Field Marshal: How St Kilda’s top six forwards solved their goalkicking yips
It is no fluke St Kilda has rapidly emerged as the best goalkicking team in the competition in less than two season. Jay Clark reveals how six Saints forwards turned themselves into sharp shooters.
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St Kilda says its investment in its dedicated two-year dedicated goalkicking program is paying dividends as it strives to secure a drought-breaking finals berth this season.
The Saints are the most accurate goalkicking side in the competition after surging from 17th across 2018-19 (42.9 per cent) to No.1 (54.5 per cent) this year.
Adding another lethal layer to the Saints forward half operations, Brett Ratten’s men are also No.1 for forward 50m tackles with an average 13.2 a game, according to Champion Data.
Together, the two huge improvements helped make St Kilda the highest-scoring team in the competition before this round.
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Ex-goal kicking coach Ben Dixon rewired and refined St Kilda players’ set shot and on-the-run techniques with weekly goal kicking sessions over a two-year period.
It included a breakthrough session for Tim Membrey who nailed 36-straight set shots at a Moorabbin training session days before he slotted six goals against West Coast in Perth two years ago.
St Kilda chief operating officer Simon Lethlean there was no doubt the club’s goalkicking program had paid-off as the club searches for its seventh win of the season against Gold Coast Thursday night.
“Ben was very upfront with the club that his goalkicking program would take two years, at least, to entrench itself and to bear fruit for a number of reasons, and part of that is the amount of work he was doing with the guys,” Lethlean said.
“He certainly ingrained in lots of our players the methodology and the mindset and a discipline to practice. That hasn’t changed this year.
“They have goal kicking comps every week and those little silly prizes they come up with. They have found what their triggers are and that goes for all parts of their game.
“Also dealing with some pretty young guys who didn’t (previously) necessarily have someone at the front of their minds showing them how to go about that part of their craft.
“Now they have a plan, something to focus on and for many it is helping.”
Dixon left at the end of last season, but the likely reduction in the AFL football department soft cap to $6.3 million is another blow to any club hoping to employ a dedicated goalkicking coach as the Brisbane Lions desperately try to snap their slump.
Lethean said the Saints were proud of their capacity to score in 2020.
Central to the resurgence is Butler, who has become the top-tacking small forward in the game, averaging 2.5 a match, and amassing 23 in total for the season.
The sharpshooter, who fell out of favour at Richmond last year, has emerged as the best value recruit of the season after moving to Moorabbin in exchange for pick 56.
Lethlean said he fitted the way the Saints wanted to play.
“Part of the St Kilda way is to have an attacking style when and where we can. You have got to have the cattle to do it and the confidence to do it and we are only half way through the year,” he said.
“But certainly it looks like they are playing a more attacking brand of footy then we have for a while.
“But you need to be able to defend to win as well and we have seen a couple of times where we haven’t been good enough and that is a part of our game as well.”
STARS YOUR CLUBS CAN’T AFFORD TO LOSE
– Sam Landsberger
Scott Pendlebury is the wrong side of 30 and nursing a torn quad in Collingwood’s Queensland hub.
It is an injury coach Nathan Buckley desperately needs to heal quickly, because the Magpies’ captain remains the club’s most critical midfielder.
From 2017-20 the Magpies have won 43 out of 72 games with Pendlebury (59.7 per cent) and just three out of nine games without him (33.3 per cent).
It is a sharp drop without the classy left-footer who still has the sharpest of football brains.
“He just makes the game stand still,” Magpies great Mick McGuane gushed on Tuesday.
“He’ll invite defenders to him knowing he can put someone else into space. That’s the creative mind Collingwood are missing at the moment.
“They’ve got so many players that give effort in (Taylor) Adams and (Brayden) Maynard and (Adam) Treloar, they just lack that real class, that real poise, that real composure that Pendlebury and (Steele) Sidebottom bring.”
In a blue-collar midfield it is often Pendlebury dressed in a tuxedo and in Sunday night’s loss to Fremantle McGuane said too many Magpies searched for the boundary, lacking the skipper’s courage to bite off a corridor kick.
“That to me is the subtle difference between the best and the rest,” McGuane said.
“The rest want to play safe. Good players attack that option because they back their skill level to execute.
“That’s what I think Scott brings to the team and also his organisation around stoppage, his ability to win first possession and take heat away from a Treloar, an Adams and a (Jamie) Elliott.
“I’ve always admired blokes who value possession and in this game where it’s all about defence the players who value possession standout like gold.”
Without Pendlebury and against a baby Fremantle midfield the Magpies lost contested ball by 36, the second-worst differential recorded by any side this season.
As clubs begin to rest players en masse to cope with four and five-day breaks a Champion Data investigation has confirmed Pendlebury’s absence will be among the game’s most significant.
The Giants are 14-14 (two draws) without playmaker Toby Greene in recent years and so his hamstring tweak will give coach Leon Cameron a headache while West Coast will think twice about resting Josh Kennedy given it is just 50-50 without the trusted spearhead.
There are, of course, some anomalies in the list.
Several Demons made the list largely because they were fit during the club’s 2018 charge and have missed many games since while Rory Atkins has only played in four of Adelaide’s nine losses this year.
Elsewhere, Richmond is just 13-9 without Nathan Broad while Hawthorn is 41-31 with sharpshooter Luke Breust and 0-5 without him.
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But the Pendlebury numbers can’t be ignored
In shortened games this season he is averaging 25.3 disposals, 4.4 score involvements, 334m gained and 107 SuperCoach points.
In his 15th season Pendelbury would probably be on the podium of the best-and-fairest if votes were tallied now and he still plays on the opposition’s best midfielder every week.
The six-time All-Australian has been a picture of consistency across his 308-game career, his golden left foot still among the sexiest in the sport.
The old adage ‘Class is permanent’ may as well have been written about Pendlebury.
*Minimum 50 games played and minimum nine matches missed
*Source: Champion Data