All time Wire team

Langer is what Sandow may have been if he had the right attitude. They were similar players in terms of both having a huge box of tricks in their game that could break open even a well organised defence: chip kicks, grubber kicks, dummies and darts. Our current team makes hard work out of wins. We'll be camped out on the other team's line working the ball from side to side hoping for some inspiration. Having either of those players would make a huge difference, because the team didn't even have to be particularly good (see the Langer era) to be competitive in games, because Langer kept finding ways to score points.

Langer did seem to be part of a cliquey ethos at the club which I didn't like - he came over with his Aussie mates and because he had links with DVDV. When DVDV left, Langer suddenly retired due to injury which magically healed when he got back to Aus so he could play for Brisbane and Queensland with Andrew Gee the next season. So I was never conned that Langer bled primrose and blue. BUT he did have a tough mentality that he'd been brought up on with Wayne Bennett and the Broncos all those years, that meant he had it together on the pitch, even if he'd been out socialising with his mates. He wasn't prone to distractions off the pitch making him lose fitness and focus on the pitch, which happened to Sandow (and Appo). You knew Langer was going to turn up ready to perform, and he was also single-minded enough not to let what was going on around him (poor play from his teammates) affect his own performance, whereas Tawera Nikau did. He liked playing the top teams too and he carved up Bradford, Wigan and Leeds.

Sandow had a history of being unreliable in Australia too, but you could see his quality as he had 2 or 3 unplayable seasons there - even in the NRL where teams have super structured defences, Sandow was breaking them down. The difference with Langer was he did that for about 15 years.

My ranking of those four would be:
Langer 2000
Sandow 2016
Austin 2019
Appo 2003

Sandow ahead of Austin on peak form because he had more variety to his game than Austin who is mainly a runner. But, in terms of attitude, Austin is streets ahead. Austin is the only one out of those who really looked like he wanted to play for Wire and had passion for the primrose and blue. Players like that are generally a better bet for delivering over a longer time frame (see Greg Mackey, Nat Wood).

Appo is bottom of the list for me. Even in his peak, when Briers got injured and he went to stand-off, I think his performances were exaggerated. Unlike Langer, you didn't really see him against the top teams. Appo was a bully of weaker teams who couldn't handle him when he ran the ball. He didn't have nearly the range of kicks that Langer and Sandow had, and I think Austin's footwork was better too, Appo was just quicker over a long distance. Against weak sides Appo kept finding opportunities to run and because he kicked goals too, he amassed high points totals.

Also Appo post-2003 gives a warning of what might have happened if Sandow had returned for the 2017 season. It was obvious his head wasn't in it, so he would have probably Appo'd out the rest of his contract and dragged down the dressing room.