Whether it was his long goals at Football Park, his 2008 Grand Final cameo, or his 60-metre bomb on the Coke Zero ad, when Stuart Dew comes to mind, you automatically think of the ability to kick.

Dew was known as one of the AFL’s most deadliest kicks and made a career out of hitting targets by foot, so when it came to discussing the most crucial skill in the game, who better to catch up with than the dual premiership player himself?

Watch the SwansTV video above to get Dew’s take on the art of kicking which touches on the following topics:

The technical process of kicking:

“Probably the number one thing is timing. I always found that if you’re kicking poorly, you were probably trying to kick it too hard.”

Goalkicking confidence:

“I think you’ve got to think that you can kick every shot. I guess if you’re thinking, ‘I hope I don’t miss’ before you’ve kicked it, then you’re halfway to a point.”

The perfect pass:

“The kicker’s got the responsibility to put the leader where they want. Quite often it’s just putting it out in front of them. You see highlight reels where they drill those passes, and they look nice, but realistically they’re not the best kicks.”

Practicing ‘fluke’ goals:

“I was a big advocate for trying different kicks. As long as you’ve got your goalkicking routine down pat, then you can start to experiment with those different kicks. If you haven’t done it, then you don’t love goalkicking enough.”

Drafting athletes versus kickers:

“As you can tell, I was a supreme athlete in my time, so my theory was I had to make sure I used the ball. Kicking’s back on a high priority, and given the game’s called football I’ve always held it as high as possible.”