AFL players are struggling with set shot kicking and goal kicking in general in 2021.
Scoring accuracy has been hovering around the 45-47 per cent range this season, hitting all-time lows in the process.
A decade ago, goal kicking was over 50 per cent, but that skill has somewhat deteriorated in the modern game.
On Saturday, St Kilda shot themselves in the foot by kicking 0.6 from set shots as they lost to Port Adelaide by just 13 points.
It prompted Garry Lyon to label the goal kicking efforts in today’s game as a “farce” and “embarrassing”.
“St Kilda would be sitting back going, ‘Why can’t we kick?’. 0.6 from set shots,” Lyon said on SEN Breakfast.
“The goal kicking is a farce at the moment and it’s embarrassing for a sport that is professional now.
“Full-time, they’ve got access to all the data, all the technology, they’ve got access to the grounds, the footballs, the time to practice and yet it is embarrassing.
“They (the Saints) would sit back and be ruing the opportunities that passed them by.”
Kane Cornes feels players are nailing the trickier shots, and wonders why the more routine is being executed poorly.
“The trick shots, the snaps under significant pressure have improved, I think,” he said.
“So then why have set shots declined?”
Lyon responded with his theory on the constant misses.
“This is my recent theory - The way I’m watching these blokes shoot for goal, they do everything that they don’t normally do in their kicking process,” he explained.
“They take a mark, they go back and kick, they kick on the run and deliver the ball beautifully, then for whatever reason when they’ve got a shot at goal, they stop and say, ‘I’ve got 30 seconds, therefore I’ll take the 30 seconds, I go back, I slow down, I walk in slower’. They do everything counter to what they normally do.
“If you’ve just had five contests and you’re buggered and knackered, you take the 30 second by all means.
“If you’ve just run out and marked the footy and turned around, take a couple of deep breaths and go and kick the damn thing.
“So they do everything that you don’t normally do and go and miss the goal.”
The Saints returned 8.13 from 53 inside 50s to go down to the Power who themselves were inaccurate with 10.14 from 43 entries.
In perfect conditions under the Marvel Stadium roof, there were six straight behinds kicked at the beginning of the third quarter between the two sides with general skill errors, not just in front of goal, seemingly the order of the day.
The inaccuracy was evident in some games over the weekend, namely the Fremantle-Geelong game which returned a combined 17.29, although there were some positive results with the likes of the Western Bulldogs (14.6), Hawthorn (12.7) and Sydney (15.8) all kicking well.