‘Confronting’: Langer fronts up to dressing room disharmony
Australia coach Justin Langer has moved to mend relationships with the dressing room, promising his players he will address their concerns after receiving frank feedback over his coaching style.
The coach and his charges held “confronting” discussions last week at a camp on the Gold Coast ahead of the team’s departure for the West Indies to address concerns raised at the end of last summer.
Justin Langer and his players held a “confronting” discussion over his coaching style during a team camp.Credit:Getty
As revealed by the Herald and The Age, there was widespread discontent from players towards the coach over Langer’s intensity and dramatic mood swings.
It has been a common criticism of Langer throughout his reign, which started in 2018, but the effects were magnified within the close confines of hub life during the pandemic.
Players delivered their assessment of Langer at an end-of-season review while leadership consultant Tim Ford was also brought in to continue the work he started with the team three years ago when they were reintegrating Steve Smith and David Warner back to the fold.
While Finch on Thursday publicly supported Langer, his comments indicate there was tension behind the scenes. The meeting was attended by Australia’s touring party for the Caribbean and Test captain Tim Paine while Sydney-based players took part virtually due to that city’s lockdown.
‘No doubt it was quite confronting for him at the time but he took it head on and addressed that and it was great.’
“The ability for JL to address some issues that came up in the review with Tim Ford, I think that was brilliant for him to tackle them head on and I suppose just put his side of the story, put his spin on it,” Finch said.
“And I think it shows the quality of the man he is – things that he’s working on and we’re all behind him, 100 per cent.
“The way he’s coached Australia in the last couple of years since taking over has been fantastic.
“We’ve had some really good success as well, so yeah, no doubt it was quite confronting for him at the time but he took it head on and addressed that and it was great. It was very positive from our point of view.”
Langer had said at the end of Australia’s all-conquering 2019-20 summer that the role of head coach had become more to do with “the bigger picture, the cultural stuff” but reports have surfaced over his tendency to micro-manage – a claim he has denied.
Finch said there were a “combination of a few things” which Langer wanted to improve on.
“He could have used his assistants a little bit better and just delegated in that regard,” Finch said.
“There was nothing groundbreaking in it, it was stuff that every player and coach would reflect on themselves. He’s no different, he’s done a fantastic job and the way he confronted that and the way it was received by the players was outstanding.”
Langer’s pledge to change will be put to the test in the coming months, starting with the white-ball tours of the Caribbean and Bangladesh. Players and staff will again be living under tight restrictions in biosecure bubbles, unable to leave the team hotel other than to play and train.
The upcoming games will be Australia’s last internationals before the Twenty20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Finch said the team’s planning for the global event in October and November would not be compromised by the Ashes, which start in December.
Steve Smith, David Warner, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc could all be unavailable for the Test against Afghanistan leading into the Ashes should Australia make the T20 World Cup final.
“It’s a World Cup, it’s an international event, it’s the one bit of silverware that’s eluded us,” Finch said.
“Anyone that is available and is selected there’ll be no management for Test cricket, I can tell you that much.”
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