Former Geelong forward Cameron Mooney has big hopes for St Kilda forward Max King if he can fix his woes in front of goal.
While King has kicked an impressive 140 goals from his 71 career games so far, he has only kicked at more than 50 per cent accuracy in front of the big sticks for one season so far.
That accuracy improvement came in 2023, with King holding a 54.9 per cent accuracy in front of goal, an improvement on his returns in 2020 (45.8 per cent), 2021 (48.7 per cent) and 2022 (49.1 per cent) when he often suffered from ‘the yips’.
Mooney also suffered similar woes when kicking for goal across his career and he thinks it’s imperative King continues that upward trajectory as he’s St Kilda’s most important player.
“With Max, I think he is the most important player at St Kilda,” Mooney told SEN The Run Home.
“But you can see the way he has played in front of goal over the years, that at times he can be yippie.
“I can put my hand up and say yes, there were times when I was extremely yippie. I think in 2009, I was an absolute mess.
“You know what people are going through, I can see the body language on players, and you can see that they don't want to take the shot, or you can see how nervous they are.”
While King’s accuracy is on the rise, Mooney thinks the 23-year-old should work with just one goalkicking specialist to not try and hone his routine.
He compared King’s rise to that of his former teammate Tom Hawkins who was able to fix his technique in front of goal to become one of the game’s great forwards.
“He just needs to find somebody,” Mooney said.
“The worst thing is when you do have them (the yips), everybody's got an opinion, everybody is going to tell you, ‘Do this, do that’.
“That was what my biggest mistake was, I was listening to everybody. So, I'd end up changing my run-up and everything 10 times a week because everyone was telling me this and that.
“Finally in the end when I probably got over them, you find one person that you trust, and Tom Hawkins is a great example … he had Blake Caracella work with him over a pre-season.
“I think it was the end of 2011 and he came out and won the best and fairest the next year. His goalkicking since then has just been amazing.”
If King can begin to kick goals at a better rate, Mooney can see the forward kicking more than 600 or 700 goals throughout his career.
“I think he should be a 600 or 700 plus goal kicker by the end of his career,” Mooney said.
“I think he's that talented. I think he's that good.
“I think he has the ability to be one of St Kilda's greatest ever forwards.”
Only three players in St Kilda’s history have kicked more than 600 goals in Tony Lockett (898), Bill Mohr (735) and Nick Riewoldt (718).
