New Maitland captain Alex Langbridge says a 30-minute conversation with Pickers legend Terry Pannowitz gave him an inkling of just what a huge honour it will be to lead the proud club.
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"I was lucky enough to get Terry Pannowitz's number so I got the opportunity to give him a call and have a half hour chat with him," Langbridge said.
"That was a massive honour and learning about his history and his achievements, just amazing sort of stuff.
"It is always an honour to lead any group of men but it's particularly the case with the one we have at the moment. They are a good bunch of guys with some really good football ability so it's an honour to be put in a position to lead those guys.
"As well the opportunity to lead Maitland which is such a storied region and club. I'm really looking forward to hopefully doing the jersey proud and hopefully the role of captaincy proud too."
Langdbridge was named captain with Sam Anderson vice-captain of Maitland's President's Cup side at the season launch at Club Maitland City on Saturday.
Reeve Howard will captain the Pickers' Tier 1 team in the Newcastle competition, Amy Dufour and Bree Lacy are joint captains of the women's Blues Tag team and Noah Ryan will lead the under-19s.
A student of the game, Langbridge has researched the Pickers' history and been schooled in the region's proud league history by coach Matt Lantry who lured him to Maitland after the two were at the helm of Western Suburbs' 2019 premiership.
"Matty (Lantry) has filled me in about the region and about its strength as a rugby league power house and I think I've also been always aware of how strong Maitland has been as a region.
"Matty was the first and foremost reason for joining the club, without him to put that idea in my head to come out here then I don't think it would have happened.
"The opportunity to play with my brother as well, so he'll hopefully get a shot somewhere in our President's Cup as well as the chance to play with the community that is just so passionate.
"Playing against Maitland and seeing the crowds that they get, I'm really looking forward to getting a taste of that and doing the region and the locals proud.
"Hopefully we're playing good football and a brand of football and style of football that the locals will be proud of and hopefully get behind."
Langbridge captained the Newcastle Rebels to victory against the Ron Massey representative team in 2019 and then played with the best of the Ron Massey team in the NSW Pioneers.
He said based on his experience from those game he is confident the Pickers have the playing group to not only be competitive but win the once-off President's Cup title.
"We will be thereabouts, no doubt about that. The players we've got are all sort of at least Ron Massey level, so based off what I've experienced with that Pioneers and Rebels stuff every guy in our side can certainly hold their gloves up," he said.
"I think our expectations have got to be to win the competition, anything less will probably be seen as a failure. That will certainly be my mindset and hopefully everyone else's mindset going into the it. We will hold our gloves up and give it a good crack."
As for beyond the 2020 season, Langbridge said at aged 27 he was keen to play into at least his 30s at Maitland and add a number of fresh premierships to the club's proud history.
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