I’ve just seen a magnificent dropkick win a rugby international for South Africa. Trailing Australia 16-19, replacement Francois Steyn booted a superb field goal from the touch line 45 metres out. It was a fantastic display of skill.
The Springboks won the game with another drop goal minutes later.
There are some in rugby who say the field goal should be worth less than three points, like in rugby league where it is one point, but I disagree. It requires skill under pressure to slot a dropkick through the posts.
The last time I can recall a dropkick being used in Australian football was in the late 80s or early 90s by Alastair Lynch for Fitzroy at Kardinia Park against Geelong. I was listening to the game on radio. Fitzroy was beaten, Lynch was unopposed in the goal square and had some fun with the dropkick.
I suspect it was in the early 70s when a dropkick was used for the last time in general play and it was probably by a veteran.
Videos from the 60s show the dropckick was common. As a primary school student in the early 70s we used to practice them, but it was a novelty. Kids today don’t even know what a dropkick is.
The advantage of a dropkick is the distance it can travel. In 1943, Fitzroy full back Fred Hughson booted a world record dropkick of nearly 90 yards. Fred Fanning apparently kicked one 116 yards in 1939, which I’m sceptical of, but Hughson’s was measured as part of a competition.
Football coaches today don’t care much about distance with kicks, except for scoring goals, and a dropkick is not generally as accurate as a punt.
That brings me to the place kick.
Collingwood full forward Dick Lee lines up a place kick.
In round four against Geelong he told the umpire he was going to place the ball on the ground and shoot for goal. The kick was successful and he used the same technique again later in the game.
I don’t know if the football can be placed on the mark or if it has to be behind the mark.
Anyhow, while I accept there is no future for the dropkick in Australian football, I believe the place kick could be usefully employed.
Properly executed, a place kick is very accurate.
There is less margin for error than with a drop punt.
If I were an AFL coach, I would seriously contemplate having skilled players use a place kick for set shots within the 30-40 metre range.
Back to rugby, here’s video of a 60-metre drop goal by Francois Steyn:
It certainly was a magnificent field goal. It reminded me of Roger Gould in his day. I had no idea about the place kick being used in Australian Rules
Twitter: mgorey
says:
I gather the place kick was common in Australian football until the 1920s when it gradually began to phase out before Ongarello’s brief revival in the 50s.
I searched the authoritative Google and enjoyed discovering this description of the 1913 grand final in which a Fitzroy place kick by Bull Martin ensured the Maroons’ sixth flag despite a strong challenge from St Kilda.
I though A Lynch also used a drop kick against the Bulldogs in a final in the late 90s?
Twitter: mgorey
says:
You are probably right Jermayn, but I didn’t see that one. It wouldn’t surprise me if A Lynch was involved.
Yeah A Lnych was sure a character, not many like him anymore unfortunately. He also did the famous ‘grab neck/ chock’ to the Bulldogs in the early 2000s.
BTW I just released a video tut on how to kick a Drop Kick on my Kick2Kick website/ blog.
A drop kick (a beautiful kick) is entirely different to a stab pass of course. This was the method of short passing prior to the drop punt sanitising kicking in VFL footy. It was a low trajectory drop kick and moved much faster than the gruesome drop punt does. The best exponent I ever recall was Ian Stewart (Richmond) who could stab equally accurately with both feet.
Now does anyone recall the “flat punt”?
Ian Stewart, born July 14 1943. Stab Kick Expert. Played for St Kilda 1963-1970 and Richmond 1971-1975.
Drop punt revamped into a field pass in 1948 at the age of 14 years and stab punt invented 1949 aged 15 years . See “mefnc the stab punt” on Google.
The flat punt was used by one of the greatest full forwards of all time, “Peter Hudson” of Hawthorn, from Tasmania, who kicked 727 goals . He was born in 1946 and Played 1967-74,1977, 129 games with an average of 5.59 goals per game. He kicked 125 goals in 1968, 120 in 1969, 146 in 1970 and 150 in 1971. His kick was described “The flat punt was horrible to watch…. but very, very effective”.
A place kick? Are you serious? Do you really think AFL coaches are going to go down that path with their players? Really, think about it. That is not the game of AFL!
I was at the Glenferrie Oval the day Peter Hudson kicked 8 goals before 1/2 time (against my team Melbourne) when he did his knee and was stretchered off.
Thank you for using information I have supplied on your web pages. I was featured representing the Mt Evelyn History Group in a Face to Face Exhibition that was held at the Lilydale Museum October 13 to November 13. – .See “Things Past October 2011″ page three. Kind Regards.