ABSTRACT
Australian Rules football (ARF) is one of the most popular sports in Australia. Integral to ARF is kicking and a desired element of any player’s skill set is the ability to kick the ball long distances. Players who possess the ability to kick the ball longer distances are able to shoot further from the goal and can perform longer passes, increasing the difficulty of defending a particular kick as more options are available. The advantage of longer kicking has game-based statistical support, with Champion data analysis (official statisticians for the AFL) reporting that the number of effective long kicks during a game was the major predictor of score difference between AFL teams (Forbes, 2003).
