Quote: Pacific "Just watched the '98 final back again (Wigan beat Leeds) and what struck me was just how much of an advantage we had in having a kicker of Andy Farrell's pedigree. Not only for goal kicks but also penalty kicks at goal. Farrell kicked almost every time we had a penalty even from 40 metres out and he converted all of them.
Like all Grand Finals I expect Saturday's game to be close and our lack of a consistent kicker is worrying me. Why is it that Bowen has now taken over kicking duty's from Smith? Both of them have been hit and miss and they are both confidence-kickers; you just know if they miss the first one they will miss a lot in the game. Leeds having Snifield, Hardake, McGuire and several other who would be first choice kickers if they were at our club gives them a huge advantage in my eyes.
Whilst conversions matter immensely in games of this magnitude I'm more concerned about the penalties we may need to kick. For example if the game was tight and we had a penalty from an angle at 40 metres you'd fear we would have to go for the harder option of playing the set as we wouldnt have the players who could take those pressure kicks.
I hope I'm wrong and it doesn't come down to kicking which decides the game on Saturday but I do expect it to be very close.'"
Couple of points in reply
1/ I'd like to see Bowen s stats since he kicked for first time proper Warrington away.
2/ know way would Maguire be first choice at Wigan and I seriously doubt Hardaker would although with work I suspect he could become decent.
Whatever the reason for Bowen taking over I suspect the stats above will confirm it was the right choice and both Bowen and Smith have built in confidence since. If as I suspect Bowen is at 75%ish then for me that's good enough.
If we worry about not having a kicker as good as Sinfield then we'll be worrying for a long time. He's as good as anything I've seen consistantly.
With regards to the 98GF then I confidently predict it won't pee down as much as it did that night. It may rain, but it won't put anywhere near what it did that day down which made kicking so important that day.
