When was the last time you saw a dropkick?

Question

I don't mean a dropkick as per most Collingwood supporters - I mean a ball actually being kicked by means of a dropkick during a game.

I can't remember anyone doing one since the late 1970's. Has any player got the reputation as being the last to regularyuse this kick. Or who was the last to use it in AFL/VFL level?

Answer 1

Sam Newman. Biggest drop kick of the modern world

Answer 2

Thats an easy question most people in Victoria are drop kicks??

Answer 3

I don't who was the last to use it but the following website talks about the dropkick in AFL briefly:

Answer 4

i say anyone who sees you is looking at a dropkick

Answer 5

It is a shame that most coaches nowadays don't let players use the dropkick or the stab pass as they were more accurate than the kicking nowadays. The game is all the poorer for the deletion of them. We were taught it at school and used it effectivly for years but the game has been ruined by media nowadays so what can we do but not watch what was the most spectacular sport going.

Answer 6

Everyone has to mention Collingwood in their questions...

To answer your question, I haven't seen a dropkick used before (I am young), but I think the last time they were used was in the 70's. Players still use them in training though.

Answer 7

It must have been in the 70s that, I too, saw my last drop kick - in the VFL-AFL, that is.

In WA, in the Super Rules competition, 9 points is awarded for a goal kicked by a dropkick, if from outside the goal square. A few years back some of the oldies used to use dropkicks in these Super Rules games but they haven't been used in competition games for so long the art has virtually died out - one does not even see them in Super Rules games.

Brian Sarre of Subiaco was the best executioner of the dropkick that I have ever seen.

Answer 8

LOL, as i was in a supermarket today this guy had a collingwood scarfe on,he certainly looked like a dropkick seeing he was wearing on a monday.

I see people doing now and again, but it's really rare today.

Answer 9

the last dropkick I saw was you, in the other question you have posted.

Answer 10

I've never actually seen a proper drop kick, only the occasional accidental drop that they get their foot to!

Answer 11

I believe that the drop kick and the stab pass died out (or rather coaches insisted that they not be used) because they allowed longer for an opponent to effect a tackle and it was deemed less reliable in accuracy when shooting for goal. I remember hearing stories of players in the VFL (pre AFL obviously) being dragged from the ground for using drop kicks and stab passes as it was against team rules.

It is all a pity because a perfectly executed drop kick and stab pass was a joy to see. In theory, a perfectly executed drop kick should travel further than an equally perfectly executed any other sort of kick because the ball has upward momentum after hitting the ground.

The drop kick that used to be used in Australian Rules was different to the drop kick used in both forms of Rugby as the aim in Australian Rules was mainly to get distance rather than ball hang-time or getting it over the bar or kicking it out of play. In the Rugby codes the drop kick is generally performed with a "hooking" motion of the leg whereas I always remembered that in Australian Rules the leg generally followed straight through in the line in which the kicker was running.

May be one of the trial rules that the AFL could use in the pre-season competition is allowing more points for a goal scored with a drop kick (eg 7 points for a dropped kick goal inside the 50 metres and 10 points for one from outside the 50 metre arc). I don't know how the goal umpire might signal it though.

Answer 12

Yes, its seems a long time since anyone has used a dropkick in aussie rules.  I think some Carlton player used to do it way back, from what I remember.  They use them often in rugby league and union.  

I think they were wiped out because they were unreliable, unlike the punt kicks of today.

It would be a great sight to see a "dropped goal" in aussie rules!

Answer 13

Well I am a Swans supporter and thought Barry Hall was a bit of a "drop kick" on Saturday night the way he carried on giving away free kicks and getting a bit aggro towards Waiklin.

I doubt if modern players even know how to do a drop kick.  I think drop kicks started to die out in the 1970's.

Picked this up from a website:

1943

22/5/43 Fred Hughson (Fitzroy Full Back) kicked a world record drop kick of 89 feet 11 inches at the half time interval of a VFL game against Sth Melbourne at the Brunswick St Oval. The competition was organised with the American army and two players from Fitzroy and Sth Melb matched their kicking skills against an American soldier William Jost, who threw an American football. Hughson established an official and recognised world record. (Bugger!!! they were playing the Swans!!)

Fitzroy play in the finals for first time since 1924 reaching the Preliminary final. Fitzroy runners up in the Lightning Premiership.

Answer 14

Barry Cable (North Melbourne) & Kevin Morris (Collingwood) both used dropkicks in the late seventies & early eighties.

The last one I ever saw was done by Kevin Morris in his final year at Collingwood (1981) at Victoria Park. It went at least 60 metres and was dead accurate.

They are a sensational kick, but the boots that they wear these days dont allow you to execute them properly.

Answer 15

I saw a few dropkicks driving home from work tonight in the rain ... must be nice to be able to lose traction with all the power of a Corolla on a slimy road!  

But the dropkick died out in the early 80's from AFL/VFL.  The reason was not accuracy or distance as it was always the most accurate of the kicks (done well).  The reason is purely the time for it to get to the ground and even if it bounced just a little before kicking the umpires would deem it to be 'dropping the ball'.

It's a shame because a well executed drop kick was great to watch and still holds the official record for distance to goal.  I think it was 93 yards (or about 85 metres!!).  For the record I think it was a Carlton player.

Answer 16

Yesterday when my boys were playing around at the park!