So with Orford signed, and Deac on his way to wigan.



Who is going to take over kicking duties? IIRC Sykes still holds SL record for successful conversions in 1 game but has looked pretty rusty when he was filling in for Deac's last season. So do any of the new guys have a decent boot on them ? or are we gonna have to get used to an average kicker?

Saints hav'nt done too badly with an average kicker

sykes looked rusted precisely because he wasnt regular kicker and hadnt been for a few years. I'd be surprised if he didnt improve a fair bit once doing the job every week. and even rusty he made better yards on penalty kicks than deacs.



plus orfords a kicker too so he might take over

Orfords been the main kicker for Manly for the last 2 seasons.

how good a kicker is he though? 242 over 98 games is only an average of 2 1/2 per game although if he wasnt kicker for first year of that and missed a few games last year it starts to look a bit better. can't say Ive ever taken much notice of his goal kicking. Slightly worying thing for me is if sykes does become the kicker it guarantees him a starting spot which isnt ideal.

Orford's career goalkicking percentage is [url=http://stats.rleague.com/rl/scorers/players/Matt_Orford.html71.96[/url. Significantly worse than Deacon's, but comparable, I would guess, to Sykes'.

Orford's goal kicking doesn't look too reliable so I expect he'll share it with Sykes.

I don't expect Sykes to be in the team every week, it will be on form with Platt. So I imagine Orford will take over mainly, with Sykes doing a little bit ?

Orford was the main kicker but shared the duties with Lyon. In 2009 his kicking accuracy was 76% (57/75).

We just need ex ex Manly boys to convince him to come to the Bulls in 2011 now!!

Watmough, Kite & Foran for 2011 please

Can any of the new lads kick goals, or will it be Sykes kicking? Hope not as we need a better a better one than Paul.

Orford can kick.

[urlhttp://viewtopic.php?t=436935[/url

orford was a kicker for manly but he only averaged about 70% compared to deacs 79-80%, dont know sykes % offhand

He sounds like a decent goal-kicker but we have Sykes too.

From here on in we are dealing in try scoring only, kicking will become irrelevant

Whoops missed that one

This is a Bradford board, just moderate that positive stuff

In 229 NRL games Matt Orford has scored 1,502 points.

What?

orford for mine, don't think sykes will be a regular starter. Read on a manly board that orford was a pretty good goal kicker.

Pretty difficult to compare any future kicker to Deacon's stats and unrealistic to do so. 80% !!!!

Miight have to settle for a lesser expectation of 70%+



Yup I'd take that whether it be Orford or Sykes

Hmmmm a 10% drop in kick conversion success as compared to what % increase can we expect to see in the tries scored ratio to now we have a scrum half