Game has changed but goal conversion remains same

Stab Kick to Stab Punt 1949 Face to Face: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives Muddy Conditions Countered Johnson was outstanding in the mud with clever turning and accurate disposal. Ringwood Mail, August1951 In 1949 Mt Evelyn football grounds surface was uneven and often very muddy. Studying Jack Dyer’s drop-punt, 14-year-old Mt Evelyn player Jim Johnson adapted it into a field pass in 1948. Then, at 15, Jim invented and used a low, fast punt kick known as a stab-punt pass or Daisy Cutter. Jim used both the field pass and the stab-punt pass at full pace. Because the ball was kicked before it touched the ground, and stayed low, it was accurate in mud and windy conditions. Journalists didn’t know what to call Jim’s techniques. Frank Casey wrote in The_Post on 8 September 1960, Johnson sent his delightful little drop punt pass direct to Manfield. The same day Davey Crocket reported in the Ringwood Mail, Johnson should write a book on stab kicking ñ he has found the lost art. Both kicks are in constant use today in Australian Rules football as they are suitable for fast play-on football. This story was researched and contributed by Mount Evelyn History Group for The Yarra Ranges Regional Museum Face to Face Exhibition from 13 October to 13 November2011.

Drop kick to Drop Punt as a field pass in 1948 then Stab kick to stab punt 1949. I had only the sporting globe football book of 1948 and no coaching, only my young mind. So without publications like yours, and having paper footballs and only a real football on the school ground at playtime from grade six till I was 15 in forth form, I managed to perfect my Australian Rules foot disposals. See the following. Jim Johnson age 14 in 1948 revamps Jack Dyers drop punt for goal, “silliest looking kick in football history” (Page 49 The Sporting Globe Football Book 1948), into a Drop Punt Field Pass kicked at full pace. Then invents the Stab Punt, replacing the Stab Kick, at age 15, in 1949. The above kicks are the predominant kicks used as field passes today in Australian Rules Football, 2014. Johnson should write a book on stab kicking he has found the lost art. Davey Crocket, The Ringwood Mail, September 8, 1960. (Re Jim’s Stab Punt.) Johnson sent his DELIGHTFUL LITTLE DROP PUNT PASS to Manfield’. Frank Casey, The Ringwood Croydon Post, September 8, 1960. (Jim’s Stab Punt) No doubt about Jimmy Johnson, he definitely has found the lost art of stab passing. (Re Jim’s Stab Punt.) “The Mail”, Thursday, September 15, 1960. Johnson, on the flank, was making good use of his accurate punt passes. Johnson picked up on the run, sent a drop-punt direct to Espie for another goal.” The Ringwood Croydon Post, September 8 1960, p.12 by Frank Casey. THE SCIENCE OF KICKING published 2007. THE STAB PUNT. The authors have COINED the term stab punt. Page 64 & 65 of THE SCIENCE OF KICKING 1st Edition. Geoffrey Hosford. & Don Meikle published 2007 by B.I.P.E. Publications Pty Ltd. Forward by David Parkin. The term STAB PUNT was coined 58 years after Jim, as kid, invented it. The Stab Punt invented in 1949. Aged 15 years, 5ft 2in(157.48 cm.) weighing 8 and 1/4 stone (52.5 kg) and playing for the Mount Evelyn First Eighteen, Jim Johnson declared to himself: "As I can kick a drop punt as a field pass, why not convert the stab kick into a stab punt". Now, with his own football, it took Jim only around two weeks to adjust the split second timing to kick the ball just before, instead of just after, it hit the ground. “Stab Punt Jim.” Just recently (April 23rd 2013) Jim traced the following advertisement “STAB PUNT. The Inventor of the Stab Punt (1949) is interested in hearing from anyone who used this kick pre 1970 Ph. 8743622,” that he placed in the Age, page 26, bottom right corner, on Thursday the 26th of July 1990. This ad appeared on the Sports Page that had an article by David Parkin on the Torpedo Punt. So we have an article, by a legend, describing how to kick a Torpedo Punt and an ad by Jim who invented a kick in Australian Rules Football on the same page. Special note ! Jim’s Stab Punt referred to as “Johnson’s“ DELIGHTFUL LITTLE DROP PUNT PASS in 1960. see Frank Casey, The Ringwood Croydon Post, September 8, 1960, And the Stab Kick referred to as the “PRETIEST AND MOST EFFECTIVE INOVATION OF RECENT YEARS, See “THE STAB KICK.The Argus 27th June 1910”. For Further see google. " Stab Punt Jim Johnson " Jim Johnson, Melbourne High 1st "18 Football Colours 1950.

Ian So, you have researched in your typical subjective bankers type way to point out an exception. Today this is the rule. UK Steve. So do you suggest I spend my time waiting for Godot by sourcing the occasional highlights of the round? '

On ABC tonight they were interviewing an Olympic archer who practices target shooting 3 hours per day,hitting between 200 and 300 arrows per session, 6 days per week. A key forward might be lucky to do 10% of that in terms of set shots at goal per day, and he'd be very lucky to do it 6 days per week, in fact, it's almost impossible, there's one day set aside for the game (with five or six practice shots pre-game), then you get one day completely set aside for recovery, where you'd be lucky to even touch a footy, so you're already down to five days available, and on those five days, you'd be very, very lucky to have a free two hour slot to just practice set shots, even on one or two days, let alone five days.

