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Jamie Foster is looking like a possible option now, him and Rocky fighting for the fb spot this season would be good

TrueBlueWarrior wrote:

Kittwazzer wrote:TBW, Hanley is correct. Pat himself said he had never been a kicker prior to coming here. He saw an opening and taught himself because he knew his general play wasn't impressing enough to guarantee his place so he added a string to his bow. And his first ever drop goal was at Bradford in the memorable playoff game. He went on to record arguably the greatest dropgoal in history at Widnes!

Fair enough, I hold my hand up but you can still clearly see that Pat has more of a natural ability to kick a rugby ball than Smith IMO.

The shear power that Richards inflicted when kicking a rugby ball has something to do with it!?! That won't be completely replaced IMO.

Wandering Warrior wrote:

TrueBlueWarrior wrote:

Kittwazzer wrote:TBW, Hanley is correct. Pat himself said he had never been a kicker prior to coming here. He saw an opening and taught himself because he knew his general play wasn't impressing enough to guarantee his place so he added a string to his bow. And his first ever drop goal was at Bradford in the memorable playoff game. He went on to record arguably the greatest dropgoal in history at Widnes!

Fair enough, I hold my hand up but you can still clearly see that Pat has more of a natural ability to kick a rugby ball than Smith IMO.

The shear power that Richards inflicted when kicking a rugby ball has something to do with it!?! That won't be completely replaced IMO.

Botica did not have anything like Richard's power either with the ball often scraping over the crossbar but he was at least as consistent if not more so (don't have the stats but I can't imagine he wasn't).

Botica was the best kicker I have ever seen in a Wigan shirt. As I related last week he was a goal kicker plus some before he came to us. As you rightly say his kicks sometimes grazed the right side of the crossbar however his length was not as good as Paddy's if I remember correctly? No smut please?

Wandering Warrior wrote:Botica was the best kicker I have ever seen in a Wigan shirt. As I related last week he was a goal kicker plus some before he came to us. As you rightly say his kicks sometimes grazed the right side of the crossbar however his length was not as good as Paddy's if I remember correctly? No smut please?

I don't recall him attempting 50m penalties or drop goals and neither do I have any memory of him taking booming drop outs like Pat. What he had though was enough range for the touch line conversions and the accuracy to mean it didn't matter where we scored.

DaveO wrote:

sheepsteeth wrote:where we supposed to just sign someone who can kick goals? if so who should we have bought and who should we drop to fit them in?

No but when it obviously wasn't working with Smith try someone else. In fact they should have been trying several players from the outset.

Had they done so and still no one was up to it then you really do seriously have to look at looking outside the club.

Who specifically? No idea. I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of every professional player and their availability. It's the clubs job to locate one, not mine or any other fans.

Smith has had 3 competitive games, I didn't see the kicking agains Wakey but agains Hudds and the Roosters we scored about 5 tries and 4 of them where on the touchline so i think we need to give him a chance.

You also haven't really answered the point, do you think we should just sign a goal kicker if the rest of their game isn't up to it? Jamie Foster falls into this bracket in my opinion.

If we do sign someone just to kick goals who are we leaving out?

If this was the NFL then someone who is just a good goal kicker would be great.

DaveO wrote:

Wandering Warrior wrote:Botica was the best kicker I have ever seen in a Wigan shirt. As I related last week he was a goal kicker plus some before he came to us. As you rightly say his kicks sometimes grazed the right side of the crossbar however his length was not as good as Paddy's if I remember correctly? No smut please?

I don't recall him attempting 50m penalties or drop goals and neither do I have any memory of him taking booming drop outs like Pat. What he had though was enough range for the touch line conversions and the accuracy to mean it didn't matter where we scored.

I stated that his length was not like Pat's however I have seen him convert centrally positioned just inside the half way line. As for drop kicks/drop outs didn't we have a player called Joe Lydon who covered that one?

People assume that players want to take goal kicks, there's no guarantee they do! some will put their hand up because they know others won't, as in football penalty shoot outs.
All credit to them for putting their hands up, doesn't mean they are suited?

Wandering Warrior wrote:People assume that players want to take goal kicks, there's no guarantee they do! some will put their hand up because they know others won't, as in football penalty shoot outs.
All credit to them for putting their hands up, doesn't mean they are suited?

That is true and is why the buck stops with the coaching staff on this one, not the players.

Sam Powell always looks up for taking the kicks - as does Ryan Hampshire.

Neither of them seem to make a bad job of it either.