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Wayward footballer turns to iPod cure

The crowd roars

Australian Rules footballer Sam Reid of the Sydney Swans may turn to technology in an attempt to repair his wayward kicking.

Reid plays as a key forward, a position in which his job* is to launch his 195cm frame over the top of other players, catch the ball and then kick a goal.

Reid's problem is that, in 2012, he's been doing the catching but missing the kicks: just four of his attempts at goal this year have been true, compared with seven misses that scored a point** and three misses that resulted in no score.

As Reid is highly-regarded-and-paid – the Swans just gave him a five year contract, a rarity for a player of his slim experience – his kicking issues are a problem that demands a solution.

The Swans think that solution could come in the form of an iPod that Reid would wear when practicing kicks at training. The soundtrack to practice will be crowd noise recorded at actual matches, to acclimatise the colossal 20 year old to match conditions in the hope that he can be more settled and accurate on game days.

The Swans aren't saying which iPod Reid will use.

And before you dismiss this all as nonsense, the Herald-Sun reports the same ploy has already worked for another player, Collingwood's Travis Cloke.

Despite Reid's woes in front of goal, the Swans have won all five matches this season. ®

Bootnotes

* We're dumbing this down simplifying this grossly for non-Australian readers

** Australian rules has a scoring system of six points for a goal and one point for a miss, provided the miss passes between the goalpost and an adjacent “behind post”. It all makes sense when you see the game, so please spare us your “it's the only game in the world where you get a point for missing” jibes.

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