Down the fullbacks throat

AmericanHistoryX

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Can someone with half a footy brain - mine is much less - you probably can tell from my posts - why does the kicker on the last tackle kick the ball down the fullbacks throat with all that room on the field? Or do they do that on purpose. This Johnson guy from Warriors kept doing it and doing it. It was precision if you will. Is that the tactic? If it is sign this guy up. Near perfect.
 
Its the sign of a poor general kicker.
Brooks found the turf often against the Panthers and they struggled for field position.
 
Can someone with half a footy brain - mine is much less - you probably can tell from my posts - why does the kicker on the last tackle kick the ball down the fullbacks throat with all that room on the field? Or do they do that on purpose. This Johnson guy from Warriors kept doing it and doing it. It was precision if you will. Is that the tactic? If it is sign this guy up. Near perfect.
A lot of the time it’s the fullback reading the game/kick well and positioning himself in the right spot.
 
I think it's to do with positioning but it's also that if the fullback is catching it running, they have momentum into the tackle but if it's kicked straight down their throat, they have to settle under it and take time gathering momentum.

The other thing I've seen recently is that the edge defence moves up so fast on the last tackle that the kicker's angles are all skewed- they can't kick it to the wing and end up kicking it straight instead. Mitchell Moses is probably one of the best at figuring out the angles to kick it to the wing, he's got a very cunning long kicking game.
 
Can someone with half a footy brain - mine is much less - you probably can tell from my posts - why does the kicker on the last tackle kick the ball down the fullbacks throat with all that room on the field? Or do they do that on purpose. This Johnson guy from Warriors kept doing it and doing it. It was precision if you will. Is that the tactic? If it is sign this guy up. Near perfect.
I assume when the ball gets kicked deep into the oppositions territory it is to keep them down there and make them work the ball out...defense wins games...unforced errors and pressure on fullbacks and wingers as well...some fullbacks and wingers are very good at positional play and is why they are in the top grade....
 
Some times I wonder if a shallower kick would be better so your chasers could simply get there at the same time and nail the fullback on the 30m line rather than let them catch it and run to the 30m line...
 
Balls kicked from our own half would have around 4sec hang time and kickers will tend to kick to a side where the numbers favour or set for the chase. Modern fullbacks can often tell where the kick is going and 4sec is plenty of time to get under or near ball.
 
Can someone with half a footy brain - mine is much less - you probably can tell from my posts - why does the kicker on the last tackle kick the ball down the fullbacks throat with all that room on the field? Or do they do that on purpose. This Johnson guy from Warriors kept doing it and doing it. It was precision if you will. Is that the tactic? If it is sign this guy up. Near perfect.
You lost me at the first sentence!
 
It's very difficult to kick long and actually find the grass unless you utilise a grubber which is difficult to get a lot of distance with or you use the element of surprise and kick early in the tackle count.

With full backs and wingers dropping back late in the tackle count, and factoring in the amount of hang time in a big kick, it is generally fairly easy for the back 3 to cover any distance required to get to that kick.

Obviously if you have the ability to kick one of these spiral bombs like Matt Burton is capable of and other players like Adam Doueihi were able to do on the odd occasion, then defending players have lots of time to actually get to them, but then so do the attacking players which puts the defending players under even more pressure trying to catch a ball that is swirling and often moving away from them.

These are the kicks that are often allowed to bounce because they are so erratic and it is so difficult to predict where the ball will actually land.

I guess it is for this reason that these spiral bombs are becoming more common place as players begin to master the ability to pull them off because it is more difficult to find the grass instead of putting one down the throat of a defending player.

You will more often than not hear a commentator coming out and praising how good a kick is that actually finds the grass and beats a winger or fullback.

May not be completely correct but just my thoughts on attacking kicks.
 
I’ve seen a tactic used against some good running fullbacks, kick early while the wingers are up, to the corners with defenders pinning the fb. Gives him some work to do while taking him out of the next few plays or the whole set. Our guys could do this with Mitchell today? The idea is to make him work where he’s not as dangerous. Don’t know how effective it is.
 

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