The Kicking Game

[Sir Chadley]

With kicking such a vital part of the game today I just wanted to get people's thoughts on what constitutes a good kicking game and what teams or players are the best at it.

Can you win games if your kicking game isn't the best?

 

[JimBob]

With kicking such a vital part of the game today I just wanted to get people's thoughts on what constitutes a good kicking game and what teams or players are the best at it.

Can you win games if your kicking game isn't the best?

Well, we showed in our last two games that we can win with easily the worst long range kicker in the comp and a rookie playing 5/8 for the first time. We know putting boot to ball is our biggest weakness IMO, and we've worked around that. If we're in their forty, Robbo puts the bomb up, if we're any further out, Ennis kicks from dummy half or Graham takes the kick.

It's impossible to have a good kicking game without a good kick chase. You could be putting in perfectly weighted kicks that stop a meter from the deadball line all game, but if no ones chasing, it's useless.

Best team to use a kicking game is easily the Rabbits, they pretty much won the Nines tournament of the back of Reynolds kicking game. It'll be interesting to see how they go without Reynolds, lot of pressure on Kearey.

 

[Thresher]

The first rule of the Kicking Game is: You do not talk about the Kicking Game. The second rule of the Kicking Game is: You do not talk about the Kicking Game. Third rule of the Kicking Game: Someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the kicking is over.

Fourth rule: only two guys to a kick. Fifth rule: one kick at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: no shirts, no shoes. Seventh rule: Kicks will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: If this is your first night at the Kicking Game, you have to kick.

 

[Sutty]

With kicking such a vital part of the game today I just wanted to get people's thoughts on what constitutes a good kicking game and what teams or players are the best at it.

Can you win games if your kicking game isn't the best?

A good kicking game I think involves the ability to either force repeat sets from short-range, and from long-range the ability to kick long into space and put the opposition on the back-foot (Through not kicking down the fullback's throat, preferably being able to turn them around without kicking the ball dead in-goal). Obviously pretty simplified explanation but whatever.

You can win games without the best kicking game if you are in-charge of field position in other ways, like rolling up the fields with forwards and preventing the enemy from doing the same - Or if you complete your sets but the enemy makes errors and gives away penalties and free metres that way. Obviously luck comes into it as well like our loss to the Titans the other week, where they fluked a few tries.

But damn, in clutch games having a good kicking game goes a long way in pressure situations. Probably why Mitchell Pearce is such a dud at Origin level, his long kicking is atrocious.

 

[Littleshark]

I think it comes down to having a variety of options, now having Ennis means our opposition can't be certain we will simply see Robson kick to the Fullback every set.

 

[HaroldBishop]

Well, we showed in our last two games that we can win with easily the worst long range kicker in the comp and a rookie playing 5/8 for the first time. We know putting boot to ball is our biggest weakness IMO, and we've worked around that. If we're in their forty, Robbo puts the bomb up, if we're any further out, Ennis kicks from dummy half or Graham takes the kick.

It's impossible to have a good kicking game without a good kick chase. You could be putting in perfectly weighted kicks that stop a meter from the deadball line all game, but if no ones chasing, it's useless.

Best team to use a kicking game is easily the Rabbits, they pretty much won the Nines tournament of the back of Reynolds kicking game. It'll be interesting to see how they go without Reynolds, lot of pressure on Kearey.

True but we need to remember we've had 59% of the ball in the past two weeks. That's a massive stat and obviously won't continue to happen.

 

[djhabib]

Settling touch finders all game

 

[hamsy44]

With kicking such a vital part of the game today I just wanted to get people's thoughts on what constitutes a good kicking game and what teams or players are the best at it.

Can you win games if your kicking game isn't the best?

You can certainly win plenty of games if you don't have the best kicking game - so long as you limit where your opponents kick from.

That is what we have done well the last couple of weeks - limit the effectiveness of their kickers and then making sure when we kick its not wasted. If you can't kick long to the grass you put it up into their 10 and get a chase in. They get tackled inside their 20 and you have the field position.