2026 NRL – The Prospector’s Pickaxe: The game within the game

What has happened to the beautiful winter Queensland weather? It has been replaced by blustery, rainy weather for a full week now. I have had cabin fever, and my mind has been wandering off to all sorts of strange places, like goal posts. Why does a Rugby League field have goal posts at both ends and where do you buy a set of goal posts? I have not seen a “goal posts are us” or a “goal posts galore” in my travels. Why does the game stop and 25 players watch while one player tries to kick a football off a tee through the goal posts? Here is what I have discovered.

The objective of the game of Rugby, in the early years, was not to score tries, but to get the ball to a position where you could kick a goal. Hence the need for goal posts. The crossbar was introduced in the 1830s to make it easier for players to kick goals from further out, without the ball being blocked by their opponents. In 1891, a try was worth 1 point and a conversion was worth 2 points. The scoring used by both Rugby Union and Rugby League have changed several times over the course of time, primarily with the purpose of making tries the highest scoring part of the game. And yes, there are plenty of places that sell goal posts, if you are looking at buying a set.

Now to goalkicking and goalkickers and their importance in the modern game. Last round, the Sharks beat the Knights 20 to 18, despite the Knights scoring four tries to the Sharks 3. The difference was Hynes landing 4 from 4, against Ponga kicking 1 from 4. This is not a regular occurrence, but how often has it happened this season? The answer is four. As well as the Rd 20 match, the Tigers defeated the Eels 22 to 20 in round 5, despite scoring 3 tries to the Eels 4. It happened twice in round 16, the Knights beating the Dragons, 22 to 20, despite the Dragons scoring 4 tries to 3, and the Bulldogs beating the Sea Eagles, 13 to 12, with the Sea Eagles scoring 3 tries to 2. There have been a further 12 occasions where teams have scored the same amount of tries as their opposition but have lost the game, usually to a field goal.

The message is very clear. You need someone in your team who can kick goals. The gold standard in the game this year is Jamayne Isaako at 87%. There are another six kicking at over 80%, in order of current accuracy, Burton, Cleary, Hynes, Meaney, Reynolds and Doueihi. In the 70%, there is Campbell, 79, Holmes, 78, Ponga, 73, Fogarty, 71, Walker, 70 and the last 3 regular kickers, Clifford, 69, Mitchell and Moses, 67. Admittedly, Moses and Mitchell have not played much football and would normally be higher.

When you go back and look at some relatively recent goalkicking legends, the results are quite interesting. El Masri, 82%, Ridge, 80%, Halligan and Thurston, 79%, Jason Taylor, 75% and Andrew Johns, 74%. Goalkicking accuracy has improved since these players were the best in the game. There are good reasons for this, not the least being the number of games played in enclosed stadiums, with kicking tees on good playing services. Players have goal kicking coaches and are full time professionals.

If you went back further, to Cronin, and further back to Simms and Barnes, their percentages would be considerably lower again. This data is not available, not that I can find. You can find out how many goals they kicked, but not their percentages. Mind you, goal kicking was even more important back in the Barnes and Simms era, with the three point try and the two point field goal.

You may have heard the old gag, “What do you call a bloke who hangs around with footballers?” “A winger”. Things have certainly changed, but there was a time when someone who could play on the wing, stay out of trouble, and kick goals was an integral part of the team. Halligan, Conlan and “Chook” Herron are three that come immediately to mind. They were not required to truck it up from the backfield and make 300 metres a game. They had one main job: kick goals.

In summary, it is not always enough to be the best team on the day. You need someone to kick the ball between the posts as well. That is the game within the game. It is unrelated to any other skill you need in the game of Rugby League, but may be the difference between winning and losing. If you go to any country town in NSW or QLD, you will be able to uncover a story about “the day [insert name here] kicked a goal from the sideline to win the grand final. They will probably also have a story about “the day [insert name here] missed a sitter that would have won the grand final”.

Mick Cronin won 4 premierships with Parramatta, but that number could easily have been six, as he missed crucial goals in the grand finals of 1977 and 1984. Sadly for Mick, they are well remembered by the fans, just as much as the four wins. Adam Reynolds missed a kick to level the scores late in the match against Penrith in 2021, and of course, there was the famous Thurston kick that hit the post in 2015. Thankfully for him, it worked out well in the end.

Spare a thought for Don Fox, who has the ultimate horror story relating to goal kicking. The 1968 Challenge Cup Final, known as the “watersplash final” because it was played in atrocious conditions, was played between Leeds and Wakefield Trinity. Trinity scored under the posts, right on fulltime to reduce the Leeds advantage to 11 to 10. As Fox was lining up the conversion, he was announced as the winner of the Lance Todd trophy (equivalent of the Churchill medal). Kick the simple goal and win the cup. Sadly, he slipped, the ball sailed wide of the posts and the referee blew full time. Famed English Rugby League commentator, Eddie Waring, famously remarked, “He’s a poor lad”. Nice one, Eddie.

To all exponents of the game within a game, best of luck. It can be a tough job.

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