Jones and Gilbert?

[The Sainter]

Both are playing excellent footy this year as shown by both featuring often in our votes but their one flaw is they can't kick with their right foot. Both are extremely hard at the ball showing no fear but they have to get onto their left foot every time. Gilbert got caught on Monday with the ball because he tried to turn onto his left foot resulting in a free to Collingwood.
Why are they not spending more time at training with coaches throwing the ball to them and making them use only their right feet??? They both would be in our top ten players at the moment but surely someone at the club should try to eradicate this flaw.
As stated they are so important players now to the team and this is not a whinge but just an observation with a couple of other Saint supporters near me at the game saying the same thing.

[perfectionist]

Learning to kick on your other foot is the most difficult thing to do, other than learning to kick for goal. It's a bit like learning a foreign language. A six year old can pick up new language in ten minutes - a twenty six year old almost never can. Anyone who has tried to kick on the wrong foot knows just how unnatural it can feel, and that's without any pressure.

I can only assume that some work goes into this skill. We picked up a two sided player in Farren Ray to add to our list of Leigh Fisher, Lenny Hayes, Steven Baker, Leigh Montagna, Nick Riewoldt, Adam Schneider, Luke Ball, Raph Clarke, Brendon Goddard, Kosi, Nick Dal Santo, Mick Maguire and Stephen Milne (King and McQualter can a bit). So, half our current team can do it - second only to Geelong who, on my count, have at least 14 players with this skill.

The good news is that a couple on my list have developed the skill since they have been with Saints. Sam Gilbert has developed the dodge around - but only a certain number of opponents will fall for that. Despite that, he's playing well. Whilst it would be nice to have 22 perfectly skilled players, it's never going to happen.