Smith's kick

[Gralin]

Hodge is a star - no doubt about that - but this one little incident is one that I'm sure he'd look back at and be annoyed that he had got sucked in so easily.

Selwood hit him and then ran off towards 50. Hodge charged after him and threw an arm into his back but Selwood knew he was coming and propped so Hodge's momentum carried him forward over the top making it look much worse than it was. The ump was right there and couldn't possibly miss that retaliatory act (though they found a way to miss the push in the back of Rioli in the last quarter).

The subsequent 50m penalty whether it was just or not wouldn't have been able to be paid if the original free hadn't been awarded. It was a game of inches and we gave up a mile here.

still questionable whether the original free should have been paid and again it's focusing on one event that was early enough in the game to not decide the game

at the end of the day the hawks could have won or lost by more but neither of those things happened. game is over doggies tomorrow night time to move on as the players have

also i blame the loss on you not having your Stevic avatar

 

[QuietB]

Hodge is a star - no doubt about that - but this one little incident is one that I'm sure he'd look back at and be annoyed that he had got sucked in so easily.

Selwood hit him and then ran off towards 50. Hodge charged after him and threw an arm into his back but Selwood knew he was coming and propped so Hodge's momentum carried him forward over the top making it look much worse than it was. The ump was right there and couldn't possibly miss that retaliatory act (though they found a way to miss the push in the back of Rioli in the last quarter).

The subsequent 50m penalty whether it was just or not wouldn't have been able to be paid if the original free hadn't been awarded. It was a game of inches and we gave up a mile here.

The Rioli push was the #freekickhawthorn campaign cashing in. It was always going to happen

 

[cryptor]

still questionable whether the original free should have been paid and again it's focusing on one event that was early enough in the game to not decide the game

at the end of the day the hawks could have won or lost by more but neither of those things happened. game is over doggies tomorrow night time to move on as the players have

also i blame the loss on you not having your Stevic avatar

The free was technically there. Though Selwood did milk it for all it was worth. He played Hodgey like a fiddle.

Whether something occurs early or late in a game doesn't make it any more or less significant to the result. It merely determines how much weighting our memories assign to it.

Which is why I brought the Hodge thing up in the context of this thread about Smith's kick. Smith missing this shot at goal had no more or less bearing on the result than any other missed shot throughout the game as well as that free and 50 given away by Hodge.

A missed shot is disappointing but undisciplined acts and poor umpiring that lead to goals against are moreso disappointing.

That all said, I accept full responsibility for the loss and will endeavor to make the necessary changes to prevent further losses this season...

 

[Gralin]

The free was technically there. Though Selwood did milk it for all it was worth. He played Hodgey like a fiddle.

Whether something occurs early or late in a game doesn't make it any more or less significant to the result. It merely determines how much weighting our memories assign to it.

Which is why I brought the Hodge thing up in the context of this thread about Smith's kick. Smith missing this shot at goal had no more or less bearing on the result than any other missed shot throughout the game as well as that free and 50 given away by Hodge.

A missed shot is disappointing but undisciplined acts and poor umpiring that lead to goals against are moreso disappointing.

That all said, I accept full responsibility for the loss and will endeavor to make the necessary changes to prevent further losses this season...

As long as you accept blame and plan to rectify before tomorrow night's game

 

[cryptor]

As long as you accept blame and plan to rectify before tomorrow night's game

Back in business

 

[Arkadia]

Back in business

I like the Avatar

 

[cryptor]

I like the Avatar

That's the aforementioned "business"

A self portrait of sorts...

For I am Matt Stevic!

You'll find I'm quite busy slaving away in the kitchen at AFL house tonight. Working with the meat tenderizer on these free kicks for Hawthorn. Then 16 hours in the slow cooker, submerged in the salty tears of the head*ed will produce the softest free kicks money can buy! DELICIOUS!

 

[Gralin]

That's the aforementioned "business"

A self portrait of sorts...

For I am Matt Stevic!

You'll find I'm quite busy slaving away in the kitchen at AFL house tonight. Working with the meat tenderizer on these free kicks for Hawthorn. Then 16 hours in the slow cooker, submerged in the salty tears of the head****ed will produce the softest free kicks money can buy! DELICIOUS!

So the QF performance was a troll, you've been playing the long con?

 

[cryptor]

So the QF performance was a troll, you've been playing the long con?

Clarko wants to make each successive premiership to look more impressively unlikely than the last. I just blow the whistle when he tells me to.

