Goalkicker
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Would be great if Jordie could take the kicks and just let Beauden be Beauden. That also means him bloody staying at 10 for the entire damn game. Moving him to fb at that stage of the game makes zero sense.
IMHO a truly great 10 also kicks the goals so BB might have to settle for being a very good 10 rather than a great.
What I would find interesting is BB's kicking stats overseas vs NZ. Iirc he kicked well on the EOYT and in Argentina. Ironically he seems to kick like shit at home.
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JB. Kid is a star in the making. I have no confidence in BB consistently hitting 80% which is the required international standard.
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I don't see any reason why we shouldn't expect/demand that both Barretts, Sopoaga and even Dagg to up their overall goal kicking games.
Hansen has been ambivalent to it and there has been no focus on it, we don't even have a dedicated skills coach for it - is it really that hard to get Daryl Halligan in to do sessions with these boys?
Hansen often talks about constantly resetting standards and improving constantly. How about setting the goal for having the best goal kicking come the next world cup and invest time/effort into that?
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if you're a professional player, and as coordinated as these guys are, you shouldn't be missing kicks from in front. it's as simple as that. so do the work required. better still have 3 or 4 guys do the work. every day, together. then whoever is best gets the gig on game day.
position is totally irrelevant to goal kicking. playing 10 means you need to be able to kick from hand, nothing else.
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Teaching my 8 year old son how to kick goals yesterday and I smacked a couple over from out near half way (albeit pretty much straight in front) and he asked why I didn't kick for the all blacks. Could only offer up that I can't tackle for Shit. Also slow, unfit and couldn't throw a skip pass to save myself
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@JK said in Goalkicker:
Could only offer up that I can't tackle for Shit. Also slow, unfit and couldn't throw a skip pass to save myself
Well on the basis of those skills I've got a contract to play wing for the Hurricanes (upgrade on Savea), start from there and you can work your way into AB contention.
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If you are missing these ones out in front, then it is more likely a minor technique flaw.
Fox has often mention similarities in the mechanics of a golf swing and kicking the ball, mental strength can help overcome poor technique, but when things go wrong, the flaws in your technique get exaggerated.
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Can somebody pls refresh my (fast-fading) memory...
When DC started as AB he was a centre, but mostly a bench replacement... did he ever start a test match at centre? And if so, was he primary goalkicker? (Making me think a player doesn't have to be a 10 or 15 to shot for goal. Piri wasn't shithot as a goalkicker either, but we gave him the job when required.)
Also makes me think about how Frano Botica, who was a BB of his day, wasn't getting selected over Fox, who wasn't nearly the magician that Botica was but had a golden boot and a match-winner.
(Later irony of course Frano jumped code and became one of very best League kickers.)
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@Salacious-Crumb said in Goalkicker:
Can somebody pls refresh my (fast-fading) memory...
When DC started as AB he was a centre, but mostly a bench replacement... did he ever start a test match at centre? And if so, was he primary goalkicker? (Making me think a player doesn't have to be a 10 or 15 to shot for goal. Piri wasn't shithot as a goalkicker either, but we gave him the job when required.)
Also makes me think about how Frano Botica, who was a BB of his day, wasn't getting selected over Fox, who wasn't nearly the magician that Botica was but had a golden boot and a match-winner.
(Later irony of course Frano jumped code and became one of very best League kickers.)
DC's 3 or 4 first test starts were all at second five (which I assume that's what you mean by centre).
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@Salacious-Crumb and then jumped back and was knocking them over from everywhere.
His massive improvement coincided with the legalization of kicking tees. Whether that allowed him to improve a technical deficiency, gave him a psychological boost or a bit of both we will never know but if he had started out kicking the way he ended it would be a case of Fox who?
Definitely a salient lesson for anyone to work on their weaknesses.
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@Nepia said in Goalkicker:
DC's 3 or 4 first test starts were all at second five (which I assume that's what you mean by centre).
Yup. Did he place-kick or was that Carlos?
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@Salacious-Crumb said in Goalkicker:
@Nepia said in Goalkicker:
DC's 3 or 4 first test starts were all at second five (which I assume that's what you mean by centre).
Yup. Did he place-kick or was that Carlos?
Carter primarily, he also had a test there outside Donald back in 2008 when they were trying to bring him along.
McAlister also had a couple of turns kicking from 12 where he was preferred to Evans & Delany. Evans kicked from fullback over McAlister in the 2007 RWC so not sure what was going on there.
Ben Blair was preferred to Spencer on the Cantablacks tour test against England.
Aside from those and the aforementioned MacDonald I don't think we've had a non-10 as the primary kicker in the pro era.
edit: and of course Weepu in the 2011 RWC QF/SF and Cruden's debut test a year earlier.
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@Salacious-Crumb said in Goalkicker:
Can somebody pls refresh my (fast-fading) memory...
When DC started as AB he was a centre, but mostly a bench replacement... did he ever start a test match at centre? And if so, was he primary goalkicker? (Making me think a player doesn't have to be a 10 or 15 to shot for goal. Piri wasn't shithot as a goalkicker either, but we gave him the job when required.)
Also makes me think about how Frano Botica, who was a BB of his day, wasn't getting selected over Fox, who wasn't nearly the magician that Botica was but had a golden boot and a match-winner.
(Later irony of course Frano jumped code and became one of very best League kickers.)
The main difference between kicking in league and union, in league it's nearly all conversions , the long range penalties are almost non existent, can be a little misleading at times when comparing the two.
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@kiwiinmelb quite. But Frano was also a kicking machine when he came back to the real game
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@Bones he did.
Around that time, it was him, Halligan and Ridge were leading kickers in the NRL werent they?
Didnt Halligan set some record for consecutive kicks?
Still recall watching him kick goal after goal one time when Waikato hammered NOrthland in the NPC at Okara.
