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And now are you glad we have signed Ben Hunt ?

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Belta

Juniors
Messages
1,128
JDHD said; "....He has a colossal boot on him..."

I hope you're right. I'm not sure why I thought otherwise, I guess mostly from what i've read plus from the recent games I've watched. If Hunt is a good long range kicker than that's gold for us. IMO field position is so vital. The last thing the Dragons want is to be winning the running metres only to have that advantage negated by a better long range kicking game from the opposition. Hopefully with Hunt we atleast match or even better, we win both the metres run and the kick metres.
 
JDHD

JDHD

Juniors
Messages
1,082
Belta said:
JDHD said; "....He has a colossal boot on him..."

I hope you're right. I'm not sure why I thought otherwise, I guess mostly from what i've read plus from the recent games I've watched. If Hunt is a good long range kicker than that's gold for us. IMO field position is so vital. The last thing the Dragons want is to be winning the running metres only to have that advantage negated by a better long range kicking game from the opposition. Hopefully with Hunt we atleast match or even better, we win both the metres run and the kick metres.
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Put it this way: according to SportsMate, he only played 21 games for the Broncos, (but eight of those were at hooker, so he only had 13 games in the halves), and he still came 17th in kick metres with 4,357 metres. For context, Widdop also played 21 games but all of them were in the halves and he was 13th with 4,859.

Therefore, Widdop only marginally kicked more than Hunt and he had eight extra games to do so. Hunt has a long arse boot, don't worry about that.
 
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TomRedVRiver

Bench
Messages
3,682
JDHD said:
I'll never understand why people don't rate Hunt's long kicking game. He has a colossal boot on him, he's consistently in the top 3 or 4 players for kick metres. He could work on positioning, yes, but that's much easier to fix than length.
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Okay let's clear up this misconception. Whilst I understand what you're saying, when I say "long kicking game" I don't literally mean length.
I'm sure half of the players running around today, halves or not, have colossal boots on them. Look at Jarryd Hayne, probably the longest boot I've genuinely ever seen, but his judgement of length and accuracy are poor.

A long kicking game is about finding the grass, controlling length as to pitch it as strategically into the opposition's half as possible. This is where I think Hunt is lacking a little, but there's definitely room for improvement there. Knowing the type of player he is, he will relish the challenge.
 
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BennyV

Referee
Messages
23,964
TomRedVRiver said:
Okay let's clear up this misconception. Whilst I understand what you're saying, when I say "long kicking game" I don't literally mean length.
I'm sure half of the players running around today, halves or not, have colossal boots on them. Look at Jarryd Hayne, probably the longest boot I've genuinely ever seen, but his judgement of length and accuracy are poor.

A long kicking game is about finding the grass, controlling length as to pitch it as strategically into the opposition's half as possible. This is where I think Hunt is lacking a little, but there's definitely room for improvement there. Knowing the type of player he is, he will relish the challenge.
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This indeed. Long kicking game is more than just getting distance off the boot. Its the difference between Soward/A.Reynold and Dugan/Hayne. Can't recall where Hunt sits on that scale.
 
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Belta

Juniors
Messages
1,128
It's also encouraging to hear McInnes say he is looking to focus on his kicking game as well. Hopefully this pans out and hopefully between the three of them they can bring an element of surprise and variety to this aspect of their arsenal.
 
Dragonslayer

Dragonslayer

First Grade
Messages
7,810
I think the greater point is not wether someone has a short or long kicking game but more a "strategic" kicking game. Like when is the best time to kick short or long or even a well placed towering bomb. Does the kick gain advantage, place opposition under pressure or strategically placed (sideline for example) to give our forwards a little break.
This is about using strategy abd for a long ling time we havent had a half, 5/8 combo that can do this. We really have just been hap-hazardly kicking for the sake of kicking to little advantage (McCrone was a perfect example of this).
Hopefully the combo of Hunt and Widdop can show and give us the true meaning of strategic kicking.
 
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watatank

Coach
Messages
14,220
Just because Hunt is coming on board as a highly publicised signing doesn't mean he automatically becomes our only kicker and everything has to revolve around him. We still need to have things happening around him and having that variety will be key.
 
Life's Good

Life's Good

Coach
Messages
13,971
A genuine no 7. Who would have thought we would be saying that given our patchy(at best)recruitment of the last few years.
Watching past games on Fox it was great to see the likes of Head & Goldthorpe run around for us. Hornby will always be great in my eyes but he was a converted No1 that played in a team who knew their role.
 
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getsmarty

Immortal
Messages
34,256
2018 Fresh Face: Ben Hunt
Author
dragons.com.au
Timestamp
Tue 2 Jan 2018, 10:00 AM

The 2018 NRL Telstra Premiership is mere months away for the St George Illawarra Dragons.

The Red V will begin their campaign with a season-opening clash against the Brisbane Broncos at Jubilee Oval on Thursday, March 8.

The stakes couldn't be higher for Dragons recruit Ben Hunt, who will likely face his former Brisbane side in his debut game for the Red V.

Hunt is one of five recruits vying for a place in the Dragons' 17 come Round 1 - and the first of which Dragons.com.au will delve into the life and times of over the first week of January.

Hear from Ben in the above video ahead of his maiden season with the Dragons.

https://www.dragons.com.au/news/2018/01/02/fresh-face-Hunt/
 
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Uplifting

Juniors
Messages
457
Belta said:
... If Hunt is a good long range kicker than that's gold for us. IMO field position is so vital.
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Ah yes, those games that I’ve watched where a player’s kicking game had a greater effect on field position than the referee’s whistle we’re good.

I don’t like being negative, but sometime I whether all that training and skill is undone by some talentless bad eggs who have the whistle...
 
Crush

Crush

Coach
Messages
11,288
TomRedVRiver said:
It's nice to come back here every now and again and remind myself that Hunt is our halfback this year. Bloody exciting times.
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Yeah mate I agree. I can see a very big year in 2018 for the Dragons. It'll be nice to talk about the positives for a change.
 
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TomRedVRiver

Bench
Messages
3,682
Crush said:
Yeah mate I agree. I can see a very big year in 2018 for the Dragons. It'll be nice to talk about the positives for a change.
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Rabs - "Vaughan plays the ball to McInnes, who drifts across and plays it on to Widdop, Widdop cuts it out to Hunt, Hunt dummies and goes himself! Hunt.... HUNT... HUNT SCORES FOR ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA!!

Could get used to that.
 
Dragsters

Dragsters

First Grade
Messages
5,784
An actual proper halfback in Hunt...

A real forward leader in Graham...

An exciting young talent with plenty of skill in Leilua...

3 decent reasons to get excited about our 2018!
 
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TomRedVRiver

Bench
Messages
3,682
Overseas dragon said:
It's not likely to go from Widdop to Hunt they will probably get on opposite sides of the field to give us more threats in attack .
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Back in Jan when we first signed Hunt, one of the things Millward made clear was how much they liked it when Hunt drifted across both sides of the field. Millward and the coaches believed that Hunt is at his most potent when he's floating (like in 2014/15), and not confined to one side of the field.
I'd expect to see that at the Dragons in 2018.
 
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