Nick Gill - We have something to work with here

[lunacy]

I was pretty disappointed with Neil Craig's press conference after the game. He labeled Gill's kicking as "a train wreck" and "not up to afl standard". Now, clearly Gill's kicking was terrible, but why rub his face in it like that? It's his first game! Although his kicking was terrible, he showed a lot of promise and tried hard all day. I think a lot of guys in the side could learn from how hard led and tackled today... Overly negative comments from Neil there I thought... I'm not impressed...

I din't hear the press conference, but that is disappointing to hear. Finally NC has shown some emotion (by the sounds of it) in a press conference. BUT poor timing. He is never honest enough, but he should have gone a bit easier on Gill. For years there have been some players that NC has been too soft on and I have often wanted NC to give them a spray or at least identify that their performance was/is not of AFL standard. BUT to pick on Gill who at least showed some heart, was athletic and could take a grab was a bit unfair. Perrie has never been singled out by NC like that for his bad kicking.

 

[bus24]

Did he label it a train wreck?

From what I heard he called it "not up to standard" but I never came across "train wreck"

 

[Malibu#27]

Did he label it a train wreck?

From what I heard he called it "not up to standard" but I never came across "train wreck"

Yeah basically just said it was not up to AFL standard. Other than that he mentioned work in packs/ruck contests being an issue.

 

[Fred Phillis]

If you can't kick, you can't play...fullstop

 

[relapse]

I din't hear the press conference, but that is disappointing to hear. Finally NC has shown some emotion (by the sounds of it) in a press conference. BUT poor timing. He is never honest enough, but he should have gone a bit easier on Gill. For years there have been some players that NC has been too soft on and I have often wanted NC to give them a spray or at least identify that their performance was/is not of AFL standard. BUT to pick on Gill who at least showed some heart, was athletic and could take a grab was a bit unfair. Perrie has never been singled out by NC like that for his bad kicking.

The most disappointing thing of all is hearing that by the sounds of it his kicking has now only been flagged at the AFC as being a problem. "We'll work on that", the guy has been there now for 3/4 of the season and people at North know of his bad kicking and surely it would have been identified when he was recruited. So why has it taken so long for the AFC have decided that it must be worked on, it should have been worked on from the moment he arrived at the club.

Little things like this make me wonder how much we are actually developing our list and concern me that we might be leaving to much to the SANFL for player development and appear to maybe only worrying about our core group. Surely we have a responsibility to maximise the potential of these players by specialist coaching and not just worrying about things until they are pressing for selection.

I dont understand why they wouldnt have indetified it ages and ago and informed Craig that Gill has issues kicking and that Craig or one of the other coaches havent spent time with him to get that worked on already. Just seemed a bit unprepared to say in a press conference "we need to work on that" I would hope that the actual answer is "yes, that is a flaw we have already identified, but we have been working exclusively with Nick on that aspect and we hope to be able to improve it"

 

[Truck Rutten]

The guy has serious gun potential if ever I've seen it. I would hate to think we have to throw him away because we can't at least somewhat improve his kicking. Craig seems to think the club can improve it, and lets face it, this will be the first time he'll have extensive goal kicking training at an AFL club. Lets see if it makes a difference.

You come out with some very strange statements at times. The guy has been with two other clubs previously. Do you think we're the only club in the AFL that works on their goal kicking?

 

[apollo_creed]

the guy is never going to able to kick.

he's 24, been everywhere and the 'we'll work on it in pre-season' solution is apparently/obviously (to some) going to perform unprecedented miracles.

a large part of the reason he hasn't made it would be his kicking. others have tried, I'd imagine extensively. with no luck.

this is how it is, like it or not.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Perhaps Gill should hold the ball the moder way when kicking for goal - like Fev, N Brown, etc - who hold one hand lower than the other. He can's get any worse with his goal-kicking, so trying something different couldn't hurt.

 

[Truck Rutten]

The guy was recruited as a ****ing defender!!!! We have recruited him as a forward. I don't care if he's 16 or 58, I want our club, OUR CLUB, not Melbourne, to work EXTENSIVELY with the guy and see if we get a result.

