4 hours ago, Superunknown said:

Describes my game yesterday. Birdie par 5s , 300m drive into a 319 par 4, then just a raft of double bogeys, some very handsy hooks. Blargh. Not a fan of Sim Max 2s though. 2 weeks ago during a lesson flushing nearly every single iron.

it’s all practice. And a horrible game 😂

I've all too often experienced those days of starting like a natural, losing your swing somewhere during the round and then feeling like the rest of the round is a waste of time. Wanting to force shutdown and fast forward to the next one.

Max should kick from shorter distances with his left foot. All thoughts would be on making contact rather than accuracy.

He's about to be on triple m rush hour so goal kicking might come up

2 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

Even Maxy himself rates that goal as the most important…

Tommy Pickles!!! 😂 Classic Max !!!@

On triple m he said when he was lining up for goal he totally forget to go through his routine.

3 hours ago, layzie said:

I've all too often experienced those days of starting like a natural, losing your swing somewhere during the round and then feeling like the rest of the round is a waste of time. Wanting to force shutdown and fast forward to the next one.

Let me know if you’re ever up Byron way for a hit!

No opposition is going to let anyone run by for a handball they want him to take a shot but surely we can have players 30 or 40 metres behind him looking like they are zoning and he can just pass back to them like we chip around when winding down the clock.

Nobody will expect someone to pass to a player in a worse position. Bison, X, Windsor, kozzie even Viney could easily find space by themselves much further out and be much more likely to slot it.

2 hours ago, Wrecker45 said:

No opposition is going to let anyone run by for a handball they want him to take a shot but surely we can have players 30 or 40 metres behind him looking like they are zoning and he can just pass back to them like we chip around when winding down the clock.

Nobody will expect someone to pass to a player in a worse position. Bison, X, Windsor, kozzie even Viney could easily find space by themselves much further out and be much more likely to slot it.

watching him i said to my friend, "i bet he tries to kick the rrs off the ball" and that "he should just do a short chip kick off 2 paces, or look for a handball backwards"

[censored], he was only 20m out, and sure enough he launched a high 60m kick rrs hook shot. dumbest thing i'd ever seen. except i'd seen max do it before.

he really needs to give himself a jolly good thrashing

On 20/04/2025 at 22:52, Adam The God said:

He's a shocking kick, but he still kicked the most important one down at the Cattery. Thanks Big Maxy!

Outside 50, Maxy is one of the best.

4 minutes ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

Outside 50, Maxy is one of the best.

Sure, but inside 20 he's not AFL standard.

9 hours ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

Outside 50, Maxy is one of the best.

Which led to an amusing post on another thread suggesting that if he marks a long way out of goal, an opponent should deliberately give away a 50m penalty.

On 22/04/2025 at 09:00, Brownie said:

Yep. He won us a game at the cattery years ago but he'll cost us one eventually.

Terrible kick and should be dishing it off until he takes the time needed to fix his technique.

It's a fundamental of the game and he's paid to execute it properly.

Yes I love him but FFS he's cost us some goals over the last couple of years

I'm with you on this.

As a captain when it's your turn to impact the scoreboard at a crucial time of the game you've simply got to kick those simple ones.

This isn't a one off by Gawn, this has been repetitive for so long now. I don't mean to be critical of his game because he really did play a fantastic game but for gods sake it only takes some small but yet so crucial to really undo all the good work the team puts in.

Thank christ for Langford though.. kids is going to be a big game winner in years to come. Can tell he'll stand up in those big moments.

13 minutes ago, sue said:

Which led to an amusing post on another thread suggesting that if he marks a long way out of goal, an opponent should deliberately give away a 50m penalty.

He should just go back and kick it from 50

On 12/06/2019 at 16:06, Chook said:

His ball drop is too high. It's an easy fix though — just tell him to lose 30cm.

Classic Chook.

But this has to be one of the more frustrating things. And not just with Max.

Last week was almost the perfect game from him so no complaints from me.

You aren't expecting a super accurate kick from any player over 2 meters. If you do it's a huge bonus.

But his set shot accuracy is so poor.

Three things that stand out for me.

The first is the last step. Which i've pointed out many times over the years.

Not always but mostly, ends up pointing like daffy duck out to the left. So where's the right follow through kicking leg going to end up pretty much any time he plants the daffy left launch foot? You guessed it... hard shank left. But imo that last faulty launch step is there because the method is flawed.

