ROK is a champion - how do we help his kicking at goal?

[No 14]

ROK: Isn't his marking outstanding. A pleasure to watch.

When he starts kicking starighter it may sway some tight games.

Tips? Encouragement?

My tip is to relax more - if he enjoys the kicking as much as he enjoy's the marking more goals will flow

[NMWBloods]

One thing of interest about ROK though, which I've not really picked up so much in games, is his poor disposal effectiveness.

[hudsta]

from memory he had a good year in 05/o6 in front of goal but has gone missing last year and now this year.

[swansrule100]

One thing of interest about ROK though, which I've not really picked up so much in games, is his poor disposal effectiveness.

guess he is not surrounded by slick skills out there so its hard to notice

[liz]

One thing of interest about ROK though, which I've not really picked up so much in games, is his poor disposal effectiveness.

Depends on how you interpret stats. They rarely tell the whole story.

A large part of his role - and I am presuming it's under instruction - is to pump the ball forward quickly, often playing on after taking a mark. He frequently kicks it into space in front of either Micky or Barry (and their opponents) and asks his team mates to make something of it. If one of them doesn't gather it cleanly, it gets marked down as an ineffective disposal, even if it gets the ball into a contest (which might in itself lead to another scoring opportunity).

It is quite rare that you see a complete blooper from O'Keefe - ie kicking directly to an opponent.

Plenty - on here and in commentary boxes - have at times been critical of the Swans for trying to be too precise delivering the ball forward, especially when faced with a flooded forward line. ROK's approach is a way of trying to move the ball on quickly and giving his team mates a chance.

[31 hard at it]

During the (very ordinary) commentary during the game they said that ROK runs an average 16km per game.

In 2005 he was a major factor in driving us forward, then a few seconds later taking a saving mark in defence.

I have seen the same endeavour this year.

When he is as fit as he appears now it could be an all Australian again !

[mcs]

he certainly has seemed to step up a gear around the ball this year. Still not kicking the goals he should be but he is doing a hell of a lot of work around the ground to make up for it and doing it very well. Will be interesting to see where he is played on Saturday. I'd like to see him start at CHF- not only as he can take good contested marks and can kick goals (Though the confidence is down a bit) but could help nullify the run of Geelong from their defence. Shut that down effectively for most of the game and you give yourself a decent chance to beat them.

[BSA5]

It wasn't long ago that he was one of our best set shots for goal (2003/2004). Not sure what happened, but it's gone. His disposal is still pretty good around the ground though. Given he has been sending the ball inside 50 into Blind Barry (if he drops the mark and an opposition player picks it up, it's an ineffective kick) and an invariably crowded forward line (given the time it has taken in the past for the ball to actually get to O'Keefe), I think his statistically poor disposal effectiveness is misleading.