 

[Jones Boy]

Had a long look at Smiths kick (like the rest of us) and a couple of observations from a mechanics point of view. Some of these observations have been made by other posters and credit to those peeps.

1. Smiths run up was too short
2. His ball drop was too high/close to his body
3. His ball strike was too high and in front of his body
4. As a consequence of all three points, and they all have an influence on each other, Smithy snap hooked / pull hooked his kick.

If he had taken a longer run up and even kicked it from 50 his timing would have been overall better. This is all imagining and backwards looking but I am sure he will have been working on his routine and will be better for the experience.

On another matter with some posters here talking about fading and hooking and insteps and outside of the foot and me being a golfer, it amazes me still that footballers still try to kick a straight ball for goal. There is only 5 metres of margin for error either way. Pro golfers never try to hit a straight ball for the same reason. So they elect to hit the ball to curve one way or the other. Ergo start the ball at one post and curve it back.

NRL place kickers do the same thing. Curve the ball.

Okay late night exposition over

 

[Ordovician]

I have a theory on this. And to explain it I will use Buddy as he is the most unusual.

When Buddy kicks for goal the ball starts swinging left to right or straight and then tails off pretty sharply in the opposite direction to the left at the end.

So this is my theory;

1. When Buddy is close to goal it doesn't really matter - there is not enough time/distance for the swing of the ball in the air to matter.
2. When Buddy is 50m out he knows where his kicks are going to land so he can take an accurate aim. This is why he is so successful from 50m.
3. When Buddy is 30m out he has no effing idea where the ball is going to be in flight when it passes the goals. It is like if you drew a snake on the ground, and the middle of the snake has to go through the posts and in order for that to happen Buddy has to aim the end of the snake at some random point he has no idea how to find. So predictably, he misses.

I believe that players struggle from mid range because they have no freaking idea where the ball is in flight half way through the air with their normal kicking action. Or at least no confidence in where it will be.

And because of this players either half kick them or stab them and they have even less idea about this ball flight.

For perfectly straight kickers it is not an issue. For hookfoots it is a nightmare.

Just my 2 cents worth.

I would also add I think it is why some players are great kicks for goal but terrible field kicks. You get them to kick a ball straight, fine, no problem and of course it can land anywhere over the goal umpires hat. You introduce range to the kick, ie. It has to hit a player on the chest and it can end up anywhere. Danger and Swans Kennedy are good examples.

The highlighted text is essentially correct and this makes accuracy in goal kicking highly problematic due to his weird kicking action and ball drop.

Buddy precessses the ball so off the boot it curves to the left to right a hook for a lefty as eth ball is slanting down to the left but rotates over to the right. the ball finally goes vertical the direction of the kick straightens. This occurs at about 35m into a 50m kick. As the ball tilts over vertically to the left the ball kick starts to curve to back to the left which is a slice direction for a lefty. Hence if you looked at a longer range kick in plan view the path of theh ball describes and "S" shaped path with the curve in the "S" first bend being ~two thirds longer then the final reverse curve.

This precision is truly extraordinary and I have never seen any other player do this regularly.

However, because of this "S" curve in his longer kicks it is extremely difficult for him to correct for this curve at ranges of 25 -40m. Thus he can slot goals easily from +50m as the net lateral displacement from the two curves tend to cancel each other out to some degree, but when he kicks form around 30m he has to correct for the first hook curve only and the displacement from this curve varying significantly with the degree of slant of his initial ball drop and eth degree to which he swings his kicking leg across his body.

 

[Ordovician]

Had a long look at Smiths kick (like the rest of us) and a couple of observations from a mechanics point of view. Some of these observations have been made by other posters and credit to those peeps.

1. Smiths run up was too short
2. His ball drop was too high/close to his body
3. His ball strike was too high and in front of his body
4. As a consequence of all three points, and they all have an influence on each other, Smithy snap hooked / pull hooked his kick.

If he had taken a longer run up and even kicked it from 50 his timing would have been overall better. This is all imagining and backwards looking but I am sure he will have been working on his routine and will be better for the experience.

On another matter with some posters here talking about fading and hooking and insteps and outside of the foot and me being a golfer, it amazes me still that footballers still try to kick a straight ball for goal. There is only 5 metres of margin for error either way. Pro golfers never try to hit a straight ball for the same reason. So they elect to hit the ball to curve one way or the other. Ergo start the ball at one post and curve it back.