Secondly, there's the runway approach to the kick. Which is way too robotic and slow Imo. BBB is a similar height. He also has a long run up. But he B lined straight for the goals and by the time he hit the launch pad, he had some speed and momentum up. His follow through after the kick was going straight at the goals.

Thirdly, Max does the slow robotic (hesistant) run up even when he's only 35 meters out, or less! And from what i remember he also leans back as he kicks yes? Another potential nail in the kicking accuracy coffin even if the left foot is pointing straight at goal.

Those shots should be "find a target behind the goals, maybe directly behind the right post or just aim at the right post about half way up". Run in more quickly as if you're just hitting a standard field kick pass to a fellow player 20 - 35 meters away. Follow through off the kick towards the target.

All easy from here and i'm not over 2 meters tall. But wish someone would work with him and change it up. Should've happened years ago. I'm sure he's tried and tried and had help, but whatever the method, it ain't working and if anything he appears to have gotten worse in the last season or so.

Alternatively try and get the handball away to someone who's a good kick coming from behind. Or a short pass lateral to a designated kicker.

Same with Tracc's around the corner kicks. My gosh. No deliberate technique apparent. Just flop it on the boot and hope it curls through. Crazy stuff.

Even 2 meter tall Draper with his awkward technique, has a very deliberate around the corner technique. And it works. 9 from 9 attempts prior to his season ending injury.

Tracc looks like he CBB with anything deliberate and in a rush just to bang it through. You have to want to put an effective procedure (that works for you) in place by constant practice and minor adjustments.

Alot of room for improvement with Max & Tracc.

Edited April 23Apr 23 by Demon Dynasty

I posted this 5 years ago & yet his kicking for goal is no better.

It's quiet disgraceful that he can't kick a goal from 20 m out.

STEP 1 -- stop spinning the ball constantly before attempting to kick it -- focus on holding the ball still

STEP 2 -- move in a straight line and for God's sake stop running around on an arc to the right (unless you are > 50m from goal)

STEP 3 -- aim at the right hand goal post (because it will still curve right-to-left no matter what

STEP 4 -- G O A L

In our family we are sick and tired of screaming at the TV "aim at the right hand post, AIM AT THE RIGHT HAND POST" and then he aims at the middle and kicks it 5m-10m left of centre.

It does however make for a lot of excitement. I speak as a lump of a lad myself (194cm). Okay, I'm not 2m tall, but close enough. I can kick very straight.

Edited April 23Apr 23 by Frosticles

Missed another one LEFT again last night.

Missed another one left. 109 goals. 108 behinds in his career. Max knows he has goalkicking yips at times and says nothing can replicate game time pressure in kicking for goal. He definitely hooks left when he misses. It’s obvious in my run up and movement. I assume he now aims for the right hand post but seemingly not. Work to do Maxy

All I know is

Max is a CHAMPION. A true great. I’d say definitely the best Ruckman that I’ve seen in 50 years of watching the Dees (he’s ahead of the great Stynes and White)

Gawn’s goal v cats to win the minor premiership is epic and one of my best demon memories. As well as his 5 goals v cats in the preliminary final.

Maxy 👏👏👏👏👏👏

He shd know his short range aka up to 30 M and do the same kick to uses as for when he kicks a short pass - ie. No wind up, or follow through, head over ball.

It is absolutely astounding that @Frosticles & @Demon Dynasty can see and suggest such obvious flaws with Max's kicking for goal, and how they should be corrected, yet Mark Williams has been the kicking coach for ( what ) 5 years? .....and we see no improvement.

I would also add, do NOT turn your back on the goal, step backward and keep focussed on where it is going eventually. Then conduct the same procedure each and every time.

Do not aim for the right post, because that is where it is going, if you continue to use a faulty technique which swings left.

I find it hard to believe that if it was as simple to fix as you guys make it sound, Max and the squillion of professional coaches around him wouldn’t have fixed it by now. You’re essentially accusing Max of professional negligence, given the impact of his misses at times.

I also can’t think of an example ever where a truly dreadful set shot for goal has become a dead-eye overnight. I think the overwhelming evidence suggests that if they’re wonky by the time they get to AFL level, it’s going to be like that for their whole career.

If it were that easy, professional footballers would never miss set shots, but it happens all the time.

Asides from the 2021 Geelong examples, Max has kicked numerous clutch goals for us in the past. Fortunately his shots in the past few weeks haven't cost us games, so let's just hope that he starts kicking them when we really need one next time.

It's election season. But keep in mind, the further left he shanks, the closer to the right he eventually emerges. It takes time though.