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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 2736281, member: 1899"] ALLAN LANGER Brisbane About the same time Allan Langer held aloft the World Club Challenge trophy at a cold Central Park in Wigan late in October he was hailed the world’s best player. World’s best is a title bandied around more often than it perhaps should, but no player could lay greater claim to it in 1992 than Langer, the captain of the premiership-winning Brisbane Broncos and the incumbent Australian Test halfback. In 1991, Langer re-established himself as the country’s top halfback after a disappointing tour to England and France in 1990. In brilliant ’91 season, Langer defied the considerable challenges of Canberra’s Ricky Stuart and Penrith’s Greg Alexander to win back his Test jersey and star in the State of Origin series and the three Tests against New Zealand. But in ’92 he set a series of career bests that will take some topping. From the earliest days of the competition, Langer was in menacing form. He helped the Broncos to the final of the rich Nissan World Sevens and then the final of the Tooheys Challenge knockout. His team was beaten on both occasions, but there was never a hint of panic. Langer knew there were bigger things ahead. Assuming the Broncos captaincy from Gene Miles, Langer was the modeal leader. An unshakable conviction that Brisbane were the best team in the competition quickly rubbed off on his colleagues and the doubts and inconsistencies that appeared in the club’s previous four seasons never surfaced. During the period of heaviest commitment through out May, June and July, Langer’s resolve never wavered. In the State of Origin and the Test series, Langer was brilliant. He scored Queensland’s only try in the first Origin match at the Sydney Football Stadium, kicked the first field goal of his career to give the Maroons a last-minute victory at Lang Park and was one of Queensland’s best in a losing series-decider at the Football Stadium. And in the series against Great Britain, Langer was an integral part of Australia’s Ashes defence. But it was with Brisbane that Langer was at his best. The linchpin in a marvellously skilled backline, Langer created opportunities, finished others off and kicked thoughtfully in open play. It was little wonder he was rewarded with the Rothmans Medal at Sydney’s Sheraton Wentworth Hotel in September, and then the Clive Churchill Medal at the Football Stadium later in the same month. Langer stamped his name on the grand final in the same indelible fashion he had in so many other matches for the Broncos throughout 1992. He scored two tries and was involved in almost every attacking sortie his team launched. Langer and his team-mates flew out of Sydney on grand final night with the Winfield Cup strapped safetly into seat 1A. of their Ansett jet. That night they celebrated wildly. They shaved their heads and partied. But for Langer and the rest of them there was unfinished business. There was the World Cup final and then the World Club Challenge. Opportunities were scarce for Langer in the World Cup final before 73,000 fans at Wembley. With memories of his below-par performances in the First Test of the 1990 Ashes series lingering in his mind, he admitted being petrified of leaving the world famous arena a loser once-again. But Australia did enough to sneak home on the back of a Steve Renouf try and a 10-6 result, changing forever Langer’s impression of Wembley Stadium. To Central Park for the World Club Challenge and the most difficult assignment of Langer’s season – meeting Wigan on home soil, a month after Brisbane’s grand final win over St George. Langer carried a painful sternum injury into the match but still managed to cause the Wiganers a welter of problems with his jinking footwork and skilful kick-placement. By fulltime, the Broncos were on top of the world, winners by 22-8, and Langer was the captain of the first Australian team to win the World Club Challenge. When Langer beaten his big-time career the age of 20, in 1987, there were doubts his diminutive stature would survive the rigours of State of Origin football. A man-of-the-match performance in the deciding match of that series changed his critics’ perceptions forever and won him universal respect. Langer hails from Ipswich, one of Queensland’s most powerful league nurseries, and learned much from former NSW and Australian halfback Tommy Raudonikis, who coached him for three seasons from 1985. Since 1987, Langer has become the darling of the Brisbane crowds and has earned widespread interest for endorsements and personal appearances. He has unquestionably become the new king of Queensland football. [/QUOTE]

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