Smiths kicking

[nathan_rugby]

Is he really bad at kicking or is it a tactic to let almost every kick be caught on the full?

I know some of the kicks are very long OR are up in the air for a while but a lot of them are bog standard and down the throat of the defence.

When we think about bygone good kickers like Sinfield, Deacon, Matty Smith etc, they were known for accuracy, distance and the ball hitting the ground.

Have tactics and strategies changed? Are other teams kickers doing the same?

Interested to know the thoughts of others.

[Firestarter]

I getwhat your saying but a high kick gives our defence more time to set.Im all for the grubber into space but theres a lot of luck involved and i reckon its just percentages.Huddersfield try was 2 yard forward.I wonder if that gets mentioned all over social media???

[moto748]

As far as I can see, Harry Smith's kicking suits our game-plan. Which doesn't seem to be working out too bad now. Plus, of course, there's a lot more to Harry's game than just kicking.

[The Pearl1]

Is he really bad at kicking or is it a tactic to let almost every kick be caught on the full?

I know some of the kicks are very long OR are up in the air for a while but a lot of them are bog standard and down the throat of the defence.

When we think about bygone good kickers like Sinfield, Deacon, Matty Smith etc, they were known for accuracy, distance and the ball hitting the ground.

Have tactics and strategies changed? Are other teams kickers doing the same?

Interested to know the thoughts of others.

He is the best kicker in SL, long kicks he often finds the floor unless opponents have dropped 3 players back.

[thegimble]

I getwhat your saying but a high kick gives our defence more time to set.Im all for the grubber into space but theres a lot of luck involved and i reckon its just percentages.Huddersfield try was 2 yard forward.I wonder if that gets mentioned all over social media???

Watching Smith kick is more NFL than NRL. Punters in NFL sacrifice distance if the can gave a better hangtime on the ball. Even one of the greatest NRL teams struggled to make meters from his kicks.

Last Saturday he was kicking regularly from inside own 40 but the Panthers backs did not make that many meters from when they collected the ball as our defence was in their faces

Only Pat Richards have I seen go that high.

[KieronC]

Good question!

Funny you should mention this. It came up in conversation last night with my dad. I feel like it's a tactic, mostly because there's not that much deviation from what he's doing. If he were that bad, I think you'd see more errand kicks.

I think after the Penrith match he said something about how the plan was to kick to "square A1" (or something along those lines) and it does seem like it happens in most matches.

There is a chance his long kicking game isn't accurate enough so this style is what works for him and the team.

How do you feel about the style and would you prefer him to find space? If I may add something to this, any thoughts on kicking on the 4th tackle so much? Feel free to ignore that last bit if it's a bit of a tangent from the original point!

[nathan_rugby]

I getwhat your saying but a high kick gives our defence more time to set.Im all for the grubber into space but theres a lot of luck involved and i reckon its just percentages.Huddersfield try was 2 yard forward.I wonder if that gets mentioned all over social media???

Watching Smith kick is more NFL than NRL. Punters in NFL sacrifice distance if the can gave a better hangtime on the ball. Even one of the greatest NRL teams struggled to make meters from his kicks.

Last Saturday he was kicking regularly from inside own 40 but the Panthers backs did not make that many meters from when they collected the ball as our defence was in their faces

Only Pat Richards have I seen go that high.

Couldn’t be further from the truth.

All of the stats from the game indicate this isn’t true. Penrith won the possession game in the first 30 without even kicking the ball once.

That being said, we won the game so it’s a bit irrelevant.

The point of the post isn’t to slam Smith btw, it’s to dive a bit deeper into our tactics as it historically hasn’t been common across rugby league to kick in this way.

[Caboosegg]

Good question!

Funny you should mention this. It came up in conversation last night with my dad. I feel like it's a tactic, mostly because there's not that much deviation from what he's doing. If he were that bad, I think you'd see more errand kicks.

I think after the Penrith match he said something about how the plan was to kick to "square A1" (or something along those lines) and it does seem like it happens in most matches.

There is a chance his long kicking game isn't accurate enough so this style is what works for him and the team.

How do you feel about the style and would you prefer him to find space? If I may add something to this, any thoughts on kicking on the 4th tackle so much? Feel free to ignore that last bit if it's a bit of a tangent from the original point!

Seen enough of his long kicking game to know it's pin point when it needs to be.

Even if you watch last night smiths kicks where caught when we were turning the screw. When our defence was tired he kicked into space.

Smith goal kicking still isn't perfect but his in game kicking is spot on

[nathan_rugby]

Good question!

Funny you should mention this. It came up in conversation last night with my dad. I feel like it's a tactic, mostly because there's not that much deviation from what he's doing. If he were that bad, I think you'd see more errand kicks.

I think after the Penrith match he said something about how the plan was to kick to "square A1" (or something along those lines) and it does seem like it happens in most matches.

There is a chance his long kicking game isn't accurate enough so this style is what works for him and the team.

How do you feel about the style and would you prefer him to find space? If I may add something to this, any thoughts on kicking on the 4th tackle so much? Feel free to ignore that last bit if it's a bit of a tangent from the original point!

End of the day we won the league, grand final and now world club challenge with kicking this way so it’s clearly effective as part of our overall game plan.

I just personally cannot get on board with it as I am so used to seeing the best kickers find the ground etc. I will trust that Pete et al know what they are doing.

Kicking on the 4th would increase the chance of finding the ground but then you lose meters from
the run you don’t take. A few years ago we were kicking on the 3rd and 4th a lot more than we do now. I wonder if it was because we weren’t strong enough in yardage from the forwards?

[Nezza Faz]

I’d say his kicking game in general play has become a major part of Matty Peet’s game plan- backed up by an incredible kick/ chase defensive effort.
This needs hell of a lot attention to detail with the level of fitness required to carry this out, for 80 minutes if necessary. And still have enough gas left to attack with pace and precision.