[quote="Alffi_7":3a9vkitc]It was a poor miss, but he's a 22 year old kid in his first season as a kicker for the first team, and looking at the only other realistic option in the squad - Leyland - his %'s were pretty poor last year too. If we sign a recognised kicker by all means Thewlis can step aside, but for now I think we stick with him.[/quote:3a9vkitc] Yes this is not bagging Thewlis. He can only kick as good as he can kick and hope to improve with practice. The question was it that good enough for us as a team. But as you say Leyland at 66% was pretty poor last season too.

It’s quite rare in RL to get beaten if you have out scored the opposition in tries. Only a handful of tight games in RL have more than 7 tries where a kicking average of only 60% to win you the game even if the opposition has a 100% strike rate. Only a try less games is where the game gets decided on kicks, and those games are extremely rare. That is why I say, a good kicker doesn’t win you games, but he could lose you one. It isn’t about the kicker, it’s about not having the try advantage, or having to rely on the opponent poor discipline to give the kicker a chance to make the difference.

However, I'd proffer that quite a few games have both teams on level try's, or a one try margin. Goal kicking success isn't just about the points equivalence of half a try, it's so much more IMO. In addition to turning four into six, taking the two and getting the ball back what's not to like? A kick success can stretch your lead to a two score advantage, perhaps forcing the opposition to start taking chances on riskier plays depending upon the clock. Although and it rarely backfired on Sinfield, it didn't work out in the Challenge Cup when I think we viewed the option as weak desperate move........but then again thanks to Mr Ganson, he and Leeds fared better in the 2011 play off.

In the 2011 play-off game, it was a certain touch judge....James Child who walked onto the field of play with his flag raised to stop play, and told the ref. that Richie Myler was offside at the play the ball when he attempted to charge down an attempted Leeds drop goal that missed. Ganson had no choice other than to accept Child`s intervention and looked unhappy that the game was probably going to be decided by Child`s opinion. When the Wire players questioned the reason for the penalty, he told them that the touch judge had given offside at the play the ball. In all the time that I have been watching Rugby League, I have never seen a touch judge stop a game for an offside penalty at the play the ball like that and probably never will in the future. I was not a big fan of Ganson, but on that occasion he was blameless.

[quote="rubber duckie":20vqing0] Only a try less games is where the game gets decided on kicks, and those games are extremely rare. [/quote:20vqing0] Eh ? Sinfield knocked us out of the playoffs in 2011 by a kick. (2 tries each) We lost the semi final again Hull KR with a kick. (2 tries each)