The Sydney Roosters have a very large problem.
Sam Walker's goal kicking has hit the skids, and not just a little bit. Try to the tune of almost 20 per cent.
Early in the season, it felt like Walker couldn't miss when he stepped up to the kicking tee. He kicked his first seven goals for the season, and had other weeks of 5 from seven, five from sx, nine from eleven and seven from eight.
Through to the end of Round 9, he had kicked 38 goals from 47 attempts at a tick over 80 per cent - a number that is as good as you'll see for most kickers.
But then something changed.
It might be blamed on confidence now, but it wasn't immediately, because it changed overnight, and he suddenly couldn't have hit the side of a barn, much less the middle of the goal posts in a high-pressure situation.
Since Round 10, Walker has played 11 games for the Roosters, and has kicked at 50 per cent or less in 6 of them.
| Round | Goals | Attempts | % |
| 10 | 2 | 6 | 33.33% |
| 11 | 2 | 2 | 100.00% |
| 13 | 0 | 1 | 0.00% |
| 14 | 3 | 5 | 60.00% |
| 15 | 3 | 6 | 50.00% |
| 16 | 3 | 6 | 50.00% |
| 17 | 4 | 5 | 80.00% |
| 20 | 1 | 3 | 33.33% |
| 21 | 3 | 4 | 75.00% |
| 22 | 12 | 13 | 92.31% |
| 23 | 2 | 5 | 40.00% |
The table above shows a statistical breakdown that equals out to 35 goals from 56 attempts at 62.5 per cent. That is a 17.5 per cent drop from the first nine rounds.
Maybe more alarmingly is that he kicked 12 from 13 last weekend against the North Queensland Cowboys in the Roosters' record-breaking rout.
Take that out, and with his pretty awful two from five performance off the boot on Friday evening, he has kicked just 23 from 43 goals for the Roosters since Round 10 at 53.5 per cent.
They are numbers that would get most kickers sacked from the job, and you'd have to think a change isn't that far away for the Roosters either given there are other options in the side.
On a different day, Walker's goal kick,ing could very well have cost the Roosters their Friday night clash with the Bulldogs, and it's not a risk coach Trent Robinson can afford to take as he goes into the finals.
Since 2012, when the McIntyre finals system was thrown out, 48.41 per cent of games in the finals series have been decided by single figures.
That means, odds are, at some point during the finals series, goal kicking is going to become a very real deciding factor.
If you get Walker on a good day, then maybe it won't matter.
Some Roosters fans will argue this is a non-event. They did just beat the Bulldogs without James Tedesco, who with every game he has off looks a more and more important part of this footy side, even at his age and with his career winding down.
But if Walker continues to spray them off the tee, it could cost the Roosters a serious chance to win the Provan-Summons Trophy on the first Sunday in October.
There are signs that Walker still has what it takes. In Origin 1 and 2 he kicked a combined 12 from 12, but then missed all three attempts in Game 3.
In the second half of the year, he does have a 4 from 5 and the aforementioned 12 from 13 against the Cowboys, but the diamond performances are being far outweighed by the rocky ones.
He needs to get it right, and soon.
The Roosters are running out of time before Trent Robinson might just have to pull the trigger on his young halfback and give someone else a go.
