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.

I could be wrong but it feels as though Bowens kicking percentage must be pretty high since he took over the job full time a few weeks back?

You'll not out kick Sinfield but if he can be nailing a decent percentage he'll give us a shot.

Bowen's % is 70, lower than Smith's 71%.

However this game will be won with tries not goal kicks. If we can keep Leeds below 4 scores, we have every chance.

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.

Can you confirm stats since Wolf's away when he was given job full time?

Looking since he took it full time (at Warrington)he's knocked over 25 goals from 31 attempts (it doesn't state on the Wigan site if he missed any penalties though so his attempts may be slightly higher) which is a success rate of just over 80%.

A very impressive success rate for a guy who's never been a regular kicker (from memory).

Fair dos.

Super League opta stats says 21 goals from 28 attempts!

Danny McGuire has kicked literally one goal in his entire career. Burrow is a decent goalkicker, but Hardaker and Sutcliffe are very hit and miss. However as long as we've had Sinfield that hasn't really mattered.

Bowen seems to me to have kicked well for Wigan since he took over.

Correct about Burrow up to a point. Iirc he had the chance to kick Leeds to a win at the JJB (as was then) , Sinfield off the field for some reason. Leeds got a penalty and we were on the ropes tbh, I sort of went "yes" when they decided to go for goal.
He missed
Think it may have been the Farrell broken nose game

Wigan site could be out but it feels around 80% to me with the naked eye.

His 7/7 at Millwall certainly helps.

Who'll take the job next year? It'll be a huge task for anyone.

I still wouldn't be surprised to see Sinfield replaced from outside the club yet with a half who can kick.

Hardaker and Sutcliffe are in poll positions. Both are the sort who can go 8/8 one week and 2/8 the next, which Sinfield has never been. Either one of them would need plenty of extra training, so it might be down to who improves most in the off-season. Also of the rumour is true we're signing Joe Westerman he might be in the mix.

It's always hard to judge part timers. Guys like Jamie Lyon and Sculthorpe never looked all that until they got the job full time.

Good shout on Westerman. It sounds like he's Leeds bound and I think he's every chance of getting the role.

I think Bowen has been pretty decent in the role but unsure if he could kick from distance if it was required to clinch an important penalty. Hopefully he gets his eye in early on.

Sinfield for me is on a par with Botica. Both supremely accurate goal kickers and exceptionally difficult to replace.

As I've remarked before, the career stats of players who are generally considered to be excellent aren't sometimes that wonderful (Jamie Lyon, Cam Smith, etc). Sinfield and Thurston are in a class of their own. Oh, and yer man from Canberra, I think he kicks at around 80%.