AFL has to ‘accept this is the new way’

Star Carlton forward Harry McKay has put the snap haters back in their box, declaring the side-on style of goalkicking is here to stay.

McKay, the Coleman Medal leader with 38 goals in 12 games this season, is leading the new breed of set-shot takers removing the drop punt from their repertoire.

Even from the slightest angle, McKay and his band of bending brothers would rather snap the ball around the corner than risk the straightforward shot at goal.

According to Champion Data stats published last weekend, McKay has kicked 15.4 from 19 snap shots, making up nearly half his season haul of goals.

Those numbers also make the 23-year-old Blue the best snapper in the AFL, and he declared he felt so comfortable doing it he wouldn’t stop.

He said it was just another part of football’s evolution.

“As an industry we have to start accepting that’s the new way to do things,” McKay said on Tuesday.

“If you look back, years and years ago, it was just drop punts, but before that there was drop kicks and then the drop punt came in as a new way to do things.

“It’s not that I don’t want to do drop punts, it’s more of a comfortable kick and the percentage of getting it through the goals is a lot higher from snapping the ball. You get a lot more purchase on the ball, and the margin for error is a lot higher when you don’t snap the ball.

Harry McKay is leading the AFL goalkicking Picture: Michael KleinSource:News Corp Australia

“I know to the traditionalists it doesn’t look great, but to be honest, I think I have snapped the ball really well. I have barely missed. It might not look amazing but Ill keep doing it because I feel like it’s working for me.”

West Coast spearhead Josh Kennedy won the game for the Eagles against Richmond last Sunday with a long snap from the boundary, and his coach Adam Simpson said his players put in the practice to make it happen.

McKay said he also put in the work, and that’s why he knew what worked best for him and his team.

“I feel pretty comfortable with my goalkicking,” he said.

“There’s been sometimes this year when I’ve missed. In terms of an overall progression over the last couple of years, though, I feel I am in a pretty good space with it.

“You want to kick every shot you get, but the reality is you are going to miss every now and then. The main thing is to put in the work and review it, which I do.”

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