I actually cant believe how much of a fuss is being made about his kicking.
Yes its not the best but its not the worst either,
Last week against North his usage by foot was great.
Shiel has been an amazing pick up for us and has been incredible so far this season,
His inside 50’s, clearances, hell even contested work is amazing and all something that any club in the comp would be lucky to have.
If you look at the turnover and clanger stats for this season Theres an abundance of players above shiel who we never hear about as having poor disposal.
I love what he has brought to us and look forward to watching him for many years to come.
De Goey had worst disposal efficiency ffs, as did Beams and Adams who were both being praised.
That was his worst kicking game for the year. Honestly think about that, that game was his worst and he was still one of our best players. The upside is so damn huge when he’s fully settled in.
His kicking, yes, but not his performance. But you’re right, he got selfish when heading in f50, I think there were at least three times when he should have passed but went for goal instead and missed.
Hmm. Its never easy to determine what is in another persons head.
Joe and Stringer kicked from outside 50 and nailed it, we called it taking responsibility.
Shiel kicks from inside 50 and misses and we call it selfish.
His kicking was OK last week, 2-3 lace out passes inside 50 tell us that, but now he will modify his game and continue to work on his kicking to improve it. The best footy minds at Essendon will try to help him. Yes, he will need to decide when to pass the responsibility onto others and factor in a worst case scenario until he can improve his kicking to an acceptable level…
The crazy thing is he is a great handballer - Kevin Murray-like. maybe he should just concentrate on bursting out of the centre and handpassing to Joe, Jake or Walla.
I don’t want the coaches or him to change how he is playing, He’s killing it for us, ok he missed a few kicks but he’s making us a relevant team again.
Opposition coaches wouldn’t have worried about our midfield in years past… Wanna bet they spend hours on it now?
This way of thinking had permeated the media, also. Win by a few points, and you ‘defiantly and courageously held off an onslaught’. Lose by the same, and you ‘lacked the hard edge to see it out’. In fact any game determined by a few points is 100% luck. That won’t go down well in print, though.
His field kicking is quite good. His problem is that he’s not kicking goals. He played 135 games for GWS and kicked 64 goals, ie roughly one goal every two games. Not a lot, and arguably not enough for a high-possession attacking midfielder. For us he’s played 6 games and not kicked a single one — despite having a number of excellent chances. Goal-kicking is largely psychological; when a player starts to doubt himself he misses shots he’s nailed many times in the past. Shiel’s record suggests he’ll never kick a lot of goals, but he needs to get over this current barren patch.