Now seriously, you are not going to tell me that he cannot learn to kick a goal from 10m out directly in front. My mum, wearing her wellington boots, could kick 9/10 from there. This guy is an AFL footballer, at the most professional club in the competition. Have you seen the way Gill strikes the footy? It's absurd how hard he hits it, and it will be corrected, mark my words. We are not talking about kicking from 45m out on a 45 degree angle, we are talking about kicks directly in front of goal only a few metres out. Darren Jarman must be the shittiest goal kicking coach on the planet if he can't teach someone to do that. It is beyond ridiculous, it's supernaturally bad in fact, as in you would have to have a severe mental disability not to be able to develop an ability to kick goals from there.

You don't think the club has been working with him on this already? His erratic kicking was well known when we picked him up. Yes an AFL player should be kicking goals at close range from directly in front and if he can't rectify it swiftly, then he won't be an AFL player for much longer.

 

[Boundryump]

Gill is the most exciting player i have seen at the crows since Modra(you name me someone better)...apart from his kicking he will be a gun...he could always hand ball off to a team mate when having a set shot.

 

[KUNG FU]

Gill is the most exciting player i have seen at the crows since Modra(you name me someone better)...apart from his kicking he will be a gun...he could always hand ball off to a team mate when having a set shot.

Andrew McLeod, Mark Ricciuto, Simon Goodwin, Tyson Edwards, Nathan Bassett, Ben Rutten, Nathan van Berlo, Scott Thompson, Brett Burton, James Sellar, Richard Douglas, John Meesen... do you want me to keep going?

 

[pjcrows]

Andrew McLeod, Mark Ricciuto, Simon Goodwin, Tyson Edwards, Nathan Bassett, Ben Rutten, Nathan van Berlo, Scott Thompson, Brett Burton, James Sellar, Richard Douglas, John Meesen... do you want me to keep going?

exciting
ex·cit·ing
adj.
Creating or producing excitement

 

[KUNG FU]

exciting
ex·cit·ing
adj.
Creating or producing excitement

The same post could be directed at Gill IMO.

I wouldn't be the President of the JM Fan Club if I didn't drop his name in that list. There's plenty to get excited about Meese. I can't wait to go through all the anti-Meese posts when he unleashes upon the AFL.

 

[Blue Red and Gold]

Perhaps Gill should hold the ball the moder way when kicking for goal - like Fev, N Brown, etc - who hold one hand lower than the other. He can's get any worse with his goal-kicking, so trying something different couldn't hurt.

I have started kicking my set shots with this style and I feel it works much better for me.

 

[port06]

Gill is 25 next month,,,,,,most players at this age are developed and playing there best footy.Gill has to start now so you wouldnt think he would be any good for 3 or so years.
You need young players if your are to be any good in the future.

 

[Crow-mo]

he's obviously a poor kick, you can see that by the way he drops the damned thing... BUT... he was plainly nervous as **** coming in.

he's probably not that bad, but you could see he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

that should improve some in subsequent games as settles in and feels more comfortable.

 

[marvin]

he's obviously a poor kick, you can see that by the way he drops the damned thing... BUT... he was plainly nervous as **** coming in.

he's probably not that bad, but you could see he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

that should improve some in subsequent games as settles in and feels more comfortable.

Nicely put.

Gill's debut was reminiscent in some ways of one of Brett Burton's very early games for the AFC, against Hawthorn at Waverley. Marked everything, sprayed them everywhere, and like the Birdman in 1999, I think there's improvement imminent.

It would have been interesting to one of those heart rate monitors on Gill. I reckon he would have clocked the thing on every set shot.

 

[crowsarethebest]

Nicely put.

Gill's debut was reminiscent in some ways of one of Brett Burton's very early games for the AFC, against Hawthorn at Waverley. Marked everything, sprayed them everywhere, and like the Birdman in 1999, I think there's improvement imminent.

It would have been interesting to one of those heart rate monitors on Gill. I reckon he would have clocked the thing on every set shot.

Hahaha yeah. He was like 15 out but bashed the ball like it was 50+ out.

 

[Redlegs14]

The guy was recruited as a ****ing defender!!!! We have recruited him as a forward. I don't care if he's 16 or 58, I want our club, OUR CLUB, not Melbourne, to work EXTENSIVELY with the guy and see if we get a result.

