I know I am not alone in this concern. Despite what any will say in describing the games evolution from a relatively simple game of possession and position via contested plays into a faster moving, rolling massed encounter one thing has remained constant. Its a game where the ball is in the main kicked. In order for you to retain possession and indeed ultimately score foot skills must be good. In simple terms you ought to be ale to kick the ball efficiently and accurately to advantage.

So why...WHY do we always seem to have such deplorable skills in the area. Our kicking is that bad at times you could line up a string of barns and they'd all be quite safe from attack !!

So much changes in a game in you are actually kicking goals. So much also changes if you can kick and retain the ball. I sense so much is spent in terms of time and energy of the 'higher' understandings of the game that its all rendered moot if you cant do the most basic aspect of the game well..kicking a footy.

Surely this ought to be the most basic requirement of our players and yet week in week out so many get a guernsey when they are totally inept at this skill.

WHY ??

It's been done to death, but part of the problem can be attributed to the recruiting of the 2003-2007 era, when the priority wasn't good skills, but was strength and hard-ness. Hence we have Bartram, Sylvia, McLean, Moloney, Jones and Dunn, all of whom seem to do alright in the clearances/hard-ball stuff. But, Moloney aside, none of them are good kicks.

disregard the last post. what utter rubbish. sylvia and mclean are good kicks too. The reason is because of 'versatility' at the draft table. We have used high draft picks on players like Morton and Bate that are versatile. all it means is that they are a jack of all trades, but a master of none..so are basically average no matter where they go.

There are such devices as coaching and skills honing. It , to me seems pointless in attempting to advance the teams tactics and strategems when you dont have the basis skills in your kit bag. Just seems to me many of our team just arent getting any better in the foot department.

  Freak said:

disregard the last post. what utter rubbish. sylvia and mclean are good kicks too. The reason is because of 'versatility' at the draft table. We have used high draft picks on players like Morton and Bate that are versatile. all it means is that they are a jack of all trades, but a master of none..so are basically average no matter where they go.

McLean is not a good kick, sorry Freak. He's just not.

But I agree with your versatility point.

Yes, the kicking skills are not good, but they are made much worse when the players have few options to kick it to.

1) They are often trying to hit targets up field who have multiple opponents on them.

2) If there are no options up field (literally no one there or players are outnumbered) the player with the ball has to stop and wait for an option to present itself, all the while the opposition teams have more time to flood back and apply pressure to the player with the ball. More pressure on the player with the ball means a greater chance of the kick being ineffective.

It was excruciatingly painful to see Melbourne continually handpass the ball through the middle, but so often the players were forced to because they had no options ahead of them to kick it to. For the most part, the problem wasn't that the players weren't kicking it, they just had no one to kick it to.

EDIT: There was at least one occasion when Bruce did have options ahead of him but still chose to handpass.

  Clint Bizkit said:

Yes, the kicking skills are not good, but they are made much worse when the players have few options to kick it to.

1) They are often trying to hit targets up field who have multiple opponents on them.

2) If there are no options up field (literally no one there or players are outnumbered) the player with the ball has to stop and wait for an option to present itself, all the while the opposition teams have more time to flood back and apply pressure to the player with the ball. More pressure on the player with the ball means a greater chance of the kick being ineffective.

It was excruciatingly painful to see Melbourne continually handpass the ball through the middle, but so often the players were forced to because they had no options ahead of them to kick it to. For the most part, the problem wasn't that the players weren't kicking it, they just had no one to kick it to.

You are 100% right. If there was a great post thingo on this board, I'd be giving you one.

I thought that our handball skills were much worse. There were a lot of times when we missed a target from a handball, or handballed to a player who was going to get tackled. Our general kicking was ok, but shots at goal were a different story.

ha ha we are terrible kicks, but it comes from pressure, if the handballs we do actually hit the target the guy would have time to kick the ball without being hammered.

The kicking into the F50 was deplorable and the goal kicking of those who we pay to so was worse, I hope Jetta is having nerves, cos his kicking worries me greatly.

I heard an interesting comment from a recently retired footballer, i think it was James Hird, who said it's no so much the kicking that's the problem it's the decision making. He used Kirk as an example of someone who's disposal you'd classify as poor, but he knows his limitations and how to work within them. I'd say our decision making is what is killing us, look at the 3rd quarter after we got our first goal, and the 4th quarter; we were quick, confident, and direct. As soon as we started doing the short chipping again we feel to our knees. The moment that ended the game was when Morton played on quickly after the crows' last behind, which was the right thing to do, and he got stuck in 5 minds as to what to do with it; if he'd gone with the first option (a player leading just beyond the defensive 50) rather than stop, look for and handball, and then chipping poorly to Moloney, well who knows.

I remember the first year Jones played regular football for us he was told to go with the first option, because it's usually the best. If you move it quickly it prevents the stupid stopping, propping, and turning it over routine we see every week.