Reflecting on Sunday afternoon’s 63‑point loss to Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, Essendon key forward Kyle Langford says the playing group has taken full ownership of the disappointing result, while highlighting that belief remains strong within the Club.

Despite the tough outcome, Langford revealed he feels more connected to the football Club off‑field than at any point in his 12‑year career, pointing to cultural change and growing unity among a youthful list under senior coach Brad Scott.

Langford says the challenge now lies in translating that cohesion into consistent on‑field performance, with the leadership group setting the standards required to drive improvement throughout the season.

Langford on… the loss to Port Adelaide

We were extremely disappointed with our output and our performance on the day, us players have definitely taken ownership for that.

It’s not the way we want to play, it’s not the way we trained and prepared all pre‑season. It’s not what we want our fans to watch.

We’ve come in today and we do have a smile on our faces, we’ve got work to do, and the beauty of footy is that we do have next week and the following week.

Langford on… execution of the game plan

We felt like we prepared really well. We put a really good team out on the park, we just didn’t execute our plan.

We were probably a little bit confused at times with our output, but that comes back to us players and it’s the foundations of our game that aren’t quite there yet.

Langford on… leadership accountability and pressure points

It starts with our leaders.

Myself included, us leaders of the group, we’re not playing the footy that we want.

So first we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and go to work on our own areas and then bring up the group with the rest of us.

All of us players are taking that performance to heart and that’s not the effort that we want to give.

The basic fundamentals of football, handballs, kicks, pressure, that wasn’t there on the day, and that’s something that’s in our control.

This is about us players being able to put what we’re learning during the week into action, and I think that’s where we’re struggling a little bit.

This is also our fourth game as a group; we’ve had so many injuries and list turnover over the last couple years.

That continuity, that connection amongst each other, that’s something that we’re growing, and I think as the year goes on, I feel like we’re just going to play better and better footy, but at the moment, it’s putting two and two together.

Langford on… Club connection and spirit

Internally, this is the best I’ve felt at the footy Club in terms of our connection and off‑field stuff.

It’s not quite translating on‑field just yet, but we’ve made a lot of changes.

Scotty (Brad Scott) over the last three years has really changed our culture, and this is my 12th year in the system, my 12th year at Essendon and I can confidently say this is the best I’ve felt about this group and the direction and the hunger of this group.

We’ve obviously made some really big changes with our high‑performance staff, which is something that we needed to do.

I think we’ve got the most coaches in the comp at the moment, they’re listening to us players, they’re investing in us players, and like I said, it’s up to us to now take this Club forward.

Langford on… team defence

I think as a team we need to do better, our team defence isn’t up to an AFL standard and we’ve seen that.

I think we’ve conceded over 300 marks over the last two weeks, so it’s not individuals it’s all of us.

We’re all in this together and that’s something that we’re going to continually work on and try and improve.

Langford on… consistency as the priority

Obviously, we’re going out to win, but whether it’s a win or loss, we want to be able to play consistent football across four quarters.

If we can see that improvement, that just builds week on week, that’s what we’re aiming for.

We’re going out there to win, but at the same time we want to be able to see that our processes are right and that we can stick to the process for long periods.

When the game’s up against us, as we’ve seen in both games, the swing of momentum in ten minutes is massive in today’s game and teams can pile on a lot of points.

Being able to arm wrestle that momentum swing back is important.

Langford on… the broader rebuild and belief

It’s been a while since we’ve had that consistent winning culture, and like I’ve mentioned, Scotty’s come in three years ago, and he’s been able to make drastic changes to our culture and I feel like this is the first time we’ve been able to have that clear air in front of us and he’s done everything he can, now it’s on to us players.

It is frustrating for myself, I’ve been here 12 years, for our fans, even longer.

We’ve got a lot to work on, but it’s all of us, the fight’s there, the players are hungry, our young players, as we’re seeing, they’re really starting to come on.

It’s just the rest of us holding up our end of the bargain.

Langford on… Nate Caddy

That’s probably the best I’ve seen him play (round two against Port).

He’s such an athletic freak that he makes us look pretty good at times and when he looks beat, he can win the contest or halve the contest, and I was just really happy for him to be able to go out and have a really good game.

I’m really excited to continually play with him and again, it’s shown the amount of effort that he’s put in, both individually with coaches and we’re starting to see that in his footy.

Langford on… Zach Merrett’s impact

Zach was in our leadership group this morning, he’s right in it amongst us.

He’s not shying away from everything, he knows he needs to improve as well in certain areas, as we all do. But now he’s right amongst it with us.

He’s a leader of this group, he’s been a Captain of this football Club, leadership group, captaincy, vice‑captaincy, that’s all just a title, we could put another half a dozen players in that group if we wanted to and we do, we filter them in as it’s part of their development.

Zach’s got so much experience, he’s our most experienced player, his insights would be lost if we didn’t include him in a lot of these chats.