Queensland State of Origin kicking riches

Francois Steyn is an absolute gun. He can kick goals and field goals from anywhere! Pity he wont be playing for the boks..

Be a sad day when rugby league resorts to kicking goals from 50 metres out. :(

Thurston has kicked beautifully for years now, not just in the 4N (not that this is news to Scott). Compare Thurston at the very end against NZ with Giteau at the very end against Scotland last weekend. Both were attempting a conversion from exactly the same spot. Ian Millward on the radio commentary I was listening to screamed "I'll tell you something for free - Thurston's going to kick this over the black dot". He did, and a loss was averted. Giteau never looked like making his kick, and a terrible loss was not averted. Sometimes isolated events do say an awful lot. (And yeah, yeah, I'm aware that for Thurston this was kicking on his favoured side, for Giteau not.) The other thing is that in the same match NZ tried the policy suggested above: the left-footed Bryson Goodwin took kicks from the right, while the right-footed Issac Luke took conversions from the left. Luke missed a relatively easy conversion that ended up being crucial. One would have to ask goalkickers this, but my gut feeling is that they like either to do it all or not do it at all. I'd suggest it's a mental thing, including their mental preparation for a match. South African rugby this season was one exception, but their demarcation was distance rather than side of the field: Morne Steyn took anything within 50 m of the posts, but Francois Steyn took penalties beyond halfway. It worked, especially against NZ in Hamilton, after which match the Bok captain called FS "a rocket launcher".

I have to admit, its a good point Jordon has brought up, and having the option of kickers, maybe its something that in big games like origin, and kangaroos, can be looked into. If we need to make a kick from the sideline to tie a game, giving a chance to go extra time, i would prefer to see the curve going our way. It must give you at least another 10% chance of making the kick.

You could be onto something their PIP, i am going to send this straight to Qld rugby league head-quarters. :) cheers.

I bet on Rugby League to put food on my plate and I would rather have my last sausage on Thurston kicking from the right side than Smith. Thurston kicked beautifully in the 4 nations final from both sides. I would suggest that Cam Smith has actually a better record kicking from the left.

If Smith is poor under pressure - well, that's another consideration again.

Thurston is a better kicker than Cam Smtih left or right side. Smith's kicking performance in big games (especially grand finals) is poor.

Where the right footer has a natural curve from right to left, it makes good sense that you use a left footer from the right hand side (especially near the touch line). If anyone has ever trained indoors (aussie rules), you'll note that for some reason the natural curve on your kicking is accentuated (even if you think you are kicking directly). This phenomenon manifests itself under the roof at the Dome, where players have learned to use the natural curve of their drop punts (I'm not talking about snaps and boomerangs, just straight ahead punts). The kicker will know intuitively whether a particular angle is close to impossible for his natural curve. In a situation where you can choose the kicker, as in League, it's common sense that you go with the natural advantages of your kickers to optimise conversion. Thurston should be professional and knowledgeable enough to confirm this when the time comes, and to call over the left-footer if the situation warrants it (what they call in the modern game "player empowerment").

Thanks MG. I'll put my rose coloured glasses away now.

This link shows percentages since 1986. Mal's only 61.66%; Cronin at 50% but he only got 30 kicks in after the cut-off date. It's noticable that kickers of recent times have generally significantly better percentages. http://stats.rleague.com/rl/scorers/overall_sc1.html There must be more extensive stats somewhere, but I don't know where. I seem to remember kicks missed in the 1977 grand final that we'd consider pretty straightforward nowadays, without a hue and cry being made.

Very good point Michael. It's rare to see kickers interchanged during a game though occasionally a team will have a "long distance" expert who will take over from the regular kicker. The right footed kick from a round-the corner exponent on the right hand touch line looks extremely difficult but people like Thurston and Al Mazri make it look like child's play. I'd love to see the conversion rate from some of the old toe-kickers such as Mick Cronin and Mal Meninga, to compare them with the modern style.