Tigers want bit of Jonny magic
29 January 2005
Herald Sun
By Jon Pierik
A CRASH course in the art of kicking from legendary England rugby mentor Dave Alred and the return of Coleman medallist Brian Taylor will leave Richmond with little excuse for wayward shots at goal this year.
Alred, the goalkicking mentor of England's World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson, spoke to the Tigers before training yesterday as part of a four-day trip to Australia which also included an AFL coaches conference last night.
While there are obvious differences between the sports, Alred, a good friend of Tigers assistant coach David Wheadon, says there was much both codes could learn from each other.
And the new-look Tigers are keen for any help, having been only 10th best (57.3 per cent) in the AFL for accuracy when shooting at goal last season.
"Some of the things I have learnt can be carried through to Aussie rules in terms of the kicking for goal, albeit rugby goalkicking is off the floor and Aussie rules is obviously from the hand," Alred said. "There are some things that are very similar, in terms of aiming and performing in a pressurised environment."
Wilkinson's dead-eye kicking in the last World Cup in Australia was a major reason England returned home victorious.
Alred, who has also worked with former Wallabies David Campese and Matt Burke, feels their AFL counterparts could learn something from Wilkinson when lining up for the big sticks.
"The first thing I think is to pick the smallest possible target, to take dead-aim and really try and look for the middle of the middle," he said.
"If you try and hit a barn door a thousand times out of a thousand, always aim for the keyhole.
"The other area is the tempo and rhythm in which you kick. You don't go charging at it with a goal kick.
"It might be a reasonably long shot but you need to have rhythm, control and balance – there are similarities there.
"That's probably as far as we have got, although we have looked at posture together."
Taylor, the former Tigers forward between 1980-84 who later kicked 100 goals for Collingwood in 1986, will attend one training session a week in his new role under Terry Wallace's command.
The Tigers slogged it out in extreme heat at Punt Rd yesterday as Wallace put his men through repeated spells of end-to-end work.
Richmond will hold its pre-season camp in Mildura from Tuesday.
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