no evidence to suggest he can go from a 12 - 18 possession a game mid to a consistent 28 possession a game mid.

Me as much as anyone, want him to be a consistent AFL player. Not sure he will ever be a top 3 mid at the club.

Whenever he gets dropped to VFL he always pushes 30 odd touches. He’s got the natural ball winning thingo just needs confidence. His lack of urgency does concern me slightly though.

 

[Yoda_]

He doesn’t need consistently high disposal numbers to have an impact. If he is getting around 20+ a week and kicking it more than half the time we are getting plenty out of him.

Sure there is, he averaged 18 this year from 75% game time. Get that up to the 85-88% game time to match most senior mids and don’t play him forward a third of the time you’ve got another handful of touches.

Whenever he gets dropped to VFL he always pushes 30 odd touches. He’s got the natural ball winning thingo just needs confidence. His lack of urgency does concern me slightly though.

I guess we value the impact Kyle has very differently. He can get it 20 times but won't have the same impact as a 20 possession game from Laverde imho.

He can get the ball as much as he wants at VFL level but it is at AFL level we are talking about. Many players can do this. Kyle is no different.





Will just like to say that I do like Kyle and am enjoying his development. Slight concern on his "urgency" as FlyingV mentioned, don;t think he will ever reach the level to be a top 3 midfielder at the club but a role player who can carve out a decent 100 - 150 game career is what he should aim to get to.

 

[DERO]

I guess we value the impact Kyle has very differently. He can get it 20 times but won't have the same impact as a 20 possession game from Laverde imho.

He can get the ball as much as he wants at VFL level but it is at AFL level we are talking about. Many players can do this. Kyle is no different.





Will just like to say that I do like Kyle and am enjoying his development. Slight concern on his "urgency" as FlyingV mentioned, don;t think he will ever reach the level to be a top 3 midfielder at the club but a role player who can carve out a decent 100 - 150 game career is what he should aim to get to.

If I was a leading forward, I’d much prefer to see Langford with the ball than Laverde.

 

[BrunoV]

I guess we value the impact Kyle has very differently. He can get it 20 times but won't have the same impact as a 20 possession game from Laverde imho.

He can get the ball as much as he wants at VFL level but it is at AFL level we are talking about. Many players can do this. Kyle is no different.


Will just like to say that I do like Kyle and am enjoying his development. Slight concern on his "urgency" as FlyingV mentioned, don;t think he will ever reach the level to be a top 3 midfielder at the club but a role player who can carve out a decent 100 - 150 game career is what he should aim to get to.

Interesting impression of Langford.

I'd say that Langford has the highest impact for possession among all of our mids. That might be because he doesn't pad out his stats with the high possession rates that are inevitable when you're one of the top 3 or 4 mids.

The way Langford started opening up the ground and setting up scoring chains with kicks and handballs in the second half of the year was getting close to the "e" word.

 

[Yoda_]

Interesting impression of Langford.

I'd say that Langford has the highest impact for possession among all of our mids. That might be because he doesn't pad out his stats with the high possession rates that are inevitable when you're one of the top 3 or 4 mids.

The way Langford started opening up the ground and setting up scoring chains with kicks and handballs in the second half of the year was getting close to the "e" word.

I’m probably having a brain fart and may go back and re watch some of his better games. Not sure he’ll end up a top end mid is what I’m saying

 

[calyam]

Interesting impression of Langford.

I'd say that Langford has the highest impact for possession among all of our mids. That might be because he doesn't pad out his stats with the high possession rates that are inevitable when you're one of the top 3 or 4 mids.

The way Langford started opening up the ground and setting up scoring chains with kicks and handballs in the second half of the year was getting close to the "e" word.

Based on the numbers, he is our highest impact midfielder per possession. Laverde, by comparison, is among our least effective players per possession regardless of position.

 

[GUMBLETRON]

Based on the numbers, he is our highest impact midfielder per possession. Laverde, by comparison, is among our least effective players per possession regardless of position.

What data are you using for this sort of thing?

 

[FlyingV]

What data are you using for this sort of thing?

Homemade excel spreadsheet. Duh.

 

[calyam]

What data are you using for this sort of thing?

Utilising AFL Player Rating as a measure of positive impact. Deflated these by average disposals per game. The data can be filtered by season, wins vs losses, before and after the bye. I've been meaning to publish the summary in a thread on here.

 

[fishardansin]

Homemade excel spreadsheet. Duh.

