Carlton coach Michael Voss admits star forward Harry McKay might “possibly” have to re-evaluate how far out from goal he employs his preferred snap kick when lining up for a set-shot.
With his team trailing by eight points midway through the third quarter of their tense arm wrestle against St Kilda, McKay twice had the chance to cut the deficit in the space of two minutes, but from 45m out on a sharp angle, he opted against the traditional drop punt on both occasions.
The first attempt hit the post, while the second was a shocker which went straight up into the air, going nowhere near the goal face.
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“Possibly,” Voss said post-match when asked if McKay should only use the snap shot when closer to goal.
“But that’s for us to review and that’ll be feedback that he needs to evaluate, and we need to get better in that area.”
The Blues kicked themselves out of the game and despite only having two fewer scoring shots than the Saints, lost by 22 points.
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McKay missed three sets shots, but was far from the sole culprit, with Jack Silvagni (two), Patrick Cripps (two) and Charlie Curnow also wasting chances.
“I don’t think that that’s just for Harry, that’s for us as a footy team,” Voss said.
“Our front-half game and our efficiency around our front-half game needs to improve.
“We can acknowledge that the efficiency part of the game had a pretty significant say on the end result.”
Voss had no problem with McKay continuing to opt for the snap kick as his first preference for set shots, but trusted him to be honest if he ever felt he needed to do extra work on it at training.
“I ask the players to be able to look at their technique and how they finish and keep evaluating it but have enough humility to know that if it’s not working and what do you need to adjust … but then go to work on it,” Voss said.
“Don’t just think that something’s going to work and then you don’t practice it.”
Legendary Richmond forward Matthew Richardson said consistency in goalkicking technique was crucial.
“You do need, at the end of the day, to have a solid routine and I think every time Harry goes back, you’re not sure what he’s going to do,” Richardson told 3AW Football post-game on Sunday. “Is he going to do the drop punt? Is he going to go around the corner?
“I wasn’t a great kick at goal, but I did work out probably by the end that I did have to do the same thing every time – and that’s going to give me the best chance. He (McKay) doesn’t do that. He needs to work out what that is.
“I think his around-the-corner is probably more reliable than his drop punt at times, so when he’s on the right side of the goals and probably straight in front, I would go around the corner. On the other side you can’t do that because he’s a left-footer, so he probably needs to go the drop punt from that side of the ground.
“But he needs to make sure he does the same thing every time.
“The other thing is some guys are probably better just mentally better in the head when they’re having a shot at goal. At training, you’d have 100 shots at goal and go 70 to 80 per cent – because there’s not 50,000 people and the situation of the scoreboard or you might miss one early. Some guys just can’t master that part of if either.”
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Carlton enjoyed massive discrepancies in disposals (446-360) and contested possessions (140-120) against St Kilda, but couldn’t translate that onto the scoreboard.
While Voss was happy with the method in which they moved the ball, he was less impressed by his players’ overall execution and admitted their “total game is not quite together yet”.
“Some of the decisions that we made were actually quite sound, so you can’t take that off them but our ability to execute and go after it needs maybe a little bit of work,” Voss said.
“We had actually moments to hit the scoreboard and be able to finish our plays and they were incomplete, so there’s still some work to go on that.
“We’re looking for the total game here, we’re not looking for one phase to be able to fix it – there’s clearly things we need to make some progression in, and it might take a couple of weeks to get after it to the level that we need to.”
Meanwhile, Voss explained that ruckman Tom De Koning wasn’t selected to play against St Kilda because he was sore and ill during the week, which prevented him from training earlier in the week.
— NCA Newswire
