Gidley missed an easy kick in the 1st half.

A prolific goal kicker may not be absolutely necessary but I am sure it would be a big help.
Botica, Deacon, Sinfield were all part of teams that were successful for a few years and I am sure that all 3 helped to win tight games with successful kicks.
I am not too sure we will blow every team off the park and there will be games where an extra conversion / penalty or two would help.
It may not be a game winning kick but sometimes stretching a lead by 2 scores to 3 can put the nail into the coffin of a team.
There has been plenty of times in the past few years when the starting front row has left the field 2 scores up only to be pegged back when they have a rest. A 3 score lead is a bigger mental hurdle to come back from. Hopefully we have better options to rotate now so we have less of a mid game drop off when cooper / Hill are off the pitch.
It would be nice to have on player kicking all the time at 80%+

So that's two clear Challenge Cup examples 2016, 2017.

As an aside I've just looked back at that 2016 side vs Hull.

Look at the backline ...

Ratchford; Russell, T King, Atkins, Evans

and think how that has changed for the better

Ratchford, Lineham, Goodwin, King, Charnley,

Even prolific kickers can miss the easiest of kicks with the pressure of Wembley.

Over a season there will probably be 2 or 3 games where we lose but could have won if we'd made our kicks. When it happens there will be a thread on here saying why have we still not sorted the goalkicking situation. If it happens in a playoff or final/semi final people will be even more angry.

2018 showed us that we have the #15th, #16th, #17th, #21st, #23rd rated goal kickers on kicks scored in SL.
A total of 5 kickers.

Goodwyn with 29
Ratchford with 27.
Roberts with 23
Patton with 17
Livett with 13

The kicking position is far from settled.

What difference does it make having one kicker or five, other than the team with five have more bases covered?

Tally them all up and where does that stat falls in this stat league for 2018?

Perhaps we should just allow Charnley to score every try so he can finish top of the try scoring leader board??

I am thinking you don't believe any of this stuff you post but are actually just fishing.

If you don't score tries then you will lose virtually all of your games, so I suppose it's pretty obvious as to why the goal kick can easily be neglected...... even though it is worth a third of the total points on offer following a try. If you are a coach there must be lots of perceived weaknesses in a team that you would like to cover off, and if it comes to a toss between getting a player that fits the bill rather than importing an established goal kicker you can guess as to which option he/she will choose. You often hear coaches talking about the need to recruit eg a centre or wing, but hardly ever a goal kicker.

So that means the goal kicking role falls to the guy that puts his hand up, who is prepared to spend time practicing, and perhaps who has mastered the mystic art of calling the wind. Lets not forget though, this is definitely an art form requiring a bit of theatre and it's just as important for the goal kicker to establish this fact with the crowd. Hence we are treated to kickers who walk back and face the opposite direction to the ball before kicking it. Some walk back, then take a couple of steps to the left or right - (perhaps they are used to practicing on the rec with lots of dog poop )? Indeed as we all know, there are many variations to the goal kickers preparations, none of which make the slightest difference to the success or failure of the kick but are solely practiced to impress the crowd. But as with anything in life, the real key to goal kicking success is simply to spend long hours practicing (" the more I practice, the luckier I get"icon_wink.gif.

I think I would agree with Ms Cinnamon. I don't have any data, but yes, perhaps you might lose 2-3 games in a year due to goal kicking failure. And that could include an established kicker having an off day. So I suppose if there is a problem with conversions it is best addressed by the coach picking 2 regular players and ensuring they put in the hours on the practice field ( preferably without all that dog poop lying around).

Total goals for us was 109.

The top goals kicked last year was Richardson of St Helens with 132.

Thanks.
Considering the amount of tries scored by Saints that isn't too bad. I'm fairly sure Saints would have scored at least 20 more tries than we did.

If I have any issue it's about the poor return from drop goals rather than that of place kicking.

There will be a time when goal kicking and or drop goal kicking will be of vital importance. We don't have anyone who's good at either.

Of course there will be. Already we have discussed a CC final and QF lost in the last 3 seasons on goal kicking.

What don't I believe now? I just listed figures FFS to continue the debate and show how we don't have a settled kicking position.

The only argument for chopping and changing the kicker is that the coach is not satisfied with the current incumbent or protecting injury.

You really have a problem with debate don't you?