FOR THE money he is paid, Collingwood forward Travis Cloke should kick more accurately from close range.

But if you're going to waste Magpies coach Nathan Buckley's time with a letter full of suggestions on how to straighten up his big forward, you need to know some facts about Cloke's goal kicking.

Since the start of 2013, the 29-year-old has kicked exactly 100 goals from 207 set shots, with 77 behinds and 30 misses making up the difference. 

His conversion rate of 48.3 per cent in that time compares unfavourably to peers such as Jack Gunston (69.3 per cent), Tom Hawkins (59.6 per cent), Lindsay Thomas (55.1 per cent) and Lance Franklin (55.7 per cent since joining the Sydney Swans in 2014).

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To understand what that means, if Cloke kicked at Hawkins' rate he would have 22 more goals in that time.

The less-than-ideal figures reinforce conventional wisdom about Cloke's kicking but if you shine the light brighter, the story is not as straightforward.

Believe it or not, Cloke is not the worst set shot in the competition among the top 50 goalkickers this season.

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After six games he is kicking at 52.6 per cent compared to the Western Bulldogs' Jake Stringer, Gold Coast's Tom Lynch and Adelaide's Patrick Dangerfield at 50 per cent.

Melbourne's Jeff Garlett has kicked just one-third of his set shots. 

Although a small sample, it's a reminder that every era has goalkickers with the accuracy of a drunken darts player.

Buddy was at 50.8 per cent in 2012 and Luke Breust was 51.4 per cent in 2013. Breust struck back in 2014 to kick 90.6 per cent of his set shots accurately.

Travis Cloke's goalkicking has been both a joy and frustration for Magpie fans. Picture: AFL Media

Despite common perception, Cloke's accuracy gets worse, rather than better, the further out he is.

He has kicked 33.43 from beyond 40 metres (43 per cent) and 67.34 (66 per cent) from inside that range since the beginning of 2013. 

Much better than Cloke from beyond 40 metres are Hawkins (58 per cent), Gunston (60 per cent), Franklin (57 per cent) and Thomas (61 per cent) – so you can dismiss the 'Cloke is better from further out' theory for now. 

Such thinking about Cloke is fashionable because this season he has kicked 3.4 from between 15-30 metres and 4.1 from outside 50.

In the past three seasons – enough of a sample size to determine a trend – Cloke has tracked at 66 per cent from between 15-30 metres. 

It's not great compared to Hawkins (75 per cent), Jack Gunston (85 per cent), and Franklin (since moving to the Swans) and Thomas (both 86 per cent) but it's passable, just. 

The unique factor about Cloke's kicking is that he has real problems converting from the right-hand side, an area you would think might be the sweet spot for left-footers.

He has kicked 39.43 from the right side and 35.30 from the left side, without taking into account his misses from those sides.

Unusually, the two set shots he missed against Geelong were from the left side, inside 30 and in the corridor. 

His scoring accuracy from inside 30 in the corridor in the past three seasons has been 23.7 and he has kicked 9.2 from that same spot he missed against Geelong.

That's hardly the disaster some perceive it to be and can be turned around.

At worst, he'll revert to the mean.

Cloke's accuracy overall is 56 per cent, the same level it's been since 2013 and better than the 49.2 per cent it was in the Magpies' premiership year of 2010. 

So when Buckley says Cloke is improving, he is right.

How do you fix a problem like Travis? Nathan Buckley hasn't stopped trying. Picture: AFL Media

On radio station SEN on Saturday, Buckley said every option was being tried to improve Cloke's accuracy.

Kicking specialists, psychologists, more practice and iPods replicating crowd noise are just the ideas we've heard about.

Let's face it, hearing about methods to fix the Cloke problem are such an annual event they have become a running joke in football.

Surely the time has come for everyone, including the No.32, to just enjoy who he is: a flawed forward with many more strengths than weaknesses. 

He is a great mark, very strong and has enough shots at goal to have kicked 404 in 222 games. He is also an excellent field kick and his work rate is enormous (and often overlooked when his kicking is examined). 

One of the many great pieces of advice David Wheadon provides about teaching goalkicking in his book The Art of Coaching is for coaches to "concentrate on what the player does well, not on the errors he makes." 

Before Buckley throws this piece in the bin, he needs to make sure Cloke is enjoying the drills designed to help his goalkicking and that he takes a positive mindset into training.

Making it fun should be the coaching objective and a gentle reminder that it's teams that score goals, never individuals. 

Collingwood has kicked 41.29 from set shots this season with Cloke scoring 10.9.

The big forward's goal kicking might drive everyone mad but it's worth remembering that for every momentum killer from Cloke, there is a spark is around the corner.

It's time to enjoy the mad journey he's taking us on.

Stats supplied by Champion Data