AS the saying goes, good kicking is good football. But exactly what is a good kick? Generally it is one that hits the target, but that can just be an effective kick. A damaging kick will influence a contest. As a general rule of thumb, the better kicks in the competition are usually outside players or defenders and the more contests they attack, generally the lower the kicking efficiency. To put it in a nutshell, the more pressure placed upon the kicker, the more difficult it is to hit a target.

While contested possessions are not divided up into kicks and handballs, today we look at which TAC Cup players excel with the ball, while also winning their fair share of contested possessions. For this analysis, we have placed the parameter as AT LEAST 40 effective kicks in the TAC Cup. We considered adding SANFL and WAFL players; however it is much fairer to compare players against others within the same competition. So for this we look at purely TAC Cup players and reveal the 32 players that have had at least 45 effective kicks this season.

Of the 32 players, nine of them have recorded a kicking efficiency of above 70 per cent. Then of those nine, five have also won more than 30 per cent of their possessions in a contest. These five players are: Ben Paton (Murray Bushrangers), Nicholas Coffield (Northern Knights), Callum Searle (Oakleigh Chargers), Riley Jones (Oakleigh Chargers) and Ari Sakeson (Sandringham Dragons). We have also included the percentage at which they have chosen to kick long effectively, which is deemed as a kick 40m or longer to a 50/50 contest or greater odds of winning the contest.

Of these five players we then compare the raw numbers to rank them on their performance by foot statistically. Please note: It is purely based on the statistics rather than opinion.

Nicholas Coffield (Northern Knights)

Games: 6
Effective kicks: 70
Kicking efficiency: 82.69%
Contested rate: 33.7%
Long kick rate: 50.8%

Ben Paton (Murray Bushrangers)

Games: 6
Effective kicks: 70
Kicking efficiency: 77.9%
Contested rate: 30.7%
Long kick rate: 54.3%

Riley Jones (Oakleigh Chargers)

Games: 6
Effective kicks: 51
Kicking efficiency: 78.3%
Contested rate: 44.7%
Long kick rate: 52.4%

Callum Searle (Oakleigh Chargers)

Games: 6
Effective kicks: 57
Kicking efficiency: 76.2%
Contested rate: 37.4%
Long kick rate: 51.3%

Ari Sakeson (Sandringham Dragons)

Games: 6
Effective kicks: 42
Kicking efficiency: 73.2%
Contested rate: 29%
Long kick rate: 22.2%

—

Top five players per stat:

Effective kicks:
1. Nicholas Coffield (Northern Knights) 70
1. Ben Paton (Murray Bushrangers) 70
3. Matty Lloyd (GWV Rebels) 68
4. Judah Dundon (Western Jets) 63
5. Jamison Shea (Northern Knights) 59

Kicking efficiency:
1. Nicholas Coffield (Northern Knights) 82.69%
2. Riley Jones (Oakleigh Chargers) 78.3%
3. Ben Paton (Murray Bushrangers) 77.9%
4. Callum Searle (Oakleigh Chargers) 76.2%
5. Jamison Shea (Northern Knights) 74.7%

Contested possession rate:
1. Callan Wellings (GWV Rebels) 55.2%
2. Cassidy Parish (Geelong Falcons) 50.2%
3. Callum Porter (Gippsland Power) 48.8%
4. Louis Cunningham (Oakleigh Chargers) 45.4%
5. Riley Jones (Oakleigh Chargers) 44.7%

Long kick rate:
1. Ethan Floyd (Geelong Falcons) 66.7%
2. Kane Farrell (Bendigo Pioneers) 62.3%
3. Callan Wellings (GWV Rebels) 59%
4. Will Stephenson (Gippsland Power) 55.8%
4. Nicholas Stuhldreier (Western Jets) 55.8%

The other players which were not listed in any of the top five statistics but still recorded 45 effective long kicks to this point in the TAC Cup season are as follows: Matt Harvey and Darby Henderson (Bendigo Pioneers), Jean-Luc Velissaris, Ben Caluzzi and Mitchell Podhajski (Calder Cannons), Josh Bateman, Mason De Wit and Ali Zijai (Dandenong Stingrays), Gryan Miers (Geelong Falcons), Aiden Domic (GWV Rebels), Angus Hicks (Murray Bushrangers), Toby Wooller and Jack Higgins (Oakleigh Chargers), and Quintin Montanaro and Max Lohan (Sandringham Dragons).