Bad Kicking is bad football. A basic but true notion that Collingwood, a club that has an astronomical off-field spending total of $16million doesn’t seem to give much credence to. And after kicking 13.17 on Thursday night and having their VFL team kick 13.21 on the weekend, it’s being displayed plainly.
You would think Mick Malthouse or Mr. $800 000 a year, who is out of contract would rate one of the main skills that will provide him a new contract, but that clearly isn’t the case.
Now you may think that this may be an over-reaction but when I read that Josh Fraser said “It’s an area that’s not worked on at training a hell of a lot” after the loss on Thursday night, my blood was boiling considering how many chances the Pies wasted throughout the match. He then went on to partly blame it on fitness which is hilarious considering the ‘high-altitude’ pre-season camp to Arizona, the high-tech methods used and the type of rotations we do to keep the players fresh throughout the game.
So what have the players and coaching staff been working on at training?
Going by the first three rounds I would say most of the time has been spent on finding out new and more adventurous ways to hug the boundary.
It could be argued on Thursday’s game that the players that kicked inaccurately were the ones that ran the hardest throughout the game and that’s why they missed. But really, what’s the point if you are going to run so hard for the ball like Lockyer and Leigh Brown did, and have a only a slight chance of kicking a goal due to fatigue and poor goal kicking technique? These players are professionals so is it too much to ask for them to kick it through the big sticks when they have the chance?
It could be argued that poor-kicking was a factor in Chris Tarrant’s exit of the club. Could the same happen to Travis Cloke? He is a key-forward who doesn’t have that many scoring shots as it is and when he actually has his 2-3 shots a game, he has kicked more behinds than goals.
The best current example of the importance of goal-kicking practice goes to Brendan Fevola on the weekend. After not being able to practice his goal kicking thanks to his injured heel, he kicked an uncharacteristic 4.7. Given that Carlton only lost that game by 4 points and how even the competition is, those missed set shots could be the difference between an important top-4 position just a spot in the 8 which pretty much puts you out of the race for the flag.
There is no better pressure than scoreboard pressure. It is the type of inferred pressure that deflates the opposition and helps keep the opposition crowd out of the game.
It’s that type of pressure and skill that seems to be greatly underestimated by the Collingwood coaching staff.
What a shame considering that it is a skill that will actually win them games.
References:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25325368-19763,00.html
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/blues-pies-lift-spending/2009/02/05/1233423406645.html
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25339271-19742,00.html
Tags: Brendan Fevola, Chris Tarrant, Josh Fraser, Leigh Brown, Mick Malthouse, Tarkyn Lockyer, Travis Cloke
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