The Man and His Playing Style
Langlands had an unhappy childhood brought up by an alcoholic father. On-field he could be hot-headed and petulant in his early career, though he matured into a fine leader. Fundamentally taciturn and introspective he was not given to pre or post-match speeches as captain but demonstrated an uncompromising leadership style via his will-to-win and a preparedness to be mean and ruthless if required.
He was a graceful, balanced runner of the ball, long-striding and fast. His trademark sidestep off either foot has become legendary in the Australian game. He would almost undetectably feint one way then make a 2m leap the other way at full speed taking him diagonally through a gap and into the clear.
Read more about this topic: Graeme Langlands
Famous quotes containing the words man, playing and/or style:
“Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.”
—Jean De La Bruyère (1645–1696)
“The sailor is frankness, the landsman is finesse. Life is not a game with the sailor, demanding the long head—no intricate game of chess where few moves are made in straight-forwardness and ends are attained by indirection, an oblique, tedious, barren game hardly worth that poor candle burnt out in playing it.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“To me style is just the outside of content, and content the inside of style, like the outside and the inside of the human body—both go together, they can’t be separated.”
—Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930)