Justin Langer was the perfect coach for the Australian cricket team, until the game left him behind

What comes to mind when you think of Justin Langer?

There's the modern version — cap backwards and barefoot on the outfield grass, all mindfulness and elite honesty and an arm around every shoulder.

Maybe it's the other side you see, the one with that too-familiar scowl and a look in the eye that could clear a room, or at least flip a Headingley rubbish bin.

But if you want one defining image of Justin Langer, one version that sums up what Test cricket and his country and the baggy green all mean to him, you have to go back to the Hobart Test of 1999.

In the midst of an improbable comeback, Shoaib Akhtar has just flushed him in the helmet with a bouncer of incomprehensible speed. In an instant, the camera gets in close enough to clock Langer's reaction.

Justin Langer has resigned as head coach of Australia's men's cricket team less than a month after a thumping Ashes series win.

A smile. Langer grins from ear to ear, with one false tooth missing, as he strolls down the pitch to tell batting partner Adam Gilchrist how much he loves this game.

Langer made his reputation as a player in moments like that. He would take as many blows to the body as was required to contribute to his beloved team. He would take a thousand Akhtar bumpers to the head before letting his mates down.

He wasn't alone in that era. That was Steve Waugh's Australia, when unprecedented success was predicated on the generational skills of a few and the unwavering devotion to the cause of the others.

Nothing has meant more to Justin Langer than the Australian cricket team. It's why within months of his playing career ending, his journey to the position of head coach began.

Langer started as a batting coach for the national team, then amid one of countless reviews