You know, even the best goal kickers get it wrong at times.
Who here remembers the 1995 Rugby League World Cup and the Semi-final between Australia and New Zealand at Huddersfield? A late Kevin Iro try in the corner locked the scores at 20-all and Matthew Ridge had a sideline kick to win the game for the Kiwis and knock us out of the tournament. A kick we had seen him put over the black dot many times when playing for Manly.
I wonder how Bozo felt at that point knowing that it was Ridge lining up the kick?
Well, he shanked it big time, it never even got close. And of course Australia went on to win 30-20 in extra time.
I didn’t see the trial, can DCE kick or are we still just clutching at straws?
At one point DCE was a very, very good goal kicker. He was our top point scorer in the U/20s in I think 2008 or 2009, and he was the top point scorer in the Qld Cup when playing for the Sunshine Coast in 2010 with a reputation of being able to kick goals from just about anywhere. But he was given the kicking duties at Manly in 2011 when Killer was reluctant to do so, and he seemed to lose confidence under the pressure. Ever since then his goal kicking has been patchy at best.
I'm with you Sparty . Lets look at the big picture
Lets look at the final top 8 where the teams are even and the games are tight .
Teams that go into those close games without a good goal kicker will get their ass kicked .
A good goal kicker is a game breaker .
Memories are made of this....
As good as that kick was, in both games 1 and 3 at Lang Park, Snoz couldn't buy a goal and some of his kicks, even easier ones than his game winning kick at the SFS, missed by the proverbial country mile. And those missed kicks ultimately cost NSW the series because Mal Meninga didn't have a much better time of it with his kicking for Qld, but he nailed them when it counted. People have questioned why Tim Sheens picked Snoz to kick over Greg Alexander and Rod Wishart when they were regular kickers for Penrith and Illawarra respectively, while Snoz had rarely kicked a goal since Matthew Ridge joined Manly in 1990, and before that he had generally shared the kicking with Mal Cochrane.
Having a quality goal kicker (around 80% or better these days) is a big asset to any side. But ideally you want that player to also be good enough to be part of the team on merit, unlike American football where they have specialist kickers who only ever get game time when there is a goal to be kicked.