Re: Goal Kicking : Mon Jun 05, 2023 4:33 pm  

Not sure where this notion is that Smith has been a great goal kicker. Throughout his junior years I believe he was kicking at around the 70ish % mark.

Last season a lot of Wigan's tries were scored under the sticks or close to them- breakaways from Field/French whereas this season a lot more have been scored by your centres and finished by wingers in the corner.

He did kick at 100% throughout the 3 match Test series against Australia's Academy but he's never really got to those levels since.

Re: Goal Kicking : Wed Jun 07, 2023 10:13 am  

Egg Chasing wrote:

What was his record last season?

I've also seen him in the academy and kick well. I think it's possibly a confidence thing with him that a good early kick means he'll nail the rest rather than overthinking things. His normal game seems to go the same way too.

Since this never got answered and as Jukes has pointed out without giving a figure, Harry smith kicked at 82% last year. Which would put him as tied 2nd most accurate kicker last season out of anybody with a noteable amound of conversions. It's also worth noting that he did kick more than either of the other 2 by quite a margin aswell.

Ratchford - 85% successful conversions, 75 attempts
Harry Smith - 82% successful conversions, 110 attempts
Chris Hankinson - 82% successful conversions, 77 attempts

There is a good kicker in there somewhere, and he proved it last season in my opinion. I agree with the comments about how he is a confidence player, and he seems to be lacking that at the moment in the kicking department. I would be all for giving him a break from the duties and letting somebody else take the burden until he feels he is ready to take it back up again. It seems like this thought may already be in motion within the team as didn't (i think) Field take one of the conversions at Magic?

I am not up for the idea of dropping him from the team though, he is playing behind a beaten and undermanned pack at the moment so his general effectiveness is likely to drop. I still see signs of him doing good stuff on the pitch, his in game kicking is still good, he is still thowing some good passes and assisting in the tries we score. I think dropping him all together could be a bigger rock to his confidence then just a temporary break from kicking. That's before you get onto who would replace him? Can't say i have too much confidence yet in Field and Cust after Magic, not convinces Field was fully fit myself.

Stu M wrote:

Not sure where this notion is that Smith has been a great goal kicker. Throughout his junior years I believe he was kicking at around the 70ish % mark.

Last season a lot of Wigan's tries were scored under the sticks or close to them- breakaways from Field/French whereas this season a lot more have been scored by your centres and finished by wingers in the corner.

He did kick at 100% throughout the 3 match Test series against Australia's Academy but he's never really got to those levels since.

Don't really buy into this notion if i am honest Stu, we did score our fair share of breakaway tries, but we also scored plenty on the edges too with our wingers scoring 52 tries between them. Saying he had mostly easy kicks is abit disingenuous imo and surely not to the level of elevating a kicker by 12ish%.

Re: Goal Kicking : Wed Jun 07, 2023 10:21 am  

You can still have wingers scoring tries under the sticks though. It would be interesting to see exactly how many of his kicks last season were difficult ones. French would often score a breakaway try but still under the sticks.

Re: Goal Kicking : Wed Jun 07, 2023 10:32 am  

Stu M wrote:

You can still have wingers scoring tries under the sticks though. It would be interesting to see exactly how many of his kicks last season were difficult ones. French would often score a breakaway try but still under the sticks.

This isn't true Stu. I remember saying last year that we score most of our tries out wide. Even if we had 10 break away tries that ended up under the sticks (and I'm being generous there as not all break away tries end up under the sticks as chasers back often force them out wide) it's still in single figures percent of his overall kicks taken. He still kicked way more from out wide than the next best kickers kicked in total! That's a sobering thought...

Re: Goal Kicking : Wed Jun 07, 2023 10:34 am  

Stu M wrote: You can still have wingers scoring tries under the sticks though. It would be interesting to see exactly how many of his kicks last season were difficult ones. French would often score a breakaway try but still under the sticks. Decide for yourself pal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB8fvoH ... ScoutingRL There may be a few more with his burst of speed closer to the sticks than your average winger, but not enough to be an outlier and many are still in the 1/3 of the pitch closest to the sideline. As a side note, what a year French had. That's just 1 season's of tries, and is probably better than most player's career highlight reel!

Stu M wrote: You can still have wingers scoring tries under the sticks though. It would be interesting to see exactly how many of his kicks last season were difficult ones. French would often score a breakaway try but still under the sticks. Decide for yourself pal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB8fvoH ... ScoutingRL There may be a few more with his burst of speed closer to the sticks than your average winger, but not enough to be an outlier and many are still in the 1/3 of the pitch closest to the sideline. As a side note, what a year French had. That's just 1 season's of tries, and is probably better than most player's career highlight reel!

Re: Goal Kicking : Wed Jun 07, 2023 10:48 am  

Smith was statistically the best kicker in SL last year
Smith kicked them from all over the shop last year Inc. More than his fair share from out wide

Re: Goal Kicking : Wed Jun 07, 2023 11:46 am  

BoredWiganer wrote: Decide for yourself pal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB8fvoH ... ScoutingRL There may be a few more with his burst of speed closer to the sticks than your average winger, but not enough to be an outlier and many are still in the 1/3 of the pitch closest to the sideline. As a side note, what a year French had. That's just 1 season's of tries, and is probably better than most player's career highlight reel! Cheers for this. Absolute confirmation of what I said above. All bar one of the "breakaway" tries finished out wide.

BoredWiganer wrote: Decide for yourself pal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB8fvoH ... ScoutingRL There may be a few more with his burst of speed closer to the sticks than your average winger, but not enough to be an outlier and many are still in the 1/3 of the pitch closest to the sideline. As a side note, what a year French had. That's just 1 season's of tries, and is probably better than most player's career highlight reel! Cheers for this. Absolute confirmation of what I said above. All bar one of the "breakaway" tries finished out wide.