THE STANDARD of kicking, especially in front of goal, continues to rankle many AFL watchers today.Where players' general skills, athleticism, fitness and courage are widely hailed as being light years ahead of past generations, kicking is the one area they're seen to be treading water. Some even say they've regressed.

As part of the Herald Sun's Footy Revolution series celebrating the 21st anniversary of the League's transformation into the AFL, former Port Adelaide coach and current GWS assistant coach Mark Williams ranked the best kicks he had seen.Williams named former Hawthorn and Adelaide premiership player Darren Jarman as the best preferred-foot and non-preferred-foot kick he'd seen.

So it was interesting to hear Jarman's take on the standard of kicking today.Jarman said his kicking skills had not been a genetic gift but honed through hours of hard work in the backyard with elder brother Andrew, also a former Crow. Jarman said both he and Andrew had been able to kick on their non-preferred left feet by the time they were seven.

"I'm staggered by the numbers of current players who can't kick on their wrong side. In fact, I'm staggered by the numbers who can't kick on their good side," Jarman said.

Jarman said part of the problem was players weren't being properly instructed on kicking technique at a young age, but he also doubted whether today's players took enough pride in their kicking.

"[Spraying kicks] doesn't seem to hurt. I took real pride in my possession, but today it just happens so often," Jarman said.

"In fairness, part of that is the ever-increasing speed of the game, which means [players] are often under pressure when disposing of the ball.

"But surely that is even more reason why you must recruit players with superior disposal skills.

"This is certainly the path Hawthorn has been down recently and it is reaping the rewards in 2011, with its high kicking-efficiency rates helping it to dismantle opposition zones with pinpoint kicking.

But those players with kicking issues already in the AFL system face the problem of fitness coaches who want to limit the amount of kicking they can do at training to ensure they don't injure themselves.

Perhaps North Melbourne's recent approach is the best one in these circumstances. With many Kangaroos struggling to convert in front of goal earlier this season, coach Brad Scott decided extended goalkicking practice had to take precedence over sports science.

Boyd learning on the job

Matthew Boyd is everything you want in a skipper. Tough, reliable and often at his best when his team is struggling and needs someone to lead the way.

Since taking over the Western Bulldogs captaincy this season, Boyd has defied his side's dismal start to 2011 to produce some of the best football of his career.

However, he is happy to admit he is still learning the captaincy ropes, telling The Age his leadership group had recently let him know he was trying to do too much and had to learn to delegate.

"I was probably just trying to do too much off the field … you can wear yourself down, especially when you're losing games and it starts becoming a bit of grind," Boyd said.

"You take a lot more responsibility for the team and when the team's losing you're constantly thinking, 'What more can I do?'"

Boyd said the Bulldogs players got together for a drink in the lead-up to their round 13 win against Adelaide to remind themselves "the world wasn't ending" despite the fact they were then on a run of four straight losses.

If Bulldogs fans had any doubts about the leadership at Whitten Oval, this report should ease their minds.Having a strong captain like Boyd is one thing. But having an equally strong leadership group that can give him the support he needs makes the overall leadership at the Bulldogs even stronger. 

GWS to capitalise on concessions

In some ways, this year is fast becoming a facsimile of 2010.

Just as reports of Gold Coast circling opposition stars were widespread in 2010, GWS is starting to make some waves with reports of its behind-the-scenes approaches to players.

Callan Ward may not be as big a name as Gary Ablett was last year, but when there are also reports the Giants have Taylor Walker (Adelaide), Rhys Palmer (Fremantle) and Brisbane Lions Mitch Clark and Daniel Rich in their sights, they're starting to give opposition clubs the sort of sleepless nights the Suns did last year.

However, the Giants' recruiting concessions differ in two major ways from those given to the Suns. For starters, they have two years to land up to 16 uncontracted opposition players, where the Suns had only one.

Secondly, they also have the ability to trade four 17-year-olds beneath the minimum draft age to opposition clubs. Again, the Giants have two years to do this.

Not surprisingly, the Giants are determined to exploit this last concession as much as possible. Giants coach Kevin Sheedy told The West Australian GWS would only part with these four concession picks for superstars with plenty of time left in the game.

AFL talent manager Kevin Sheehan also predicted clubs would have to trade a "quality player" and possibly an early draft pick to get their hands on these selections.

This concession is in keeping with the AFL's recognition that the Giants will have to be competitive from the outset to win over the local western Sydney market. It is designed to give them access to more readymade AFL players than the Suns.

It will be interesting to see just how much AFL clubs are prepared to part with to acquire these 17-year-olds, who are tipped to include West Australians Jaeger O'Meara, Dayle Garlett, Shannon Taylor and Chris Yarran.

AFL clubs have until Friday to lodge a wish list with the League of up to 10 eligible 17-year-olds.

In short

Channel Ten has refused to broadcast this year's International Rules series in Australia, leaving the AFL without a television broadcaster for the two games, on October 28 and November 4, the Herald Sun reports. The tabloid said Ten had planned to telecast the two matches but had decided its last AFL commitment would be this year's Grand Final (Ten recently decided not meet Channel Seven's demands for a share of the 2012-16 free-to-air AFL television rights). AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said he was confident the League would find an alternative broadcaster.

Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna would "love" to pick Harley Bennell in the Suns side that will take on Fremantle at Patersons Stadium on Saturday but the club's leadership group has vetoed the move, The West Australian reports. McKenna said selecting the West Australian youngster to play in his hometown might have been the "challenge" he needed to prove he had learnt his lesson after missing two training sessions earlier this year. However, he said the leadership group would decide when Bennell returned and he was "more than comfortable" with its decision.

Combating Hawthorn spearhead Lance Franklin will dominate Collingwood's planning for the sides' clash this Sunday, The Age's Rohan Connolly says. In his past four games against the Magpies, Franklin has kicked bags of eight, six (twice) and five goals. Connolly said Franklin would be more important than ever for the Hawks against the Magpies, given their raft of injuries that has sidelined key players such as Jarryd Roughead, Cyril Rioli and Brad Sewell.

Richmond is out of the race to sign out-of-contract Brisbane Lions ruckman/forward Mitch Clark, the Herald Sun reports. The tabloid said Clark's reported salary demands of $500,000-$600,000 had put him out of Richmond's price bracket, with the Tigers now set to focus on other opposition ruckmen such as Port Adelaide's Jackson Trengove.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.