Remember before the days of Hardaker, McShane, Sutcliffe we had a very good replacement goal kicker. He is still in the side now. He used to kick very important kicks from the touchline and was reliable, albeit not as good as Sir Kev .

Burrow! 152 Goals to his name for Leeds. I cannot find an attempts stat to work out the % but i'd bet top dollar its higher than Sutcliffes current %.

Why is he no longer getting a look in?

Because he only plays about 20/30 mins a game. I think we'd scored 4/5 tries before Burrow got on the pitch on Friday.

Also depends whether he wants the job and is still putting in the practice.

If he's not done any goal-kicking practice in training for a long time, you can't just throw him the ball and ask him to do it in games.

At the moment, I'd say there's not much between Sutcliffe and Hardaker when it comes to ability off the tee. Hardaker's kick-offs in particular show that he's got a good deal of technique and ability to put the ball in the right place on a consistent basis. With the right amount of work and application I'm sure both of them can go on to become 75-80% kickers.

In terms of a back-up for field kicking, Leeds are fortunate that they seem to have two centres who are reasonably competent at putting boot to ball. So if pressure comes on the first choice kickers, the option is always there to put it through the hands and let Moon or Watkins get the kick in, something we've done a fair bit of the last couple of seasons. Aiton's also showing a nice short kicking game near the line recently, and seems to have developed something of an understanding with Cuthbertson in particular.

I think Sutcliffe's biggest issue at the moment is in his approach and technique. He can strike a ball perfectly well when he gets it right (home game vs Catalans last year e.g.). But he is very erratic in that regard, and often looks like he is connecting with the "wrong" part of the ball.

The plus side of that (and something he can definitely take from Sinfield) is that this to a large extent can be learned, and practiced to the point of being robotic.

IMO there is a decent kicker in there... if he is willing to put the work in (same applies to Hardaker too)

When you lose such an all time great goal kicker like Sinfield then unless you get really lucky it is always going to be felt a bit. Both Wigan and Saints have struggled to find quality kickers in recent years to replace trusty boots of their own so it wont be easy.

I would like to see us stick with Sutcliffe.He should become a linchpin in this side for years to come and is worth the patience imo.Hopefully he will be putting the time in on the training field and in due course he will up his percentages to the required level, however its a little unfair to expect him to be around the level of one of the best Kickers of a generation in just a few months.

Anyone know what Sinny's percentage was in his first few years.

No idea but I remember at the time thinking he was a massive downgrade from Harris when he took over, I think that was part of what made the 2003 semi final so memorable as he wasn't known at the time for kicking touch line goals.

I could be wrong though.

I may be dreaming, but I seem to remember England RU being in a training camp pre-World Cup 2003 up at West Park Bramhope. If memory serves me right, Sinfield spent a chunk of time with Johnny Wilkinson and his kicking coach, and basically went from strength to strength from there??

[urlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyleague/article-2046148/The-secrets-Kevin-Sinfield--rugbys-greatest-kicker.html[/url


Old article but worth a quick read

It's well worth any young player wanting to improve their kicking - whether for goal or out of hand - spending some time with Dave Alred, the former kicking coach to Jonny Wilkinson and now working with Ireland's Jonny Sexton and Bath/England's George Ford.

Going forward, a few days at Alred's consultancy rates might end up being one of the best investments Leeds can make.

I'm certain that the club has used Alred in the past - for Sinfield.
Wasn't Alred also a kicker in the NFL for a brief period?

[urlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qClWlvA-WLQ[/url

Never heard of Dave Alred but a quick google brought up this very good video

He was, he's also done some sports psychology stuff with Luke Donald in the past.

the earliest stats i could find on superleague website (regular rounds only) show

Sinfield, 2003: 100 goals kicked, 35 missed = 74%
which is about average for a good goalkicker i think?

compared with last years
Sinfield, 2014: 74 goals kicked, 21 missed = 78%

and this years (so far)
Sinfield, 2015: 45 goals kicked, 7 missed = 86%

just for comparison, at the minute Sutcliffe is about 63% this year (from a really small sample size), but i'd guess he wouldnt have expected to be first choice goal kicker quite so much this year

The Leigh Halfpenny video is good too.
He's now probably the most accurate kicker in RU.

Alred started off in League, though you would be hard pressed to find much written evidence of it.

Sinfield, IIRC did a lot of work with Jon Callard when he was at Leeds Tykes, rather than Wilkinson. He was certainly criticised in some quarters during his early years when he was less consistent. I'm not saying Sutcliffe will ever be the answer but to write him off at such a young age is wrong as well. I'm surprised that Hardaker hasn't done it this year though - think he's ahead of Sutcliffe at the moment.

Maybe because Hardakers long term prospects at the club looked a bit shaky at the start of the season

IMV both Hardaker & Sutcliffe should be spending time on their goalkicking.
Anything to improve your value to the team & to increase your attractiveness to other teams if it doesn't work out at your current club.

I considered that, but that would almost be like letting Sutcliffe kick instead of Sinfield at times. Another reason might be that he is often the person who fields the next kick off and it was a more difficult transition whereas Kev only has to wander back to the 40. I guess if there isn't much to choose between them then exploring Sutcliffe as an option makes sense.

Do you think that being a good goal kicker is one of the attributes being considered for the rumoured new halfback signing that GH wants?

Pat Richards had only kicked 4 goals before he got the job at Wigan, he didn't do so badly. There may have been some talent there, but constant practice helped too.

Practice and coaching can make an average goalkicker into a top one. Henry Paul never kicked goals until he joined us. He has most of the club records for it now.

Ive never understood why, if you were a young player looking to make you way in the game you would spend hours becoming an outstanding goal kicker. It seems a relatively easy way to not only differentiate yourself, but can make an otherwise 'good' player, indispensable.

Agree with that. It's also something you can do a lot of on your own time.