just_browny wrote:That all rests on an incorrect belief that all kicks are made on the same level. The most important ingredient in a good kick is a good preceding play the ball.Put Wigan's pack under pressure and Smith doesn't find grass. Likewise, the kicks by Walker you mention come from when he gets out from DH with no set markers.
I don't agree that most of our kicks all go straight to a player, but we haven't been as good in the last few games at creating that space as we were earlier in the season.
Ok. Let's take 4 example games. London are terrible and out no pressure on our kickers. We had 7 kicks behind or not far past the half way. 6 of those went straight to hands. The 7th could have possibly been taken on the full by a better FB than walker.
Hull KR away. 9 out of 14 long kicks went straight to their players. 3 of the 5 kicks that didn't were Williams interestingly.
Cas at home. 3 kicks from range and they all went to hands.
I could go through each game from this season but I really don't want to. I think this is enough evidence to show that our long range kicking game isn't good so we probably shouldn't criticise Drinkwaters kicking when he plays and takes long kicking duties.