UK Steve, All Republican's arguments start with "I hate modern footy", and then he picks and chooses evidence to fit. It's who he is, it's what he does.

I do think its practice time being dedicated to other things.

Republican, Watch this game. 1986, round 17. Richmond vs St Kilda. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0C0FPNlPCo The level of fitness is crap. Players slow jog. They have acres of space and time beyond measuring, and can't hit a target. The game changed, and became faster and more compressed. Tactics adapted. We are in an era of great midfielders, where possession is king ... but the contested mark is making a comeback, and that means the gorilla full forward will too (and not the classic leaping Carpenter, or the mobile goal sneak Hudson, but the big burly Lockett type - you know, like Travis Cloke or Podliasky). As for rugby, some idiot has just blown his whistle and the game has stopped for a placekick.

Dingo, If a player misses and then does anything other than put it out of their mind, they will concentrate on being dirty about their miss and not concentrating on their direct opponent and so on. As for kicking big torps to break the zone ... problem is if you kick at random an opposing midfielder can just mark it and jam it back down your throat. I get annoyed at a short passing game in defense as well, but the idea is to get the ball to a player with the time and space to pick a target to hit upfield, as opposed to just bombing it at random. That said, a really big torp can break the defending zone pretty well - google some of Trent 'the Cannon' McKenzie's goal for GC.

That is true .Israel Folau is going to be a vastly different player to Karmicheal Hunt worth waiting for.Look at Johnson from Geelong freakish goals misses the easy ones .Franklin is the same.It could be adrenaline in reverse when they slow down they relax in cricket people say catches win matches accuracy in footy is so important Geelong on Friday night were 8.2 to 4.9 at one stage .If you could work out the definitive answer to why most Afl players are such poor set shots you could give up your day job.

Brendan this is the great paradox - most modern footballers can be standing 45 metres out from goal, 45 degree angle, spin the footy in their hands, barely look at the goals and off one step drill the ball through goals, no sweat - but force them to try a set shot from behind the mark, force them to think about it, and all of a sudden, it's a completely different scenario. For mine, it's a difference between doing things instinctively, not having to think about it, and doing other things quite deliberately, like the set shot - we are all programmed to be instinctive, to do things inside a split second, to not think about it, to work off gut instinct. I believe that's part of the explanation of why so many talented footballers are hopeless goal kickers from set shots. Paradoxically, someone like Issy, who is not trained to play instinctively, and will probably never develop that split second gut instinct for the game, is forced to play deliberately, and all of a sudden, he has a capacity to develop a talent for set shots at goal - we don't know whether he will turn out or not, but coming into the game with a completely different frame of mind, allows him to specialise in one particular skill where others are incapable or unwilling to specialise in.

Most Afl players spin the ball in there hands before having a shot rather than holding the ball still whilst assessing the difficulty of thje kick.The conversion rate of those that hold the ball still is much higher than players that spin the ball not knowing for sure where there hands are positioned.More goals are now kicked by players who rotate through the midfield so obviously fatigue must detract from accuracy so maybe the days of the dead eye dick forwards like the drop kick belong to another era.In Fridays semi final Hawthorn were well beaten but dominated the first quarter with 8 shots to 2.Unfortunately for the Hawks Geelong got 2 goals quickly after the quarter time break and the five first quarter behinds meant nothing.

stabpass I had the good fortunate to speak to a very famous Tiger last night who'd you know quite well I'm sure. We talked footy for hours, and got onto this very subject about being a reliable goal kicker, especially from set shots. One point that came up, which has been mentioned a couple of times on this thread, is how most of our training in is geared around spotting up targets on the ground: drills, patterns, circle work - the whole lot is kicking on the run, even if the drill ends with a running shot on goal, it's on the run. Very occasionally, you can set up a drill that ends with a set shot on goal, with man on the mark, etc, etc - but in a night's training, all the forwards might be lucky to get a few shots each in the time frame of that specific drill - it's nothing. I guess if you're serious, you have to do this sort of training outside of team training, and you have to be prepared to dedicate a couple of hours at a time, get in about 50 to 60 deliberate shots on goal, from a variety of distances and angles, with man on the mark, and man on the goal line - you can see immediately that to do it properly its very resource intensive.

Saint NIck should play as a modern CHF with license to push up and be the go to man coming out of defence - he's still very good at that sort of role, forget about being one of the main goalkickers - leave it to someone else to be the key forward inside 50 - they just need one big man, aided by Milne and Schneider at ground level - good set up.

Generally agree with what you say, cannot believe that Saint Nick misses so many 'easy' goals, i say easy, but really for a power forward and captain, (not to mention very big $$$), he should be kicking them. IMO his action and dropping the ball is wrong, get Ben Graham, or one of the Rocca brothers down there, i guess the Saints have attempted to address it , but it has not worked, move him to CHB and groom someone else. Dont really like the Saints, but with Loewe, Lockett, Hall, Reiwoldt over the years WTF are they doing down there.

