How much of his kicking have you seen?
Is his general kicking poor, or only kicking for goal? I would say the latter; has good skills around the ground.
What's the history of players who are poor shots for goal becoming very good players? Buddy Franklin, Matthew Richardson, Travis Cloke...
Given he could possibly play back, or even on the wing, his possibly poor goal kicking may be a non factor. Also, his poor kicking for goal at the senior level, could largely be put down to nerves, no reason that could not be improved on.
Speaking of improvement - Did you know that Cloke improved from 39-39 last season, as well as 6-12 and 10-16 the two seasons before, to 40-25 this season? That seems to be a significant improvement.
I saw him play a whole game with Willi against Pt Melb on ABC last year. He didn 't have any shots at goal from memory. Played reasonably well except for some atrocious field kicking. One of his kicks under no real pressure ,as it was from taking an uncontested mark between wing and half forward, travelled about 30 metres at almost a 90 degree angle.
The commentators laughed and duly commented that his kicking was a big problem. I am not Robinson Crusoe in noting that he is a poor kick.
Has Tarrant, Rhys Shaw, Ben Johnson, Shane O'Bree, Presti or the many other butchers of the ball improved their kicking over their careers????? I have been watching footy for over 40 years and the only player I can remember improving their kicking to any degree was Stewart Lowe. Reid will need almost a miracle to become a good kick. I know he has talent in other areas but I strongly believe in Hawthorn's recruiting philosophy of never recruiting players who are not good kicks.
It was their kicking skills above anything else that won them the flag.




