{"id":953580,"date":"2026-11-05T13:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T13:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/953580\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T13:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T13:56:14","slug":"paul-langmack-death-news-2026-the-mole-tribute-south-sydney-rabbitohs-coach-sacked-phone-call-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/953580\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Langmack death news 2026, The Mole tribute, South Sydney Rabbitohs coach sacked phone call story"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve known thousands of rugby league<\/a> players over the past 40 or more years \u2013 but no greater character than Paul Langmack.<\/p>\n

A larger-than-life individual who lived and breathed rugby league, Langmack was always the life of the party.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Paul Langmack hugs The Mole.\u00a0The Mole<\/p>\n

He was more than a player to ring for a quote – he was a mate, and we talked regularly, the last time only a few weeks ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paul had his demons over the years – as many of us do – but he was in a good place in recent months and doing well. I was devastated by his sudden death on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I first got to know Paul when he was Australian Schoolboys captain in 1982 – we were both starting our careers and formed an instant bond.<\/p>\n

I was covering lower grades and schoolboy footy for the now defunct Rugby League Week magazine and was probably among the first journos to interview him.<\/p>\n

I was immediately drawn to Paul – his zesty sense of humour, upbeat approach to life – there were no clich\u00e9s when you interviewed him. He told it as it was.<\/p>\n

I was in the SCG<\/a> and Sydney Football Stadium sheds straight after he won grand finals with his beloved Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a> in 1984,\u00a01985\u00a0and\u00a01988 – back then journos got straight into the rooms after games.<\/p>\n

And on each occasion, he took great delight in spraying me with champagne, ensuring I went back to the office to write my stories reeking of alcohol.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After his retirement from playing in 1999, he would stay involved in football in a variety of roles for the rest of his days.<\/p>\n

Probably the toughest phone call I made in my entire career was to Paul midway through his second year as South Sydney<\/a> first grade coach in 2004.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d been told that he was about to get the sack – and it was only days away.<\/p>\n

He answered the phone with his traditional, \u201cWhat\u2019s up, champion?\u201c.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Paul Langmack crosses over for a try during the 1986 season\u00a0Fairfax<\/p>\n

But then for one of the few times in his life, he was lost for words when I told him, \u201cMate, they are going to sack you\u2026 it\u2019s coming any day now\u201d.<\/p>\n

There was a long silence\u2026 he was devastated\u2026 and never coached again.<\/p>\n

Langers remained heavily involved in the game he loved, though, and was a passionate advocate for mental health in football.<\/p>\n

He would regularly call me to publicise charity lunches and the like, devoting his later years in life to helping people who had fallen on hard times.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m devastated – as are those in the rugby league world who knew him from the good old days.<\/p>\n

Farewell Langers. You were truly one of a kind.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve known thousands of rugby league players over the past 40 or more years \u2013 but no greater…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-953580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953580","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=953580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}