NRL place kickers do the same thing. Curve the ball.

Okay late night exposition over

All valid criticisms, however you left out the facts that:

5. he kicked way to close to the man on the mark
6. he laid back on the ball and kicked under it instead of through the ball
7. he did not run through eth kick in the kicking action as one would do with a field kick on the run
8. pulled up from his kick in one step and pirouetted round to his right and surprise, surprise! the ball sliced out to the right in the direction of his bodily rotation

It was absolutely incredible rubbish from Smith.

In all it was completely disgraceful technique and a damning indictment of the dereliction of duty of the responsible special coach and the broader coaching team who tolerate such an absolute rubbish technique in what is purportedly a "professional" albeit parochial sport.

 

[Jones Boy]

All valid criticisms, however you left out the facts that:

5. he kicked way to close to the man on the mark
6. he laid back on the ball and kicked under it instead of through the ball
7. he did not run through eth kick in the kicking action as one would do with a field kick on the run
8. pulled up from his kick in one step and pirouetted round to his right and surprise, surprise! the ball sliced out to the right in the direction of his bodily rotation

It was absolutely incredible rubbish from Smith.

In all it was completely disgraceful technique and a damning indictment of the dereliction of duty of the responsible special coach and the broader coaching team who tolerate such an absolute rubbish technique in what is purportedly a "professional" albeit parochial sport.

Agree. Was going to put this in but was typing on my phone and ran out of puff . . . the immediately commenced typing more *face palm*

BTW you wouldn't happen to be a geologist or a paleontologist would you?

 

[StillAtLarge]

Why are we still talking about this? The club/team has moved on, surely we can as well? I mean, it's game day ffs. New opponent, new challenge. Last week is history

 

[filly]

Why are we still talking about this? The club/team has moved on, surely we can as well? I mean, it's game day ffs. New opponent, new challenge. Last week is history

So true lets go after the Dogs tonight and put the football world back on notice!!!!

 

[Ordovician]

BTW you wouldn't happen to be a geologist or a paleontologist would you?

I have fairish smattering of geology from various sources academic and familial (in the blood for 200 generations), but I have forgotten an awful lot and well FMD they have changed the date ranges from some of the eras. When TF did the Cambrian start beginning at 542 million years ago? In my day it was 600 million!

Of anything in that field and related fields I retain far more soil science that true geology although my soil mechanics has sadly atrophied.

The user name comes from the derived soil types which are typically yellowish brown and form the central backbone of Victoria from the Mornington Peninsula through Melbourne and up to the central gold fields.

 

[Crankyhawk]

Smiths kick? Better than ******* Breust one tonight.

 

[macdaddio]

Smith cost us the grand final not Bruest

 

[Gralin]

Smith cost us the grand final not Bruest

No one player cost us the grand final

 

[Gaston]

The way he played tonight I think Smith had that shot on his mind all week.
Was a tired player who tried without any real impact.

He is an inconsistent kick and last weeks result highlights that.

 

[macdaddio]

No one player cost us the grand final

Na but that's just in reference to people blaming Breust.!

 

[Ordovician]

No one player cost us the grand final

One player, with one kick after the siren, gifted Geelong a berth in the PF.

That is the incontrovertible reality of the situation. End of story.

All of the Geelong players knew that at the time.

A thought experiment:

If you could be in either coaches' position before the kick and it was not Smith taking the kick but another Hawk, who would you rather be Clarko or Scott?

 

[Gralin]

One player, with one kick after the siren, gifted Geelong a berth in the PF.

That is the incontrovertible reality of the situation. End of story.

All of the Geelong players knew that at the time.

A thought experiment:

If you could be in either coaches' position before the kick and it was not Smith taking the kick but another Hawk, who would you rather be Clarko or Scott?

I'd never want to be Chris Scott Ordo.

And no matter how bad Smith stuffed up that kick it was a team effort to be in the situation where we needed that kick to go through

 

[Angus Young]

I know everyone doesn't want to blame Smith but I knew when he missed that the fourthorn was gone.

As for tonight. Bruest was 15m out directly in front tonight to put us up by 5 goals. He misses they take it straight down there and goal. massive turning turning point too.

But the Smith miss is devastating....

 

[macdaddio]

In reality we should never had beaten the pies and there for we wouldn't had finished top 4..
Sure Smiths kick cost us a prelim but really we been lucky all year with those close wins and eventually it was going to come back to haunt us at some stage.!