White Line Fever: Goal-kicking: The art that's never improved

Player's skills have improved, leading to fast-paced and exciting contests that thrill fans across the country but when it comes to putting the finishing touches on all the hard work up the ground it can often go amiss.

It's happening from the AFL right down to community football and a missed goal can often be the difference between winning and losing.

Last Friday night St Kilda provided the perfect example of the impacts of inaccurate goal-kicking.

Brett Ratten's Saints dominated Geelong early in their round nine encounter but their inaccuracy meant they only managed seven behinds when the first quarter ended.

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They went on to score 5.10 in the next three quarters as a hardened Geelong outfit, which had a positive scoreline of 10.8 and four less scoring shots, won by 21 points.

Emerging key forward Max King was the worst culprit kicking 1.5 while Portland's Rowan Marshall missed a sitter in the early stages of the match.

The Saints kick straight and they possibly win and get within touching distance of the top eight but they now sit 11^th a game adrift of Richmond in eighth.

St Kilda great Nick Dal Santo noted after the match that the problem wasn't limited to the Saints, with the last time the league as a whole scored more goals than behinds was in 2016.

He sums up perfectly the state of modern football.

"We've gone so far one particular way, we love people who can run, we love pressure, how about you kick the damn thing straight? That's a good starting point," he said. "Enough is enough. It's diluting a beautiful game."

In 2015 Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson said "bad kicking is bad football" after his side kicked 9.15 after a four-point loss to Sydney.

The loss was made harder by the fact the Sydney Swans (11.7) had six fewer scoring shots.

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The Hampden and Warrnambool and District leagues are not immune to inaccuracy either with 1164 goals scored compared to 1199 behinds.

The Hampden league teams kicked 508.568 so far this year while the District league sides 656.631.

Seven of the 11 rounds played this year across both leagues have seen more negative scorelines - more points than goals - while two others had five positive and negative scorelines.

On 54 occasions teams have kicked more behinds than points.

South Warrnambool, Camperdown (four times) and Cobden (five) are the top offenders in the Hampden league while Dennington (five) and Timboon Demons (six) the WDFNL's.

Warrnambool is the Hampden's best this season with four positive and one equal - same goals and points - scorelines.

Powerhouse Koroit is the next best, recording four positive and one negative scorelines.

Reigning premiers Kolora-Noorat is the best in the District league, scoring more goals than behinds on five occasions with only one negative.

Panmure is the next with four positive, one equal and one negative scoreline in their six matches this season. South Rovers are not far behind with four positive and two negative.

But what is contributing to the wayward kicking for goal?

Is the pace and pressure of the modern football hampering players when their goal-kicking? Is it due to technique and routines? Do teams not have enough time to address the issue at training?

For now there's more questions than answers and the term "bad kicking is bad football" is sticking around.

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