IN 2025, footy fans were introduced to Harvey Langford \u2013 a plucky 18-year-old who seemed unfazed by his step up to the AFL world, embracing challenges and shining on the MCG stage.<\/p>\n
Langford first arrived at the Dees via pick No.6 at the 2024 National Draft, following a dominant U18 campaign where he was named the Dandenong Stingrays\u2019 best and fairest and received the Larke Medal for best player in the National Championship.<\/p>\n
Throughout his first AFL pre-season, there were glimpses of gold on the training track, the new Demon showing that he could match it with some of the top competitors in the league.<\/p>\n
While there was no pressure internally on the young Demon, a cloud of hope from the Dees fanbase surrounded him heading into Round 1. Was he the next star of this footy club?<\/p>\n
He debuted in the side\u2019s season-opener, was omitted in Round 2, but returned to the team in Round 3, taking the opportunity to stamp his name in the minds of Melbourne and AFL fans alike.<\/p>\n
His performance against Gold Coast was well beyond his years \u2013 26 disposals, six clearances, 10 score involvements and a goal. It earned league-wide recognition, nominated for the Rising Star Award.<\/p>\n
This Round 3 display was the beginning of what was a memorable first year of AFL – averaging 18 disposals and kicking a total of 14 goals across 22 senior games.<\/p>\n
Now, Langford is preparing for his second season in the red and blue, and with even higher expectations than when he first started 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be completely honest, I don’t feel a whole lot of pressure,\u201d Langford told Melbourne Media.<\/p>\n
\n I’m generally a pretty relaxed person, so I just come into the footy club and do my thing, listen to the coaches, keep working hard and do everything I need to.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cEarly days, in maybe my first two or three games, I had some nerves, but since then, I haven’t had any.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just try and block out noise from outside of the four walls of the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the conclusion of the 2025 season, Langford was named the club\u2019s Best Young Player and finished 9th on the best and fairest leaderboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s just been a really exciting 12 months,\u201d Langford said.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing in to the club, I didn\u2019t expect to do too much or even play games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m definitely proud of myself with how I finished the year and that I got to play in 22 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying in a couple of different positions was challenging, I hadn\u2019t played much wing in my juniors, so it was definitely good to get the opportunity to learn a new role. I had lots of help from the coaches and the experienced boys around me.<\/p>\n
\n I was really proud of myself, but I moved pretty quickly on to thinking about this year, focusing on what I can do and how I can help out the team.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Melbourne is heading into its fresh era in 2026, with a new senior coach in Steven King and several changes to its playing list.<\/p>\n
With a number of those changes affecting the midfield, a shake-up through the centre of the ground may be on the horizon, with Langford energised by the new opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been really positive,\u201d Langford said on the midfield changes. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obviously a bit sad to see a couple boys leave, they helped me a lot last year, but the new names at the club like [Jack Steele] have been really good so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m enjoying having some more minutes in the midfield this pre-season\u2026a few of the young players are rolling through and it\u2019s an exciting opportunity for me, Caleb and all those boys to show what we can do.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing into more midfield minutes, I\u2019m really focusing on my contest work and my running capacity. As a midfield, I think we want a midfielder that can run both ways, especially defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
King, who\u2019s now two months into his role as senior coach, has made it clear to the playing group that 2026 is a clean slate, there\u2019s no guarantee on the Round 1 side.<\/p>\n
This premise has created an excited competitiveness within the team, allowing for a new dynamic heading into the start of the fixture.<\/p>\n
\u201cKingy\u2019s been great so far, he’s really relaxed and knows the game really well and the game plan he wants, and I think that works for all of us boys,\u201d Langford said.<\/p>\n
\n All the young boys loved the [Round 1] comment because we\u2019ve got an opportunity to crack the side.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think it\u2019s given the older boys a little bit of motivation too, they understand that the young boys are coming up and trying to play a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been exciting, and I think the group’s looking really strong. Hopefully it\u2019s a great 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IN 2025, footy fans were introduced to Harvey Langford \u2013 a plucky 18-year-old who seemed unfazed by his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-414731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}