- Sep 28, 2014
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I have often lamented on our poor kicking for goal and have commented on it in game threads as I know many others have. I believed that the Bulldogs were the worst goal kicking accuracy team in the competition and even worse in forward 50 conversion to goals.
I did some research and looked at all teams over the last 10 years and also the last 5 years.
Some interesting things to note. Firstly, while we are the worst goal kicking accuracy team in 2019 at 46.28%, over the past 10 years we rank 13th in goal kicking accuracy at 51.74%. Over that 10 year period we vary quite a lot having finished 18th 3 times and 1st once (in 2011, yes I couldn’t believe it either) and 3rd in 2015. However in general we have been below the median goal kicking accuracy which is 52.4%, but not by as much as I thought we would be. The worst team in the League has been Gold Coast at 49.95% on avg, and the best has been Hawthorn at 55%. The top 3 of Hawthorn, Geelong and West Coast are a bit ahead of the others generally as well.
If you look at the last 5 years we drop to 16th at 50%, only ahead of Gold Coast and Carlton. The top 3 are the same in the same order.
When you look at inside 50 conversion, we are 17th (23.21%) over the past 10 years with only Gold Coast (22.45%) below us. The top 3 are the same Hawthorn (27.11%), Geelong and the Eagles. If you look at the last 5 years our conversion drops to 21.7% and we rank 16th with Carlton and the Suns (21.4%) just below us. The top 3 are again the same only this time the Cats are on top, then the Eagles and Hawthorn.
If you look at Year by Year it can vary quite a bit and even bad kicking teams like us have had good years but it never lasts. And over the last 4 years our goal kicking has been ranked 12th, 18th, 14th and 18th respectively.
Now like everyone I’ve had a gutfull of this situation and believe it can be improved. The Hawks, Cats and Eagles are not where they are by accident. They bring in new players and yet consistently are able to kick more accurately for goal and convert fwd 50 entries into goals.
Somehow like everything else in 2016 we produced an anomaly by being an ordinary goal kicking and inside 50 conversion team into a premiership. We kicked straight when it mattered most in the finals series although it nearly cost us the Prelim.
But if we are going to get back there again, this massive problem must be addressed. We need to engage a goal kicking specialist like the Hawks did and concentrate on purposeful improvement in this basic but most important skill. If we don’t improve, we will not win another Premiership for some time I suspect. The club must do something about this and it’s up to Bevo and the coaches to admit faults of the past and bring in some specialist help.
You can see what happened on the weekend when Brisbane didn’t take their opportunities and we did in the first half. That game could and probably should have been almost over at halftime but we kicked relatively straight for a change and the opposition didn’t. That created the opportunity for us in the third quarter, which we almost stuffed up when our own poor kicking returned but weight of entries and pressure meant we still did enough to create a winning gap.
Don’t leave this to chance, get someone now to improve this and get the Dogs up there with the Hawks, Cats and Eagles over the next 10 years instead of being down with the Suns and Carlton.
I did some research and looked at all teams over the last 10 years and also the last 5 years.
Some interesting things to note. Firstly, while we are the worst goal kicking accuracy team in 2019 at 46.28%, over the past 10 years we rank 13th in goal kicking accuracy at 51.74%. Over that 10 year period we vary quite a lot having finished 18th 3 times and 1st once (in 2011, yes I couldn’t believe it either) and 3rd in 2015. However in general we have been below the median goal kicking accuracy which is 52.4%, but not by as much as I thought we would be. The worst team in the League has been Gold Coast at 49.95% on avg, and the best has been Hawthorn at 55%. The top 3 of Hawthorn, Geelong and West Coast are a bit ahead of the others generally as well.
If you look at the last 5 years we drop to 16th at 50%, only ahead of Gold Coast and Carlton. The top 3 are the same in the same order.
When you look at inside 50 conversion, we are 17th (23.21%) over the past 10 years with only Gold Coast (22.45%) below us. The top 3 are the same Hawthorn (27.11%), Geelong and the Eagles. If you look at the last 5 years our conversion drops to 21.7% and we rank 16th with Carlton and the Suns (21.4%) just below us. The top 3 are again the same only this time the Cats are on top, then the Eagles and Hawthorn.
If you look at Year by Year it can vary quite a bit and even bad kicking teams like us have had good years but it never lasts. And over the last 4 years our goal kicking has been ranked 12th, 18th, 14th and 18th respectively.
Now like everyone I’ve had a gutfull of this situation and believe it can be improved. The Hawks, Cats and Eagles are not where they are by accident. They bring in new players and yet consistently are able to kick more accurately for goal and convert fwd 50 entries into goals.
Somehow like everything else in 2016 we produced an anomaly by being an ordinary goal kicking and inside 50 conversion team into a premiership. We kicked straight when it mattered most in the finals series although it nearly cost us the Prelim.
But if we are going to get back there again, this massive problem must be addressed. We need to engage a goal kicking specialist like the Hawks did and concentrate on purposeful improvement in this basic but most important skill. If we don’t improve, we will not win another Premiership for some time I suspect. The club must do something about this and it’s up to Bevo and the coaches to admit faults of the past and bring in some specialist help.
You can see what happened on the weekend when Brisbane didn’t take their opportunities and we did in the first half. That game could and probably should have been almost over at halftime but we kicked relatively straight for a change and the opposition didn’t. That created the opportunity for us in the third quarter, which we almost stuffed up when our own poor kicking returned but weight of entries and pressure meant we still did enough to create a winning gap.
Don’t leave this to chance, get someone now to improve this and get the Dogs up there with the Hawks, Cats and Eagles over the next 10 years instead of being down with the Suns and Carlton.
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