Goalkicking is Tippett's focus
Adelaide forward Kurt Tippett says he is determined to improve his kicking for goal in 2011 after a frustrating season in front of the big sticks
Tippett booted two goals against St Kilda at AAMI Stadium on Saturday to take his season tally to 46 - ranked 12th in the AFL.
The 23-year-old’s two miraculous goals, which both came in the final quarter, helped make amends for his three misses from set shots earlier in the game.
The 200cm Queenslander has struggled with goalkicking accuracy this season.
He has the worst conversion rate (48.94 per cent) of any of the league’s top 12 scorers, with the exception of wayward Hawthorn full-forward Jarryd Roughead (46.64 %) and Craig said it was important the basketball convert improved his goalkicking.
“We need to do some work with Kurt so over the summer because he just gets too many opportunities and he’ll continue to get opportunities because he’s such a great competitor and mark of the ball,” Craig said
“He’s going to get a lot of opportunities to kick a lot of goals, so we’ve got to make sure he has the tools to do that. At the moment he knows they are a bit shabby, but I love the way he keeps fronting up.”
Tippett has been battling knee tendonitis but he said his technique was predominantly to blame for his goalkicking troubles.
“My goalkicking is a work in progress and something that I’m very aware of. Everyone keeps reminding me about it and I’m lucky because lots of people have been giving me advice on the street as well,” Tippett said.
“I’ve got to get my body right and give myself the best chance to kick the goals. My technique is always evolving. It’s changed every year, so I need to settle on something and get that set in stone.
"I don’t think it’ll be too hard to do…I’ll just need to kick thousands of balls over the summer.”
Tippett’s two goals helped seal Adelaide’s 28-point win against the Saints.
The game marked the end of the careers of Andrew McLeod, Simon Goodwin, Brett Burton and Trent Hentschel and Tippett said it was great the quartet was able to go out on a high note.
“We were playing for them today, but we were also playing for ourselves,” he said.
“We wanted to celebrate their careers and let them go out with a bang, but we also wanted to prove ourselves as up-and-coming youngsters.”