O Kickers, where art thou?
Following on from the termination and points article last week I decided to look at the same year comparison trend for kickers.
The kicker carnage is intertwined with the increase in injuries to key players (Gareth Widdop, Shaun Johnson, Daly Cherry-Evans, Cameron Smith, Latrell Mitchell etc) and the coaching rotation (Adam Keighran, Chanel Tavita-Harris, Patrick Herbert, Kerrod Holland, Rhys Martin, Jamayne Issako etc) which has resulted in named kicker leagues likely hitting the terminations to pickup an alternate.
Ironically back in 1988 Slick Rick saw this concerning trend when he wrote:
Here we go
Once upon a time not long ago
When people wore pajamas and lived life slow
When laws were stern and justice stood
And teams were behavin’ like they ought ta good
There was a primary kicker and we weren’t misledBy anotha lil’ boy kicking the ball dead…
And with that random 80’s rap reference out of the way lets get into it.
The following table shows a list of the number of players to have successfully kicked goals per team up to the completion of Round 10 in each year respectively.
It appears that there is a trend for more variability in goal kicking from last year with five more kickers across all teams, equating to a massive 14% increase in the number of players kicking goals. We also look at how variable the number of players are and look at the player who has kicked the highest percentage of the team’s goals. For example the two kickers at the Dogs have minimal impact compared to the two kickers at the Warriors.
| Team | 2018 |
Highest % |
2019 |
Highest % |
Difference |
| BRS |
2 |
94% |
2 |
89% |
|
| CNB |
2 |
97% |
1 |
100% |
|
| CNT |
2 |
88% |
3 |
67% |
|
| CRO |
1 |
100% |
4 |
39% |
|
| GCS |
3 |
94% |
2 |
78% |
|
| MAN |
1 |
100% |
2 |
57% |
|
| MLB |
3 |
87% |
4 |
83% |
|
| NEW |
3 |
72% |
2 |
97% |
|
| NQL |
1 |
100% |
1 |
100% |
|
| NZL |
2 |
67% |
3 |
44% |
|
| PAR |
1 |
100% |
1 |
100% |
|
| PEN |
2 |
76% |
2 |
90% |
|
| STG |
1 |
100% |
4 |
32% |
|
| STH |
2 |
76% |
1 |
100% |
|
| SYD |
2 |
97% |
2 |
95% |
|
| WST |
2 |
71% |
1 |
100% |
|
| Total |
30 |
35 |
5 |
Note: Cronulla includes Gal’s sneaky goal to farewell Suncorp during magic round
These numbers would indicate that the CEO boys were right in implementing team goals which gives commissioners the ability to remove this variability from the game.
Whilst I personally see kicker selection and the need to handcuff part of the fun of standard CEO leagues, the increasing variability of kicking options can present significant challenges in a small squad league setup such as supporters. Team kickers certainly allows for a more stable team selection throughout the year and avoids an entire season being derailed by a key injury or a player being dropped.
I am happy to say that the Low, Down & Dirty League (which has been described by Issac, coach of the 49ers as the greatest league in CEO history) has opted to retain named kickers. While SJ going down injured, Chanel being dumped and Kahu kicking for the Cowboys has left Coach Costanza with no goals for the last few weeks I maintain that’s part of the fun and it shows the importance of handcuffing given the variability of kickers in the modern game.
Product Recall:
It has come to my attention that there may have been some errors in 2018 team point stats from one of my previous articles due to mid season player transfers. I will be looking to rectify this shortly and provide an updated table. This mainly impacted the Dogs, Tigers and Sharks due to the Mbye and Woods transfers.
As always good luck, enjoy your football and car’n you mighty Illawarra Steelers!
Robert Sim
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