On the field, Kyle Langford’s grown accustomed to change.

Whether it’s being issued the challenge of becoming a midfielder as a young half forward or becoming the No.1 key target in attack as a more experienced head, Langford’s taken on multiple roles in stride throughout a career that’s now entering its 11^th year.

Now, the 28-year-old’s not only embracing his role as an on-field leader, but also as a father off the field after welcoming his first child in November, making this pre-season the most unique he’s encountered so far.

Already managing the full-on lifestyle of a professional athlete, the added responsibilities in Langford’s life have allowed for a new perspective as he enters 2025 with the Bombers.

Here, the 153-gamer gives an insight into his personal pre-season, details one of the early turning points in his Dons career and discusses his excitement over a growing array of options in the side’s forward mix this season.

‘It’s been an incredible time in my life’

The first two or three months (of this pre-season and being a dad) have been quite trying, obviously balancing the commitments of raising a newborn as well as being an elite athlete.

There’s definitely been a lot of personal learning and it’s something that will change the way I look at football and life moving forward.

My partner Louise has been incredible in allowing me to get my extra sleep and do the things that I need to do when I show up to work, perform and put in maximum effort whenever I'm here. She's been an amazing support.

I think we timed it really well to be able to have her just before pre-season started, so hopefully going into the season we'll be in a bit more of a routine with it.

I think now that I’ve got a daughter, you definitely look at the game differently and start thinking more about your life looks like after football.

Talking with some of the older boys that have kids just changes your perspective and allows you to really dive into your days off with a new outlook as well, you're there to spend a bit of quality time and I think something that I have noticed is it’s definitely made me more present at home.

When you’ve got a screaming kid at home or your partner’s feeling the stress, I think you forget about your troubles with footy pretty quickly and it just brings you back down to home base.

‘I’ve always thought of it as a weird word, being considered a ‘veteran’

I feel like I'm still so young and I’ve got so much more time to give to the Club, but coming into my 11th year, there’s definitely an added responsibility to help the younger players and build them up as far as possible.

Ultimately, I'm not getting any younger and I want success here as soon as possible – we aren’t owed anything and we need to keep working for that.

Jayden (Laverde) and I were drafted together and he’s been incredible for our defenders, Zach's an outstanding Captain through the middle and I’d like to think I'm helping out with the forwards and doing my bit as well.

Really, I think we’re there to guide and support the likes of Andy McGrath and Mason Redman, Nic Martin, those kinds of guys to play really good football, but also as the ones who will be the next generation of leaders and take this club in the direction we want it to.

Todd (Goldstein) probably inflates our average age a little bit, I think we would be right down the bottom end of the league in terms of experience.

Like I said, I’ve played 150 games now heading into year 11 and my focus is purely on everyone else. Obviously, I've still got to perform and I’ve still got a job to do, but I put a lot more time and energy into the younger players, working with the forwards in particular.

Nate Caddy, Harry Jones, Isaac Kako, Archer Day-Wicks, Jayden Nguyen, those are the kind of players you want to really get up to speed as quickly as possible and provide opportunities to improve, because the better they play, the better we all play.

‘As a footballer, you just constantly evolve’

I think in the early days, you're obviously trying your best to get a game under your belt and you find yourself fighting between VFL and AFL selections, literally trying to just get a kick and stay in the team.

It can be a constant battle between your own performance and team performance at times - I guess as you find a consistency in your football and you're playing week in, week out, your tendencies naturally change to the team and finding ways to help develop the younger players to be able to get to where we are now.

I remember when I was playing consistently as a forward in the AFL team in my first couple of years - and I’ve spoken about this previously - but it was a conversation that I had with John Worsfold where he said, “I want you to become a midfielder.”

I spent essentially the next 18 months playing in the VFL after that.

That extended time in the VFL, once I got back into the AFL team, it helped me grow and evolve as a player. Having those experiences as a forward initially and then a midfielder allowed me to come into the team, and I think that's what we saw for a number of years was the versatility for me to play multiple roles.

A lot of people might say I came onto the scene in 2023 when I was thrown deep forward, but I think I was playing some really good football prior to that - probably from 2020 onwards - where I was a consistent player and performer, and I was able to play multiple roles for the team.

I think I was able to provide whatever they needed and it gave me a really good platform so once I did get into a position of strength, I could really capitalise on that.

‘There's just so much competition for spots down here now’

We actually had quite a small forward group in 2024, and this year we’re probably on par with the midfielders in terms of how many numbers we have rolling through.

We obviously have a lot of young talent coming through with ‘Cads’ and Kako, and I think ‘Scotty's been pretty open with us that the forward mix could change week in, week out depending on the opposition, so I think there could be as many as a consistent nine players rolling through at different stages.

It was mentioned that we've had 23 personal bests in our most recent time trial, albeit with a change of surface and a few other things, but I think it's credit to a lot of guys who went away throughout the off-season and the Christmas break and really worked hard on their body.

That’s only one piece of the puzzle, but I've been really impressed with that, especially from the young boys coming in. Their ability to buy into what we're trying to do and their hunger to learn has been seriously impressive from a first-year group of players.

It was really cool for us just going on the camp which we had up at Mt. Buller, something a bit more connective to just build that rapport between different age groups and actually go out away and spend time with each other.

There were a bunch of different challenges on that trip. I thought that was really good for the group as well, given we haven't been able to do something like that for a while.

I think we needed to improve on a number of things before we were able to really dive into the connection piece and we've made really good inroads in a bunch of different areas.

The work we’ve put in has allowed us to spend a bit more time on our connection as a group. We saw that with the camp and even with the coaches allowing us to have an off-site day away from the club where we get to spend more time together as a collective.

Doing those activities as a team and within our line groups helps to build that cohesion amongst a group.