Ah Van looked like he had slightly pulled his groin during the lead up to the try, the only reason i could see why he didn't kick for rest of the game, Ah Van might look like hes kicking in his carpet slippers but hes still the best goal kicker at the club and one of the best in the league % wise!

I meant one of the best we have got. And he's always running great lines, not always the right ones but great lines.

finally got round to working out current percentages. Ah van certainly not best kicker in league but in top half of table (just).

1. pat richards 86%
2. jamie foster 83.5%
3. luke gale 81.8%
4. danny brough 80.7%
5. brett hodgson 80%
6. kevin sinfield 79.6%
7. patrick ah van 78.5%
8. kirk dixon 77.1%
9. danny tickle 75.2%
10. michael dobson 75.7%
11. clinton schicofske 72.3%
12. scott dureau 72%
13. daniel holdsworth 65.8%
14. josh griffin 65.2%

Not bad going for first season here. Big and better things expected from Mr Ah Van next year.

Surely the Bulls haven't given him a new deal? Is he really the best that is out there?

And Brough and Richards were out for a long time so they will have had less attempts, gale hasn't attempted as ,many as Ah Van either.

its a percentage so surely it doesnt matter how many attempts they have had(over a certain number anyway).......once you have had 50 attempts i reckon that shows how gd a kicker you are.....

but what im saying is Ah Van may have had say 100 attempts and Gale may have had 50 attempts Ah Van is more likely to miss more etc. And more chance of the kicks being harder. It should be based on evry 50 kicks yu attempt imho.

After 50 attempts Ah Van was at 84%.

It should be based over a season on average as it is now, it is unfair comparing every 50 attempts especially if most of the 50 are taken in front of the sticks by one player then another has to make most of his attempts from the wing !!!

Slipped down a bit over the last month or so, pressures probably got to him a bit, either that or he knows he's on his way at the end of the season and concentration levels have slipped a bit! still a good kicker for me!

What I don't like about Paddy is his kicking style, the ball seems to torpedo rather than gain any height, and this looks to me as if he is getting too much on the end of the ball and not enough on the sides. This gives less room for error, and also means you have to kick harder to make the same distance. There are no stats for it, but would be interested if there were stats on how bad and how significant the missed percentage of kicks all were.

I am not claiming to be an expert on how to kick a ball by the way but Paddy is the only permanent kicker I can think of who uses the flapper style of the ball torpedoing for the posts instead of going up, and if it was a good technique, more would be using it, wouldn't they?

Maybe if he changed his technique slightly, his stats would improve? he certainly has a boot on him, if nowhere near that of Sykes.

BTW I am absolutely not having a go at him, on the contrary, he's been asked to do the job and has taken it, all credit and fair play to him for that, he's no need to take the responsibility but does, and produces respectable results, if not great.

I think someone said he kicked as though he were wearing slippers, which is amusing and pretty accurate I guess. I think I said somewhere (might be this thread, not sure) that kicking is a very objective thing to judge, that's to say they go over.....or they don't, and there are no points for style. On that basis Paddy is doing reasonably well in my opinion. Maybe changing his style would make him better, but it might just cods him up altogether as well. Maybe he could try it in the off, or pre season?

I'd have to say Sykesy definitely gets more power into it but (I've not checked) I think paddy has a better average than Paul in any season at the Bulls. He also gets odd days when he misses nearly everything, whilst Paddy always manages to miss one from bear the posts but never has those total disaster days.

That was me

Wheeldon-road-end you are terry matterson and i claim my £5