St George-Illawarra have been accused over “overcoaching” and questioned for failing to act on the baffling decline in accuracy of their long-term goalkicker Zac Lomax.
The centre has been dropped by Anthony Griffin this week, and while Lomax’s goalkicking is not thought to be a factor in the decision, his struggles with the kicking tee have been notable for the 15th–placed side this season.
Lomax had converted at around 77-78 per cent in each of the past four seasons since taking the goal kicking job fulltime.
However this year his numbers have dropped alarmingly — converting at just 60.35 per cent, the lowest success rate of any full-time kicker in the competition.
Remarkably, the drop has come despite the Dragons bringing in goalkicking legend Daryl Halligan to work with Lomax in the off-season, according to Daily Telegraph reporter Paul Kent.
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“Certainly his goalkicking has gone off this year,” Kent said on NRL 360.
“It’s been one of the great over-coaching (examples), whether it’s Griffin or somebody else at the club
“.. Over the off-season they brought in Daryl Halligan to help him with his goalkicking. Now he was kicking at 78 per cent last year and this year he is kicking at about 60 percent so he’s dropped about 20 per cent
“Now there’s been all sorts of issues with the height of his tee. Halligan asked him to bring it down because if you remember Halligan was a goal kicker who was a low kicker. ”Lomax has always been quite a high kicker of the ball. He tried to change that for whatever reason, I don’t know.”
Co-host Braith Anasta was also surprised by the move.
“If you’re kicking at 78 per cent , you don’t need to change your style, not a whole lot. That is quite good,” Anasta said.
“Darly Halligan is a genius. I’ve played with Chook and watched him and he coached me and helped me with my kicking, and he’s amazing.
“But when you’re kicking for goal you’ve got to be comfortable with your own style and sometimes – you don’t need significant change it’s just a mindset thing.”
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While a lack of conversions is not solely Lomax’s fault — with many of the Dragons’ tries scored out wide — it has proved costly for the team which has gone down in many tight affairs.
“In their past four games, in three of them it was three tries each, they lost all three on goalkicking – and in the fourth they actually outscored the Roosters five tries to four and and they still lost the game on goalkicking,” Kent said.
“That’s not Zac Lomax’s fault. A lot of those tries that were scored were out on the sideline, he’s had some difficult kicks … but it’s a concern for the club.”
Daily Telegraph reporter David Riccio said it was surprising the Dragons had persisted with Lomax so long, with other goalkicking options in the squad including Jack Bird, Ben Hunt, Moses Mbye and Jayden Sullivan.
“What’s going on at the Dragons coaching staff not to identify this issue,” Riccio said.
“Would the Roosters and the Panthers persist with a goalkicker … with the narrow losses … do they continue to persist as long as they have with that lack of accuracy?”
