Weakest feature of our game for me - seem unable to turn teams round and pin them back. Would like to see Westerman do more as he seems to have a good boot on him. Seems odd that with plenty of kickers i.e. Long, Horne, Obst, Whiting, Tickle, Houghton we simply find the FB or winger on the full 9 times out of 10 when going for a long kick. Thoughts?

Has Phelps got a kicking game?
Whiting or Westerman should be kicking anything from within our forty imo.

Westerman seems the obvious choice, can get a lot of power behind his kicks

I'd go for Westerman also , He should be taking our penalty touch kicks also.

Was practicing his kicks before the game on Friday. Put a few bombs up and each one would have been the right area to attack, putting pressure on their full-back. Looked good.

Westerman should be doing a lot of things in this team he currently isn't allowed to.
Been very impressed with him so far, hopefully during the course of the year his presence within the team will grow that he can demand he does these things.

Should be given the 13 jersey next season.

Reading the title I thought they had brought out a board game for the Longy detractors on here.

Without a doubt, would be criminal if it didn't happen.
Will be a future captain also imo.

Never mind a long kicking game we don't really have a short one we must force less drop outs then any other team. Whiting should be on drop outs (if he's on) and Westerman should be kicking for touch and from in our own 40 in general play he's got a massive boot on him. Also be good for him to put some proper bombs in and test the full back

Completely agree - obvious talent. Think Agar's easing him in but he's looking very capable of becoming a senior player before long.

And play him at 13 also.

Our kicking game is definately the worst part of our game, and watching rovers play leeds yesterday it was their kicking which won them the game for me (besides leeds and alibert playing pants). But we definately need something changing with our kicking

I stated this on Friday; every time 'we' kick for touch we manage 20mtrs tops, other teams seem to be able to find that distance with a bad kick. Obst doesn't have a big enough boot on him to get some decent distance; for me it should be Tickle or Westerman everytime.

Horney's long kicking game is hit or miss (usually miss). We need to turn the fullback/split the wingers with regularity so as to create greater pressure on the oppisition.

Whiting always seems to have a decent kick when he takes them.

Welcome to 2007









We haven't had a decent kicking game since cooke left. dykes may have had one if he wasn't always injured. A lot of it is also down to lack of organisation for me. The kicker never seems to have enough time to put in a decent one. The surprising thing is if you watch some matches for before 2007, horne's kicking game was much better than it is now

Horne and Brough used to consistently turn the opposition's full-back around.

I wonder why he can't do it anymore.

Absolutely, but the point is that we have quite a few players that can kick with distance now (Westerman, Tickle, Whiting), those who are OK at short kicks (Obst, Horne) a player who used to have a very good allround kicking game (Long) and one who has kicked a few 40/20s in the past (Houghton) yet every set we seem to just belt it on the full to the opposition fullback on their 30. It is an area where we have now have the resources, but not the organisation or planning.

Like I said, organisation.

Also, why doesn't tickle take the touch kicks?

I spose place kicking is a different discipline to kicking out of your hand but then again theres nothing stopping us place kicking to touch

I think we just need to be smarter, if we kick late in tackle count make sure the ball bounce before it reaches the defenders or kick slightly early if the wingers are still up. I always though someone like Tickle would be good for belting it down field.

Unfortunately, by the end of the year, I fear that there's more chance of having any natural creativity & ability coached out of him

Baffling .

we need to play Westerman for the 80, get the old man playing prop, he's a solid defender but when Fitz gets the ball it slows us down, he made a break on Friday but didn't have the legs (or support) to do anything with it.

Isn't Long already a senior player??