Levi Casboult has realised goalkicking is about more than physical routine, it’s a mental game
LEVI Casboult was once one of the worst set-shot converters in the competition but now he ranks in the top-10 for conversion and he has Saverio Rocca and one other Carlton staffer to thank.
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LEVI Casboult quit social media a while back and won’t be returning any time soon.
From random goalkicking tips to the constant vitriol that passes for advice on his game, he just doesn’t care for it.
The Carlton spearhead prefers life simple and ordered.
Like his goalkicking routine itself: back to the top of your mark, deep breath, keep the ball still, six steps walking, four on the jog, then make clean contact.
Two men provide him with all the help he needs when it comes to the erratic goalkicking that once plagued his game.
His goalkicking whisperer Saverio Rocca and Carlton’s psychologist, leadership expert and performance coach Anthony Klarica are his constant reference points.
That routine these past six rounds has seen the Sherrin sailing long and true rather than slewing sideways to howls of derision.
As Carlton puts the building blocks in place for its march up the ladder, the former soccer winger from Tasmania is reflective of their improved fortunes.
Life is good off the field, with 18-month-old son Lonnie, wife Hayley and another one on the way in late August.
And the boy plucked from obscurity after his cafe owner dad spruiked him to Dandenong Stingrays staffer Darren Flanigan is finally capitalising on-field too.
His 11.4 this year from six games means the man who has always had “sticky hands” is becoming an attacking force.
“I didn’t start playing footy until I was 15 and played ruck the first couple of years and then got shifted forward I could afford to be the big bear in the square,’’ he said this week.
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“I have always thought of a goalkicking routine as being physical. I will take this many steps then run this many and then have my shot.
“I am doing a lot of work with Sav and Anthony and found there is a lot more to the routine than just doing it.
“You can do it at training but you get into a game and you have got 50,000 or 100,000 people watching and then your opponents getting into you on your run up.
“There is a lot more to it than just kicking it. Now I have a good mindset about kicking at goal but also a process behind that.”
Rocca arrived a year out of the NFL at Mick Malthouse’s behest in 2015 and immediately set to work with primary focus Casboult.
The focus from the 748-goal AFL veteran of Collingwood and North Melbourne was simple.
Find a routine that minimises the flaws, do the work on the track, deliver on match-day.
“It was Sav’s first year back from (punting) in the States and I spent the most time with him. We developed a really good relationship,’’ says Casboult.
“We both had a good understanding of each other and we came in two or three times a week and did the main training session.
“I have still my set routine but it’s more about relaxing into it.
“Get to the top of my mark, take a nice deep breath and then it's the triggers.
“I move the ball a bit, so keep the ball nice and still over my foot. Even if my ball drop is high, if the ball is still there is less margin for error.
“Even if something is off, the rest of the routine will fix it.”
From Round 6 on he would kick 22.8, but last year a knee injury and Rocca’s absence over finances saw him regress with 18.18 for the year.
“Last year Sav wasn’t there so I didn’t have that help but I had a knee issue pre-season so wasn’t allowed to kick a footy until after Christmas,’’ he says.
“By Christmas this year I had over 1000 shots. You can’t buy those man hours.”
Into his eighth season, he got a free pass from the sports science crew to hone his routine with at least 40 shots per session.
As for those amazing hands, he can’t explain where they came from.
As a Tasmanian who moved with his parents to Beaconsfield at 15, he played soccer in the winter, cricket in the summer and every sport possible in the schoolyard.
Then fate intervened in the form of his talkative old man.
“I wasn’t even a goalkeeper playing soccer, I played on the wing so I don’t know where the (marking prowess) came from. I am just lucky, I guess. For whatever reason I have got sticky hands,” he said.
“I was always tall and solid, so that helped in terms of being able to stand there and mark it.
“My parents had a cafe in Dandenong and Darren (Flanigan) always used to come in. They got talking one day and dad said, ‘I have got a son who is pretty tall’.”
It sparked a TAC Cup career that only flourished when he played as a top-ager, his marking spurring Carlton into taking him at pick No.44 in the 2010 rookie draft.
He is blessed to be able to live such a privileged life, living close by in Ascot Vale and with the “best job in the world”.
But when he clocks out, he does so knowing he can shut football out of his life entirely.
The social media blackout helps, and so does Hayley’s determination to ensure he doesn’t take his football troubles home with him.
“Everyone has a voice and opinion with social media. I have seen the extremes of both with people’s opinions of me and have gone to the extreme of not having social media any more,’’ he says.
“My wife has my account on her phone and I have got a certain amount of followers which might be useful one day.
“But Bolts (coach Brendon Bolton) speaks a lot about getting too high or too low and there are a lot of things out there which can bring you down.”
Hayley is from Wagga and while Casboult has parked his electrician’s apprenticeship for now they will one day return to the country and hope to own a cafe like his parents.
The ultimate goal is to become a firefighter — he laughs when it is mentioned he looks the archetypical big, burly, bearded firey — but family is integral to everything he does.
“Family is a great outlet. Lonnie doesn’t care if I have kicked 1.4 or 4.1 and Hayley is really level-headed and doesn’t care too much for footy except that it’s what I do,” he said.
“She is happy that I keep footy away from home. That has been hard at times but I might be feeling sorry for myself and you spend five minutes at home with the family and snap out of it pretty quickly these days.
“We have another one on the way too, so it’s only going to get better.”
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Levi Casboult on Carlton’s new-look forward line
HARRY MCKAY
“He is an athlete, but a footballer as well. Once he comes to terms with dealing with that body contact he will be unstoppable in the air. He has grown and is 202cm, so if you get him with a run and jump at it, not many defenders are going to be able to stop him.”
JACOB WEITERING
“What he showed on the weekend, he reads the game well and the ball well in the air. He had five marks on the lead. He was a big target but when Jack went down he came up at the ball. The way he has adapted to playing forward, he can even play a different role.”
JACK SILVAGNI
“A real footballer, similar to Weitering. Sees the game well and is starting to use his strengths. Coming at the leg (lead), he has got good hands and he is the link-up between halfback and half-forward.”
CHARLIE CURNOW
“He’s just a Curnow. He just launches at everything and once he learns to harness his running ability there are not many defenders who can go with him on the ground and have to launch with him in the air as well. Ed has still got him (in the running), he would die before he lost. But Ed is ridiculous and Charlie is still a freak.”
MATTHEW WRIGHT
“He just does all the team stuff. He is the first one to lay a block for a big fella, the first one to go in and stick up for a teammate. It was good reward for him on the weekend. He is our best small forward, but was given the role on Callum Mills and still kicked four goals, it sums up the way he’s come into our footy club. He has been one of our most consistent performers.”
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