Now seriously, you are not going to tell me that he cannot learn to kick a goal from 10m out directly in front. My mum, wearing her wellington boots, could kick 9/10 from there. This guy is an AFL footballer, at the most professional club in the competition. Have you seen the way Gill strikes the footy? It's absurd how hard he hits it, and it will be corrected, mark my words. We are not talking about kicking from 45m out on a 45 degree angle, we are talking about kicks directly in front of goal only a few metres out. Darren Jarman must be the shittiest goal kicking coach on the planet if he can't teach someone to do that. It is beyond ridiculous, it's supernaturally bad in fact, as in you would have to have a severe mental disability not to be able to develop an ability to kick goals from there.

Care to explain the bolded part FD88??

 

[jarmanagic]

We have quite the reputation - we run a very crisp, professional unit here as evidenced by comments of pretty much everyone who has witnessed what goes on behind the scenes. I am confident that we have one of, if not the best, environments to get improvement out of guys like Gill. He may be nearly 25 but he hasn't played any AFL footy - with that in mind it's totally conceivable imo for us to get a good seven or eight years out of him if he and the club are prepared to work hard enough.

There was a time when I believed that too, now not so sure. If we are so professional how come he has been with us about 9 months and he is still kicking like that w/o any routine? Anybody who watched 10 mins of him at SANFL could tell he could play but couldn't kick. I think if the Crows were as professional as you say we are that should have been sorted better by now, or he just cant kick and thus he simply cannot play

The Burton analogy is true but Burton was 19-20, and Gill is about 25. A 25 yo key forward who cant kick? Bit like us recruiting the best Marking forward in the game who couldnt mark by the time he arrived with us. Our only good forward ever over 190 cms has been Chris Groom, and that is nothing to do what he did on the field

 

[McLeodMagic]

I noticed at the game another problem with his goal-kicking is that he goes way too close to the man on the mark.

On Sunday he was our only forward who bothered to present and keep leading, so as long as he can improve his goal-kicking he would be pretty handy.

 

[relapse]

There was a time when I believed that too, now not so sure. If we are so professional how come he has been with us about 9 months and he is still kicking like that w/o any routine? Anybody who watched 10 mins of him at SANFL could tell he could play but couldn't kick. I think if the Crows were as professional as you say we are that should have been sorted better by now, or he just cant kick and thus he simply cannot play

The Burton analogy is true but Burton was 19-20, and Gill is about 25. A 25 yo key forward who cant kick? Bit like us recruiting the best Marking forward in the game who couldnt mark by the time he arrived with us. Our only good forward ever over 190 cms has been Chris Groom, and that is nothing to do what he did on the field

This is what worries me, they have an article in the paper where he was out practising his kicking yesterday, but why havent we been working on this all year. I know he was injured for a long while so that might have been the problem of why it wasnt worked on sooner, it's good to hear that Burton and McLeod are trying to work on his kicking style and his accuracy, Hentschel has a terrible kicking style, but he is a great kick so sometimes kicking style isnt everything, I just hope they can iron out the problem.

 

[winky14]

Wasn't Gilly spending most of the pre-season trying to get his fitness base up? Maybe that coupled with untimely injuries at that stage meant that less time was spent on goal kicking practice.

 

[Jars458]

He's a forward who can't kick. Game Over.

 

[Truck Rutten]

This is what worries me, they have an article in the paper where he was out practising his kicking yesterday, but why havent we been working on this all year. I know he was injured for a long while so that might have been the problem of why it wasnt worked on sooner, it's good to hear that Burton and McLeod are trying to work on his kicking style and his accuracy, Hentschel has a terrible kicking style, but he is a great kick so sometimes kicking style isnt everything, I just hope they can iron out the problem.

The football journeyman has spent countless hours since arriving at North Adelaide from Port Melbourne three years ago refining his goalkicking technique with Crows legend and recent Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee Darren Jarman - one of the finest kicks of all time.

Since being selected by Adelaide with pick 64 at last year's national draft, he has been tutored by Crows forward line coach David Noble. But Gill's technique still let him down when it mattered most on the big stage against the Dons - a defeat which has left the Crows' finals hopes hanging by a thread.