Quote: Jukesays "Correct
And not going to get too much into the Harry Smith thing - because from my personal experience the people who bagged him as a player and said he wasn;t good enough then jumped all over the Goal kicking issue which i admit deffo affected his confidence early season (1st half of year) and made a bit of a problem into a much bigger issue than it was.
He nailed the big kicks when it really mattered and in Big games like Good Friday, and they ignored some of the awful conditions (Like HKR away 1st game of season) when I don't care who you were you weren't kicking 2 or 3 of those from touchline in that Gale!
The same people then refused to not only see his goal gicking improve but actually his performaces first half the season playing wise were very good, and progressed to excellent back end of season
From & including the Saints game when he missed a relatively simple one he kicked at approx 72% in June to July 7th
From July 7th through to end of year he kicked approx 75% (Whcih included the Hull & Cas games were the kicking admittedly wasn't great).
I haven't got Stats to hand but in 2022 he kicked more goals than anyone else, at a higher percentage I think than anyone else with similar numbers of attempts.
That was easily forgotten by some'"
As I've said above, I think Harry Smith the goalkicker and the player can be separated and I always have done that. In general he's been a reasonably average goalkicker or maybe I should say an inconsistent goalkicker (some great spells and some poor spells) but his all round game has got better and better and I think the signs are that his goalkicking will catch up to the overall level of performance. To keep turning up in the biggest games and kicking to high percentages shows he's got the balls for it and that is a massive part.