The most posted statement on this forum is how poor our kicking and decision making skills are and how if someone isn't a good kick they never will be as its a skill if you can't master at 18 then you never will.
I don't believe this, this is why:
Nick Malceski is an Eastern Suburbs boy who played football for North Ringwood our local footy club. In all respect to Nick he was just another player. He won I think 1 Junior Bets and Fairest in Under 14s and failed to make any representative team until late 16's as his best asset was his running. He was a state cross country representative. He could run all day. Unfortunately what made him expendable was his kicking, he had a very weak right foot as a left footer and his left foot was only OK at best. Good enough but not amazing.
Nick was drafted at pick 64 and it was an enormous surprise, we we wrapt. We had previous players come through our club and into the Eastern Ranges who we thought we shoe ins to get drafted but didn't. Nick made these squads as well but didn't set the world alight, but was gifted a chance at AFL level that some at the club doubted he would ever reach. Maybe it was Tall Poppy syndrome.
Nick ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in his first season at the Swans and we all thought that was it. Huge shame. He came back a credit to him worked hard got fit and was rewarded with a Senior Debut in 2006.
The rest is history but I watch Nick play occasionally and the way he's developed is extraordinary. His kicking skills are elite. Not only off his favored Left foot but he has it off both sides of his body. When he was drafted his right foot skills needed alot of work. The pass from the centre square that was perfect to hit Bradshaw was first class. Nicks gone on to be one of the leagues best rebounding defenders.
For mine alot of this comes down to decision making. You can look to be a very good kick with good decisions. Prime example - Robert Harvey. Couldn't kick over a jam tin but rarely missed a target as he kicked the ball where he knew he could hit 99% of the time.
Decision Making > Kicking Skills.
Brett Deledio is a great kick of the football better than most. Now lately he's looked poor as his decision making has hurt him. He's tried to pinpoint extremely hard kicks, low percentage. Another example is Shane Edwards last night, running into the forward 50 had 2 options. 1 run another 10 meteres and kick a goal under no defensive pressure or kick to Post leading with Roberts Thompson right behind him. He chose the later and missed Post by 3 metres, horrible kick. Why? Horrible decision. Edwards isn't the worst kick in the side. But poor decisions make him look worse.
Ben Nason I think has it upstairs and makes good decisions. While I don't think he's a perfect kick I reckon he's made as many decisions as Deledio has since the start of the year.
One think Malceski had was good decisions. He never turns the ball over cause he makes great decisions. So before we start turfing out our young kids because they can't kick, lets look at there decision making and help improve and educate them on the game and have their team mates working a bit harder to help the decision easier and all of a sudden we start to A) Turn the ball over less and B) Start to hit more targets and C) Look like we have better foot skills.
Just think we've used "bad kicking" as an excuse for too long. Malceski is a perfect example of a player that wasn't elite when young but developed and increased the kicking skill to a point where he's one of teh best in the country.