I would say it is because it is more fun practicing trick shots and difficult shots and trying to have the most crafty shot than it is just to kick a ball straight at the goal. You see this all the time on the footy shows on TV, when they have a player interview where they do some activities it is always showing the check-side kick from the boundary or the banana kick or the torpedo from 70m out. They never just line a guy up dead-straight at 35m out and say, "Bet you can't kick it". If I was a kid again, I would practice taking contested pack marks and one-on-one marks and just learn to kick a straight drop punt set-shot at goal from anywhere on inside the 50m arc and would practice torpedoes from outside. I'd be the new Gary Abblett Snr or Jason Dunstall. But kids these days are show-offs and like to do the tricky stuff because it looks good. They all want a crack at goal of the year.

stabpass, On the contrary, I believe, they know exactly how they did it which is why they can do it again. Kicking a footy is not really that hard, unless your name was James Manson, and goalkicking is not that hard either - but some can, and some cannot. Milne and Kosi rarely miss setshot or snap. Riewoldt rarely kicks either or is, at best, unreliable. Part technique and (almost certainly) part mindset. Milne never thinks he will miss while Nick always wonders if he can get it. I'm also quietly confident that the more a player misses the more he frets over it to the point where he doesn't want to kick for goal. I reckon Saint Nick is a bit like that now and the young Swan, Reid, will be very soon unless he sharpens up his act. Reid misses far too many "gimmes" for mine (I don't mind Riewoldt missing them). As for improved kicking skills these days I'm yet to be fully convinced. Certainly, more players today look a bit smoother in their kicking action than in days gone by. They still miss targets at an alarming rate so we shouldn't be surprised they still miss goals. We also seem to get carried away by the guys who dribble one along the ground from the boundary. I'd be much happier if they could get the goals from 30-40 out straight in front. That's what the great goalkickers do. Highly successful at the simple stuff. McKenna was a great shot for goal using the drop punt. Hudson a great shot with the flat punt. Lockett a great shot with the drop punt. Run in straight, drop the ball straight, follow through straight. Goal. Nothing across the body, not trying to bounce it ten times along the ground. In the air, shortest possible route, fastest possible time. Goal. Pretty much all players today can kick a ball reasonably well. It's when they're asked to measure the kick and get the weight right that the problems often occur. Some guys are just naturals and part of that is making good decisions about which type of kick on which type of occasion. Steve Johnson is a natural who invariably makes good, if occasionally extravagant, choices when kicking. The thing about Johnson is that he rarely puts the ball over someone's head unless he intends to make them run onto it. And he rarely drops it short. In other words, he has the "touch" required to instintively know how hard he needs to kick the ball. Many of the "more skilled" players of today do not have that touch - but they can kick the ball ok over distance and make it look half reasonable. The players who "have it" immediately stand out. Johnson and Didak today, Leon Davis, Bryce Gibbs. Darren Jarman a few years ago. The Sturt (SANFL) team of the late sixties had five or six guys who "had it" which is one reason they won five flags on the trot. I still haven't seen a better all-round kick than Paul Bagshaw. Short or long, straight in front or on the angle, moving target or stationary, it made no difference. It arrived lace out and made to order. I confess that one of my pet hates is the player inside fifty who is clearly looking to give the ball off. Any AFL player worthy of the name will make the distance so, presumably, it comes down to confidence - or perhaps a desire to abdicate the responsibility. Perhaps he's just trying to "make sure" his team scores a goal by giving it to someone else a bit closer in (yes, I'm being generous). Given the number of turnovers which occur inside fifty I'm looking forward to the coach, and the player, who just says, "Bugger it, take the shot!".

Republican - you are hard to please and I think you are being over critical. You might get more congestion these days but when the ball does break away from the pack, the speed that they can carry the ball down field is awesome. One thing about football is that no matter how one-sided or 'boring' a match might appear, there are always plenty of highlights. Todays WCE v Pies was no exception, with the Le Cras goal, the Davis mark and the Darling mark and goal in the last quarter.

I can guarantee ( well i cant really!) that guys who kick bags of goals reguarly, dont really know how they do it, im betting they have this instinctive reaction, to kicking the ball without really thinking. Set shots are different, but i am guessing the more they think about it, the more they are likely to miss.

Sadly Big Al, the spectacle that I grew up watching which was akin to poetry in motion, is no longer. I have again resorted to turning the tele off in utter frustration and disgust after subjecting myself to a quarter and a half of sheer unruly chaos. This once great and distinctive game of ours now resembles little more than a contest for the pill a''la Brittish Bulldog and the current WCE v Pies game is no exception. That anyone would pay to watch this rubbish is beyond me and whats more, it pains me to say that Union is a far consistently superior spectacle in the main, since they at least have some structures in place to deal with the contest at ground level, which is unfortunately where our game is predominately played today. All those that suggest our code was born out of rugby, viewing the code for the first time one would have to defer, the future looking decidedly grim with the introduction of a scrum probably the only solution to the dogs breaky now on offer.