Why Rogers wants to see designated kickers brought into the NRL

SEN’s Mat Rogers has suggested a bold new idea for the NRL to take a page out of the NFL’s book and introduce a designated player for kicking goals.

The former cross-code star had the lightbulb moment after listening to an interview with Seinfeld creator Larry David, who stated his disdain for kickers in the NFL for having such a major impact on the outcome of games despite essentially not playing the game.

Finding plenty of truth in this statement, Rogers pleaded his case for the idea to make its way into the NRL to put pressure off the players on the field.

“I love the NFL… Imagine if in the NRL we had that style, you just had a kicker who came on an kicked goals,” Rogers told SEN 1170 Sportsday.

“If that was the case the Warriors play finals this year, without a doubt, there was three distinct games where they lost purely based on goal kicking and they were five points out of the (top) eight.”

“We are dictated to by networks when we can play certain games and certain times.

“The reason why is because of advertising, they want eyes on but imagine if you just had a kicker who came out after you scored a try, the kicker comes on after you get a penalty, kicker comes on.”

Rogers then digressed into the next step of his idea, questioning how much a designated kicker would be paid.

The average salary for a kicker in the NFL in 2023 was $USD 2.26m, whilst the median amount for a running back was well short of that at $USD 1.81m.

“What would you pay them?” Rogers added.

“What is a kicker worth, if you had Hazem El Masri, what’s he worth?”

El Masri is widely seen as the game’s greatest kicker, finishing his storied career with 891 goals in 1087 attempts at 81.97 per cent – whilst also holding the record for the most consecutive kicks in the modern era with 35.

“I just think, imagine if Nathan Cleary, all he had to worry about is focus on footy,” Rogers continued.

“Like if he didn’t have to spend four to five hours a week practicing his goal kicking, he just focused on playing footy because that’s what we love watching him do.”