I know that this is an old chestnut but because the team played so well last Friday I think our below par kicking game was overlooked.
It actually reminded me of the 96 qualifying final carve up of the Sharks (24-0). It was one of the most dominant big match displays I've ever seen but the kicking game was actually funny it was so bad. That was with Cliffy, Ridge and Tooves.
Not many of the long kicks went to space on Friday night and the attacking kicks (from Ox, Jamie and Snake) were mostly too long or not high enough etc.
I have been watching the long kicking stat in the Big League with interest this season. As luck would have it, lack of space has seen that stat left out this week. It shows total long kicks for the main kickers and then shows the number that went to space and the number that went straight to the player. There is no % shown but you can obviously work it out.
The majority of the main kickers are just below or above the 50% mark which I think is pretty poor. Orford was at about 40% (to open space) earlier in the season which is crap but has progressively worked it up to the early 50's by Rd 17. This is in line with what I have witnessed in matches (ie: some improvement). I'm pretty sure it would be back down to 50% or under after Friday.
From memory the two standouts are Soward and Kimmorley who are up in the 60-70% range. The few extra seconds that this allows the chasers to get set are vital and can really have an impact on your average field position.
Against a team like the Storm, kicking to space or the sideline is a vital ingredient to success. Hopefully we see a better result on Friday. This includes Lyon and Snake because they've got to practice/perfect these things in the live match conditions now so that if Orford is tackled on the 5th or comes from the field in the finals our kicking game can't just collapse.
How does everyone else see this?
It actually reminded me of the 96 qualifying final carve up of the Sharks (24-0). It was one of the most dominant big match displays I've ever seen but the kicking game was actually funny it was so bad. That was with Cliffy, Ridge and Tooves.
Not many of the long kicks went to space on Friday night and the attacking kicks (from Ox, Jamie and Snake) were mostly too long or not high enough etc.
I have been watching the long kicking stat in the Big League with interest this season. As luck would have it, lack of space has seen that stat left out this week. It shows total long kicks for the main kickers and then shows the number that went to space and the number that went straight to the player. There is no % shown but you can obviously work it out.
The majority of the main kickers are just below or above the 50% mark which I think is pretty poor. Orford was at about 40% (to open space) earlier in the season which is crap but has progressively worked it up to the early 50's by Rd 17. This is in line with what I have witnessed in matches (ie: some improvement). I'm pretty sure it would be back down to 50% or under after Friday.
From memory the two standouts are Soward and Kimmorley who are up in the 60-70% range. The few extra seconds that this allows the chasers to get set are vital and can really have an impact on your average field position.
Against a team like the Storm, kicking to space or the sideline is a vital ingredient to success. Hopefully we see a better result on Friday. This includes Lyon and Snake because they've got to practice/perfect these things in the live match conditions now so that if Orford is tackled on the 5th or comes from the field in the finals our kicking game can't just collapse.
How does everyone else see this?
