The life and times of Australian Rugby League Legend Paul Langmack

51 Thoughts was privileged to speak with Canterbury Bulldogs, Western Suburbs, New South Wales and Australian legend, Paul Langmack, we got his opinion on the game and how it has developed since he played.

Paul Langmack will be remembered as a man who set many records throughout his Footballing career. He will go down in Australian Rugby League history as one of the best Second Rowers to play for the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs, Western Surburbs, New South Wales and Australia. The nimble lock gave it his all and never backed away from a challenge.

Paul grew up in Parramatta, where he played his entire Junior League. When he lived in Parramatta, he was privileged to captain Parramatta in the Harold Matthews Cup and SG Ball competitions. He also captained New South Wales, in 1980, the Under 15s team that toured New Zealand, and the Australian school boys. Paul himself ended up playing for Bankstown, Canterbury.

His brother, Peter, who is fourteen years Paul’s senior, played Rugby League for Parramatta and Penrith in First Grade. Peter holds the record for scoring the first 5 consecutive tries in a game against St George Illawara, when he played for Penrith and won 22-21. League greats Graham Langland’s and Billy Smith were on the opposition team. As Paul puts it “Rugby League has always been in his blood”.

After completing his High School certificate in 1982 he changed clubs and played for Canterbury Bankstown. This move was driven by 2 things, firstly his old coach, (name) and Paul used to go and watch Canterbury play every home game, they  would stand behind the goalposts and he would teach Paul about running at gaps, they would watch Steve Mortimer and all them pass the ball.

Secondly, Canterbury had a scholarship scheme, which helped players financially to further their education so that they could pursue another career after their retirement. The first recipient of the scholarship was George Perponeus he became a doctor after retiring from Rugby League. Paul received a scholarship with it he went on to University and worked for his Bachelor of Business, specializing in Marketing.

Paul had a superb start to his First Grade career in 1983, when he debuted for Canterbury. Paul won 3 NSWRL crowns in his first six years of playing League. Paul says “I played in the ‘83 grand final against Parramatta and we got beaten 26-0. We won the comp in ’84 and in ‘85, we got beaten by Parramatta in ‘86, we reached the semis in ‘87 and we won the comp again in 1988. So that was my first six years out of school, I played in four grand finals.”

He played 315 games in his career for the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs, Western Surburbs and Sydney City Roosters. He represented New South Wales five times and played for Australia in the 1986 “invincible” side along with “The King”, Wally Lewis, Queensland Legend Mal Menninga and New South Wales Legends Steve “blocker” Roach and Paul Sironen.

During Paul’s career, he won the Rugby League Weeks magazines player of the year in 1992 and the prestigious Dally M Captain of the year in 1995.

Paul left Canterbury in 1989 and says that “Warren Ryan was our coach in Canterbury in 1983, ’84, ‘ ‘85, and ‘86, he went to Wests and took myself, David Gillespie,  Joe Thomas and Andrew Farrar…… we all went together”. He prescribes to the view that , when we play sport, a good coach can help make a team great, and Warren Ryan was a great coach because in Paul’s words “he was 10-20 years ahead of the game”

In 1999 Paul retired. The injuries that he had sustained over his career were beginning to catch up. At age 34 the last Rugby League team Paul played for were the South City Sydney Roosters.