Allan Langer rehired as assistant

[Russell Coight]

WAYNE Bennett’s mission to rebuild the Broncos’ culture has gone into overdrive with Allan Langer rehired as an assistant coach two years after he was forced out.
The old firm of Bennett, Kevin Walters and Langer will be guiding the Broncos when their pre-season begins on Wednesday week.They wear 15 Broncos premiership rings between them and will ensure Brisbane regains the glamour status it once owned.One of the greatest casualties of the Anthony Griffin era was the Broncos’ old-boys culture with past greats of the club feeling ostracised.

Last month, on his first day back at Red Hill, Bennett said the aura of the club he helped build had been eroded.This is the first of many decisions designed to recreate that aura.Langer will resume training duties with the Broncos from November, helping to coach the club’s playmakers and run water on game day.Walters and Stephen Kearney will be Bennett’s primary assistants with Langer filling any gaps.Langer, still the best halfback in the club’s history, was let go following the season review of 2012.

To his credit Langer always said it was he who quit and never criticised the club.Those who knew how the situation played out said Langer was all but forced to resign following an eighth placed finish in 2012.Langer transitioned to a part-time corporate role at the club but did help star half Ben Hunt last pre-season.Langer, currently in America as a tour guide for Broncos supporters, confirmed to The Courier-Mailhe was returning to the football department.“Yep, sure am mate. It is good news, I’m looking forward to it,” he said.“I enjoyed my corporate part of the job. I will still be doing some of that.

“I will join the team in the back half of each week.“I will be working with the team in any way that Wayne wants me to.”Board member Darren Lockyer will also be more hands on with the football department, taking up an official recruitment role.Lockyer had been an unofficial negotiator for prospective Broncos players.He was critical in getting Anthony Milford to leave Canberra and just missed out on securing Karmichael Hunt’s signature.Several ex-Broncos have slammed the club in the past 18 months.

Gorden Tallis, Steve Renouf and Wally Lewis were all critical of decisions made at Red Hill.“The club has been hearing rumours of angst among the old boys and asking ex-players to give their opinions, but the truth is they don’t really want to hear them,” Tallis said last year.“To me it’s all been lip service.”The Broncos haven’t won a finals game since Lockyer retired at the end of 2011 and have finished eighth, 12th and eighth.They are legitimate top-four hopes next season, a result that would fast-track the club’s culture rebuild.

 

[GCBRONCO]

Langer, Walters and Lockyer to work with Milford and Hunt, couldn't ask for a better trio to work with them.

 

[Splinter]

Good news

 

[Broncoman]

Good to see that we are signing blokes with experience instead of just relying on their playing careers. Alfie and Kev have been on the Maroons team for a few years and having them on board after their Origin experience is good and will as what GCBronco said develop Ben Hunt even more.

 

[GCBRONCO]

That is why I welcome Walters back into the fold in the coaching staff, perhaps not as long term coach but he definitely can offer the potential to work on refining the area's of our playmaker's that need so that they are much more well rounded instead of say just relying solely on their individual brilliance to make things happen. For instance, people highlighted Hunt's inconsistent kicking game, the potential is there for that to be properly addressed with their help.

 

[Porthoz]

I like it!

 

[Painin the Haas]

It all has a real good feeling about it, especially with Lockyer also having a more hands on role

 

[Dee]

This is a brilliant move, bravo Wayne, we are headed in the right direction.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

I feel like the club is slowly but surely having its soul restored

 

[vertigo]

Cant wait to hear the opposition supporters "GET LANGER OFF THE FIELD" cries again.

He was out there guiding our attack for years, happy to have him running around behind the backline again.

 

[Foordy]

Honestly I'm not to fussed about this signing. I don't hate it or anything but it wasn't the coaching signing we needed.

Langer was working with the halves this season
Walters has been hired as an assistant for next season
Lockyer is also around the club regularly.

And you know what they say about too many cooks.

Scoring points was not our problem this season ... STOPPING them was.

The signing we desperately need is a good defensive coach. Someone to teach our boys how to tackle and stop this arm grabbing, jersey grabbing shit.

