If goalkicking could be studied at university Daryl Halligan would have more doctorates than South Sydney has premierships. But only after he flunked his first semester.
“No, no, we don’t talk about Norths against Penrith,” the Kiwi kicking maestro laughs.
Halligan’s roll call as a goal kicking coach currently includes Nathan Cleary and Shaun Johnson, adding to a list led by Hazem El Masri, Andrew Johns, Dan Carter, Andrew Mehrtens, James Maloney and Clinton Schifcofske among countless others.
He’s coaxed around soon enough with the promise that arguably the most famous sideline conversion in NRL finals history – Bulldogs v Parramatta, 1998 – will also be given its due.
The catalyst is a stunning series of strikes and clutch plays across the first five weeks of this season.
Cleary’s 45-metre, two-point field goal against Parramatta. Johnson nailing a 35-metre penalty to seal a very un-Warriors 20-point comeback. Matt Burton shaving the upright in even heavier rain at Accor Stadium hours later. Then booting a 30-metre one-pointer to get the win anyway.
Johnson’s Fox Sports interview moments after his match-winner was all sorts of awesome as he recalled pre-season early marks being granted during his Cronulla days if he could land a goal from that exact patch of Shark Park turf. Halligan knows the drill all too well because he and Johnson do it every single week.
Which is why we have to drag ‘Chook’ back to the SFS in 1991, the closest the Bad Luck Bears ever came to ending a 48-year grand final drought.
Overwhelmingly, Burton’s five-minute tale of frustration and failure against the Cowboys, quickly turned to success and the ball sailing through the sticks, repeats for so many of the game’s best in a pressure environment.
“One from five,” Halligan rues more than 30 years later. North Sydney scored three tries to Penrith’s two in that 1991 semi-final, but a rare horror day from the tee for Halligan meant the Bears bombed to a 16-14 loss against the eventual premiers.
“I couldn’t get past that one. It was my first year in the NRL and I had until March the next year wondering if the Bears were going to let me kick goals for them.
“I took a bag of balls back to NZ and right through the Christmas break, I was kicking goals on Boxing Day, New Year’s Day, people thought I was stupid. My wife in particular.
“But from that day, I established a training routine. From then on, I knew I wanted generally 36 kicks a session from five different spots and then the day before a game I’d do 72 kicks from both ends of the field – so around 150 kicks.
“It works out at around 4000 kicks a season. You really should be kicking them by then shouldn’t you?”
Cleary has told similar tales in recent times and by Halligan’s estimate, has his own 4000 practice shots a year covered. A missed field goal attempt against Parramatta last year prompted a week of taking the same shot repeatedly the following week at training.
Practice makes perfect: Nathan Cleary’s extra hours of kicking are just part of the norm at Penrith.Credit: Getty
His epic two-point shot against the Eels in round four was preceded by a missed attempt in the season opener against Brisbane.
Broncos icon Darren Lockyer was the master of waiting on the opposition to make a mistake – think Brett Hodgson’s wayward Origin pass in 2006 – and ensuring he blinked last.
For Daly Cherry-Evans, whose six golden-point winning field goals are the most of any player since extra-time was introduced, the patient approach took years to pay off.
Cherry-Evans kicked the first of his 26 career field goals in just his second NRL game.
Three years later came that memorable 2014 match-winner in the wet against Newcastle, but his first four golden-point outings ended in defeat, twice at the hands of former teammate Trent Hodkinson.
“Honestly, experience,” Cherry-Evans says of his clutch turning point. “It took me years, and a fair few golden point games to feel really comfortable in those moments. You don’t quite understand the pressure of a footy and a golden point until you’re in it.
“I didn’t have much success early on playing golden point at all. And then we had a really good run where we were able to win basically any golden point game.”
Which is why the 34-year-old was kicking himself the entire four-hour drive home from Mudgee after three field goal attempts were fluffed in a 32-all draw against Newcastle.
Just as most NRL teams run specific last-minute training scenarios, Manly practised plenty over the summer.
“But there’s nothing quite like being in that moment,” the skipper says. “Personally, I’ve got the fire in the belly to take that moment again. I’m still disappointed in my own game, but bigger picture-wise for our young team, it’s a great learning experience.”
Which dovetails, as promised with Halligan, the SFS sideline and at 18-2 in the 69th minute, unthinkable Eels heartbreak.
“I actually don’t encourage practicing from the sideline that much,” Halligan says, a surprise given his two sideline conversions that day rank among rugby league’s most famous in an incredible Canterbury comeback.
“It’d be five-seven metres in from touch, rather than the sideline. You want the positive reinforcement of seeing the ball go through [the posts] plenty of times.
“If you kick two from three sideline shots, you’re doing pretty well. Psychologically, if you have a negative experience, ideally you want nine or 10 positive experiences to rub out the negative one.
“I’d use the sideline shots as a challenge. Then you’re up for it in a game. To be honest, I was due those goals. Those moments make it all worth it.
“We’re talking about one from 25 years ago. It makes all the practice you do and all the work you put in worthwhile.”
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