Utilising AFL Player Rating as a measure of positive impact. Deflated these by average disposals per game. The data can be filtered by season, wins vs losses, before and after the bye. I've been meaning to publish the summary in a thread on here.

Correct guess FlyingV.

 

[DapperJong]

I mean, watching the games help. Are people actually agreeing with Yoda's assessment of Laverde having more impact than Langford?

That is so unfair to Langford that it makes me shit myself.

 

[FlyingV]

I mean, watching the games help. Are people actually agreeing with Yoda's assessment of Laverde having more impact than Langford?

That is so unfair to Langford that it makes me shit myself.

Depends on whether Yoda considers Laverde miss kicking basic set shots over and over again an effective disposal.
If he does? Then I don’t agree.
And if he doesn’t? I still don’t agree with him but meh...

Ps Don’t shit your pants.

 

[DapperJong]

Depends on whether Yoda considers Laverde miss kicking basic set shots over and over again an effective disposal.
If he does? Then I don’t agree.
And if he doesn’t? I still don’t agree with him but meh...

Ps Don’t shit your pants.

2 late

 

[FlyingV]

2 late

Nice troll. Or stool. I’m not sure.

But what I will say is I think I understand where yoda is coming from in that Laverde has a bit of De Goey/Caddy/Martin about him where he could have dramatic impact per disposal like the fellas listed above. He just hasn’t consistently shown it yet.

Could be wrong. Don’t shoot me.

 

[DapperJong]

Nice troll. Or stool. I’m not sure.

But what I will say is I think I understand where yoda is coming from in that Laverde has a bit of De Goey/Caddy/Martin about him where he could have dramatic impact per disposal like the fellas listed above. He just hasn’t consistently shown it yet.

Could be wrong. Don’t shoot me.

That's why it's unfair. Laverde is soooooooooo far away from being compared to the 3 you just mentioned.

 

[FlyingV]

That's why it's unfair. Laverde is soooooooooo far away from being compared to the 3 you just mentioned.

Yer I know, but it’s just the vibe of the thing

 

[DERO]

I mean, watching the games help. Are people actually agreeing with Yoda's assessment of Laverde having more impact than Langford?

That is so unfair to Langford that it makes me shit myself.

I’m going to ramp that one notch higher and suggest that Josh Green had more impact than Laverde over the last two years. I am not even joking.

 

[DapperJong]

I’m going to ramp that one notch higher and suggest that Josh Green had more impact than Laverde over the last two years. I am not even joking.

I actually agree. There is as much potential for Laverde to achieve less than Green than there is of him becoming a De Goey.

 

[Kakkle]

I’m going to ramp that one notch higher and suggest that Josh Green had more impact than Laverde over the last two years. I am not even joking.

He had kicked 4 goals in his last 16 games leading up the last round/game playing as a forward. That's not even remotely close to being AFL standard. Shit, even Boekhorst has been delisted for over a year and still had more impact than Laverde in the last two years.


Having said that, looking forward to see what he can do with a good run at it.

 

[DapperJong]

He had kicked 4 goals in his last 16 games leading up the last round/game playing as a forward. That's not even remotely close to being AFL standard. Shit, even Boekhorst has been delisted for over a year and still had more impact than Laverde in the last two years.


Having said that, looking forward to see what he can do with a good run at it.

Yes but he kicked 3 goals in a quarter which means 12 goals in a game.

 

[Runk]

#delist

 

[Liberator]

Langford is actually one of our better users of the ball. I've grown to feel pretty comfortable when he has the ball, over the course of this year, that good things are about to happen. Add to that his growing ability to stand in and break tackles... Sheeeeeit. Not sure we can (or even need to) compare the two.

 

[DERO]

He had kicked 4 goals in his last 16 games leading up the last round/game playing as a forward. That's not even remotely close to being AFL standard. Shit, even Boekhorst has been delisted for over a year and still had more impact than Laverde in the last two years.


Having said that, looking forward to see what he can do with a good run at it.

There is no doubt the coaches see something in him as evidenced by Kelly’s comments where he described Laverde as the best player not currently playing seniors because of his size, strength and pace.

That said, he has done very little up to this point to justify his spot on the list and has been given another two years on what he might do rather than what he has shown he can do at senior level.

I’d love to see him put it all together as well but am by no means certain that he can on what I have observed, injuries or no injuries.

In comparison, I’d be surprised if Langford did not go on and play 200 games of AFl if he continues on the same improvement curve that we saw this year. He has plenty of ability and is a beautiful kick of the football which is another area that Laverde needs to put in some hard yards.