All this speculation about players that are coming or are not coming. Surely we need a goal kicker, yes we have players who can kick goals, But they lack consistency, Since the departure of Brett Hodgson we have not been able to guarantee 6 points from every try. seeing that most of our try's are out wide, we need someone capable of kicking goals on a regular basis. At present we have to get 3 tries for 12 points. Instead of 2 + 2 goals. IMO.

Good point, we've lost a few games this season that would've been wins if Brett was at the kicking tee. FC at home the latest example.

I suggested that we needed a better goal kicker a couple of weeks back on the Gidley thread after the Widnes game and was met with a sarcastic response. To be fair to whoever it was I didn't back up my claim that we are winning or losing games by a narrow margin with any examples but a week later we got done by Hull after missing a couple out wide. If we make the 8 where the games will be close (which I expect us to) this could be our downfall I'm afraid.

That's why we should of signed Dobson before Salford snapped him up.

A good goal & field kicking half back like Dobson would have been an ideal signing especially with the writing being on the wall for Lee Briers as long ago as mid season 2013.

If we had have signed Dobson for this season....how many goals do you think he would have kicked?....

Answer... one more than Keith England!

I'm glad we didn't sign him and I'm disappointed that we signed Wheeler and all the after all the bigging up I gave him. Been wearing a dozen eggs on my face all spring.

That was me, and it wasn't sarcastic. I asked how many we had lost because of kicked goals. At that point, I'd suggest it was zero and now I can accept that Hull might fall into that category, but who knows if Hodgson would have kicked the ones missed on that afternoon.

i said at the time and i'd say again, the weather(wind) was more of a contributing factor on that day, than anything else.

No worries. I'm not one to pore over past results so may have been a snap judgement on my part and the following Hull game a coincidence, but agree with the original poster - missing too many kicks. Not really an issue if you're hammering teams every week but at the moment we're not, so hope it doesn't come back to bite us in the ass later in the competiton.

That other code don't seem to have a shortage of good kickers, how do they do it and could we follow their lead. Surely practice, practice, practice will do it?

Graham Appo kicked a few in his time.. time for a recall?

Because if you have a lot of penalties in a game of RU, you will inevitably kick a fair number of them. Teams constantly play for the penalty, especially at the scrum.

An essentiality we get one.

If this red wine addled brain remembers correctly, let me take you back to the 1992-93 season. We finished 8th, and drew/lost a load of games by 6 points or less, and finished umpteen points behind the league leaders. That season, our kickers were Chris Rudd and Bob Jackson. The following season, we inherited a certain Welshman (and didn't particularly improve the squad elsewhere), and we finished joint top. Case proven.

In my time of watching, we've had kickers which can be put into the following groups

AWESOME
Hesford
Davies
Hodgson

NEXT LEVEL
Harris

UNPREDICTABLE 6/6 ONE WEEK, 1/6 THE NEXT
Briers
Bishop
Carbert
Lyon
Ratchford

OH, YOU CAN KICK! HERE'S A SAND BUCKET/TEE
Jackson
Westwood
Rudd
Grose (iirc)

apologies for any I've missed.

As is proved in the 3 point code, a successful goal kicker is VITAL

Imo, three kickers who very noticeably made a significant difference to our results and league position at the end of their respective seasons were in this order.

Woods
Davis
Hodgson

I think every good team can carry an excellent kicker who is a fare player at best.
A classic exampl during the years when Pies would consistantly finish above the rest, Fran O'Botica and later Danny Tickle too.

Fran ...the greatest ever Irish rugby league player.