I know that percentages don't give all of the answers (depends upon where from the field the kick is taken).

I know the kid is young and has time to develop

BUT I was alarmed to see that Liam Sutcliffe has a success rate of 62.5% on his goal kicks, having missed 12 of 32 kicks taken.

Whilst it's unfair to compare him to perhaps the greatest goal kicker of this generation Sinfield kicks 86.54% of his, having missed just 7 from 52.

Nowhere was the importance of this better illustrated than last Friday when we went in at the half ahead, despite having scored 1 less try than Hull KR.

I thought this last Friday that is it worth finding a place somewhere in the team for Sinfield for his goalkicking alone as it can and was worth an extra try.

We also talked about this at the game on Friday.
We said that we hoped Sutcliffe was learning from Sinfield & that he was committed to the amount of practice needed to become a consistent & accurate place-kicker.
Johnny Wilkinson used to practise for hours on end to hone his kicking technique. Sinfield also I believe spends many hours on his own grooving his kicking.
Sutcliffe needs to do the same, in close games it can make all the difference.

but david furner was F##kin brilliant

Goal kicking is very important and we've been spoilt with Sinfield. As well as a quality prop Rhinos are suppose to be after a halfback and I wonder if being a good kicker is one skill GH is after ?

You don't need stats to see the lad is a poor goalkicker. Hardaker is little better. Can that be ironed out? Well, it hasn't yet...

Any 80-minute front line props who can also kick goals around?

lee crooks was one with his kick against the kiwis at eland road

IMO I believe that Sinny is worth at least 4 to 6 points extra per game.

Those extra points will be sorely missed next season

Unless we sign a replacement of course.

Go with what we have then you have an issue.

Do you know something we don't?

Yeah well, we tried that...

Actually struggling to think of goal-kicking forwards nowadays. Tickle must be the last one now that Huby doesn't kick any more.

Then there's Cameron Smith and Corey Parker in Australia. Would be happy with either of those...

Doesn't Westerman kick for Hull?

It's Sneyd for them now.

Corey Patterson has done some kicking for Salford with Dobson out.

Westwood has kicked for Warrington.

I'd give peacock a whirl, had a good drop goal attempt last year against cas

he's got potential

I did enjoy that the kick to put Sir Kev into third place on the all time scorers list was as difficult as possible. Somehow fitting.

Lining up said kick

I don't think you can ever "create" a great goal kicker, a natural gift is what makes the great kickers stand out. It's a pointless excercise looking for any of the current lot to fill Sinny's boots, the natural ability is obviously not there, practice will improve any kicker but will only take them so far. Field kicking is totally different, awareness, decision making and other factors come into play, and in that respect, I think given time Sutty could be a lot better than Sinny, as shown by the kick of the season at Saints. None of the current lot will ever hold a candle to Sinny off the tee, Widdop would be the only decent replacement.

After having to wait for a couple of minutes whilst Ken Sio tried to remember his name and what just ran at him. I think that is probably Sinfield's last personal points/appearance milestone that he'll achieve/break now.

Also looking at the highlights the other night. After Cockayne scores his try, Achurch makes the signal with his hands for the ref to go to the screen.....erm Mitch, there isn't a VR at non Sky games mate.

I think where sutcliffe seems to lack is the kicks from the touch line, whilst sinny will probably get half to two thirds of these, I don't think I've seen sutty get one this season (from thegames I've seen).

I do think in the games he's been main kicker we have scored a lot more from out wide. I'm not sure what a standard kicking ratio for a mainline kicker is, but I would imagine that is around 75%, so some way to go, but I think we have to give him a shot in more games as practice can only go so far, but it will be a balancing act with results also very important

I'd disagree with that, I think goal kicking is something that, with enough practice, virtually anyone can do. It just takes a long time and a LOT of practice. I think it's mental skills that help more than anything, perseverance and discipline being 2 of them. Something Sinfield has in spades.
I'd like to see Sutcliffe starting lots of extra practice at goal kicking, as its really the only way to get better. There's no secret to it.

I'd also like to see both Sutcliffe and Hardaker practicing their out of hand kicking. Sutcliffe, for obvious reasons but Hardaker because in the next few seasons we'll be going from 3, at least decent, kickers in Sinfield, McGuire & Burrow (plus Webb in the past) down to just Sutcliffe plus whoever the other half will be. It's useful to have a "3rd kicker" in the squad and Hardaker will probably have to fill that gap. And at the moment his kicking is bloody awful.

Moon is a good out-of-hand kicker, but yes it wouldn't harm to have Hardaker improve. What was Stevie Ward like when he was playing stand off for the U19s?

Moon started as a stand off so his kicking should be OK. I tend to agree with practice developing almost anyone into a kicker - but the mental side of it is just as important. You can have all the technique in the world but if you crumble under pressure you're no use. When you watch a really good kicker they look as confident from the sideline as in front of the posts. Compare that to your average stand-in kicker - most of them clearly don't believe they can score from the sidelines when they are teeing up the ball.

Without doubt practice is essential to develop good technique as in a golf swing. But also as in golf there is the mental strength and natural timing that separate the greats from the pack. The touchline attempts should be at least be near misses as the first clue to a potential star kicker. To date Sutty has not given me confidence in this regard and Hardaker is even further behind and has yet to show a good technique.

Time will tell but a proven goal kicker should be at the top of the CV of any new recruit.