Essendon goal kicking coach Matthew Lloyd believes Joe Daniher will be a ‘very good kick’ for the remainder of his career after spending the off-season working on a new technique.
Lloyd has worked intensively with five players including Daniher throughout the pre-season to improve their accuracy in front of goal.
The 20-year-old had a goal kicking accuracy of 45 per cent in 2014 booting 28 goals in his 21 matches.
“I am confident he is going to have days where he kicks four and five straight,” Lloyd said.
“I am not saying it will be where he goes from 45 per cent over his career and suddenly jumps to 65%. 20 per cent won’t happen straight away.
“By the end of the year people should say Joey is a very good kick for goal and he is only going to get better.
“I think he will be a very good kick throughout his career from this point on.”
The goal-kicking champion said it was Daniher that had impressed him most since he started working at the club in November.
“What has been good about Joe is that he has had to make the biggest changes,” Lloyd said.
“He has had to make four or five changes with where I thought he could improve and that is huge for a player.
”You can’t do it in season, you have to do it in the off season when you are not under the pressure of a match day.
“He has been fantastic, he is a very coachable kid,”
Patrick Ambrose, Shaun Edwards, Michael Hurley and Jake Carlisle have all benefited from the wisdom of Lloyd throughout the pre-seaosn.
“I feel technically they are all pretty sound now, they all know their routines, they all know why they miss and how they need to adjust if they have missed one,” he said.
“It is about building that match day pressure, building the fatigue like they would in a game at training to give them as much preparation for the season as possible.”
Lloyd said it was the way the players had adapted to the changes in routine that had impressed him most.
“What I have loved is that these guys have kicked in a certain way for their whole career and so trying to adapt to those changes that I have asked for have been pretty tough,” he said.
“Some have taken longer then others but they are all pretty settled now on their routine because they are happy and see it works.
“Now it is just about being clear headed and adapting to it come game day and sticking to it throughout the season.”