Bad kicking is bad football. Good players kick goals under pressure. Unfortunately, good players miss them, too.
At the weekend, West Coast and Hawthorn staged a remarkable match, just ten goals between them in good conditions. A lot of good players missed gettable goals.
West Coast went goalless for the first half. Their score, 0:12:12 included two rushed behinds. Not many teams win if they don’t kick a goal in the first half. Hawthorn, though, had been strangled by the press. They were inaccurate too, 2:7:19 and led by seven points.
At three-quarter time, the score was amazing, 2:16:28 to 3:13:31 with the Hawks up by three points. Both sides could’ve been five goals up. West Coast blew Hawthorn away by kicking the first three goals of the last quarter. It was enough to ensure victory by five points, 5:21:51 to 5:16:46.
In a tough, taxing contest, Hawthorn’s Lance Franklin could’ve been the hero. Franklin, though, kicked one goal from seven shots. Seven of West Coast’s points were rushed.
Media reports suggest it was a gripping match, the crowd enthralled throughout. Thankfully I didn’t see it. When each side kicks five goals, it’s a hard game to watch.
It many ways it was similar to a game from eras ago, when North Melbourne played Collingwood at Arden Street on 5 April 1980.
North played like losers all day, trailing by four goals at half time, 5:12:42 to 2:6:18. In the third term North kicked fought back, going into the last change five points down, 5:11:41 to 5:16:46.
The final margin remained five points. In perfect conditions, a sunny day without wind, Collingwood kicked 7:19:61 to 7:14:56.
Watching North squander opportunities in the second was frustrating half. Footballers who could kick a perfect pass to a teammate on the wing couldn’t kick straight in front of goal.
A lot of good players missed goals that day. Kerry Good kicked 3:3 for North. Kevin Morris kicked three points for Collingwood while Russell Ohlsen kicked 1.3. Had Good kicked an extra goal, North might’ve won.
North’s Xavier Tanner missed two easy shots on goal. Tanner had an excuse. His left eye swelled shut midway through the game, most likely due to errant elbow or forearm. The swelling would’ve stopped a boxing match but Tanner bravely played on. In the last term he missed a sitter in the pocket from fifteen metres out.
It was a crucial miss. Every miss was a crucial miss. Bad kicking could’ve cost Collingwood the game. It certainly cost North the game.
Same could be said for West Coast and Hawthorn on Saturday night.
The two games played were played 32 years apart, but there are tangents. The margin was the same – five points. The winners and losers had the same number of scoring shots, 26 to 21. The game featured teams expected to play finals…
Most clubs who have 26 scoring shots usually kick between 10 and 17 goals. Often a game will feature one accurate team and an inaccurate team. It is rare when both clubs can’t kick straight.
On occasion, bad kicking becomes contagious. When shots at goal are consistently missed, the pressure rises and confidence sags. The next shot at goal becomes more important, the kicker under immense pressure because those before him missed.
The players of 2012 are quicker, fitter, bigger and stronger than those who lined up for Collingwood and North Melbourne in 1980. They’re better skilled, too. Goal kicking, though, remains a skill that hasn’t improved.
Great full forwards kick six or seven goals from every ten shots. Tony Lockett had an accuracy percentage of 69.74. Matthew Lloyd’s accuracy was 68.59 percent while Peter Hudson’s was 68.07 percent.
The percentages seem low, but every time a footballer kicks at goal, he is challenged physically by distance or opponent and psychologically by angle, conditions and the score.
Goals are missed from ten metres out. They’re missed from 50 metres out. They’re missed on the run, from snaps in the pocket or dribbled kicks from forty metres out.
Set shots, though, cause the most angst when they’re missed, because they’re without physical pressure. Set shots seem simple. All they require is a straight kick, and that isn’t hard to do.
It’s a common lament, he missed from 30 metres out, under no pressure. But each shot on goal is pressured. Goals win matches. Missing can lose matches, so the pressure is apparent any time a footballer lines up the sticks.
Back in 1977, Ron Barassi gave North Melbourne’s forwards an extended session of goal kicking practice. After the training session, Barassi was miffed. His forwards, he thought, had shoddy techniques. They dropped the ball too high, their follow-through was too shallow or they didn’t run straight at the goals when they kicked.
Barassi’s disgust at his forwards became apparent on grand final day. North drew with Collingwood, 9:22:76 to 10:16:76. North’s Arnold Briedis kicked seven points from gettable shots and could’ve cost North a premiership.
In the replay, Briedis was best on ground, gathering 28 possessions and kicking five goals three. North won by 27 points.
Missing a goal is a simple skill error, and there are hundreds of skill errors each game. Lining up is a heavy burden. Players nowadays practice a dedicated routine for set shots. They listen to crowd noise through an iPod. Each shot they take is under simulated pressure…
And nothing seems to work. Accuracy is joy or misery, a week to week proposition, as Briedis proved.
Bad kicking for goal remains bad football. It is joy or misery. No coach, no routine and no simulation will ever change a footballer’s ability to kick straight.
Pressure in front of goal can’t be simulated. Missing must be forgiven, because players are always going to miss, no matter how simple a shot on goal seems.
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