Should I brace myself for a lynch mob?

 

[Unbreakable]

Good stuff, the more club greats we can get consistently around the guys the better we'll be imo, now we just need to get Gilly to come in and teach them how to tackle and we're set.

 

[broncos4life]

Honestly I'm not to fussed about this signing. I don't hate it or anything but it wasn't the coaching signing we needed.

Langer was working with the halves this season
Walters has been hired as an assistant for next season
Lockyer is also around the club regularly.

And you know what they say about too many cooks.

Scoring points was not our problem this season ... STOPPING them was.

The signing we desperately need is a good defensive coach. Someone to teach our boys how to tackle and stop this arm grabbing, jersey grabbing shit.

Should I brace myself for a lynch mob?

Of course not mate, no one would have expected anything different :)

 

[subsbligh]

Honestly I'm not to fussed about this signing. I don't hate it or anything but it wasn't the coaching signing we needed.

Langer was working with the halves this season
Walters has been hired as an assistant for next season
Lockyer is also around the club regularly.

And you know what they say about too many cooks.

Scoring points was not our problem this season ... STOPPING them was.

The signing we desperately need is a good defensive coach. Someone to teach our boys how to tackle and stop this arm grabbing, jersey grabbing ****.

Should I brace myself for a lynch mob?

Agree we need to harden up in defence.

IMO that's an attitude problem though. Not wanting to put in for each other, do the effort on effort.

Attitude caused by poor culture.

Poor culture fertilised by complacency and lack of passion.

Injecting the old heart of Walters, Langer and Lockyer back into the club must do something for passion.

And Bennett's a hard arse who won't allow complacency.

 

[subsbligh]

Cant wait to hear the opposition supporters "GET LANGER OFF THE FIELD" cries again.

He was out there guiding our attack for years, happy to have him running around behind the backline again.

And all the ladies in the members over 50 swooning.

 

[Porthoz]

I don't think it was an attitude problem, but much more a coaching issue. Our scramble and the way we didn't give up tells me the players were trying hard, but the way they didn't defend as a team caused many of our problems, especially our line speed (or lack thereof) and staggered approach, which was conducive to our many missed tackles...

I do agree that defense is the biggest issue to be addressed, but solid defense has always been a trademark of WB's teams, so hopefully he will get that sorted.

 

[GCBRONCO]

Honestly I'm not to fussed about this signing. I don't hate it or anything but it wasn't the coaching signing we needed.

Langer was working with the halves this season
Walters has been hired as an assistant for next season
Lockyer is also around the club regularly.

And you know what they say about too many cooks.

Scoring points was not our problem this season ... STOPPING them was.

The signing we desperately need is a good defensive coach. Someone to teach our boys how to tackle and stop this arm grabbing, jersey grabbing ****.

Should I brace myself for a lynch mob?

langer may have been working with them but his strengths aren't necessarily the ones he alone can provide for the likes of Milford and hunt who are both great individual players no doubt, but I tend to think they stand to benefit more from learning from the likes of Walters to refine their general playmaking duties not just relying solely on individual brilliance to get you home. From an attacking perspective scoring points isn't enough you also need to be able to control the game and like our defence we let ourselves down there, too many games we got ourselves into the position to get the win only to let it slip through. I do agree defensively we need to improve as well.

 

[Morkel]

Honestly I'm not to fussed about this signing. I don't hate it or anything but it wasn't the coaching signing we needed.

Langer was working with the halves this season
Walters has been hired as an assistant for next season
Lockyer is also around the club regularly.

And you know what they say about too many cooks.

Scoring points was not our problem this season ... STOPPING them was.

The signing we desperately need is a good defensive coach. Someone to teach our boys how to tackle and stop this arm grabbing, jersey grabbing shit.

Should I brace myself for a lynch mob?

Not at all, I agree that defence was our biggest concern.

But at least Langer is back where he belongs - using his footy smarts. Using club legends as figureheads for other departments sounds like a great idea, but in practise you really need people who know what they are doing.