From the ground seems the preference of more established place-kickers, but practise is the key. Seán Moran gets the views of Barney Rock and Colin Corkery

One of the talking points that followed Ray Cosgrove's last-minute free on Sunday was the relative merits of kicking the ball off the ground or from the hands. Cosgrove, like most kickers nowadays, favours the latter option despite indications that the traditional method is better.

One of Dublin's most famous exponents of dead-ball kicking is Barney Rock, who performed that function for the All-Ireland winning team of 1983. Still playing today with his club Garristown, he emphatically prefers the old style.

"It's more accurate and more reliable off the ground," he says. "The ball is a stationary target when you make contact with it. Kicking off the hand and the object is moving. Dedicated kickers nearly always take it off the ground. But the way trends are going, I think we'll hardly see it at all in four or five years."

It was noticeable that Armagh's freetaker Oisín McConville, who has been a dependable kicker for a number of years, takes his shots off the ground.

Cosgrove was of course unlucky because he is one of a modern breed of free takers who adopt the from-the-hand method but would not be regarded as a specialist kicker.

One of the modern game's best free takers is Colin Corkery of Cork. "I think he almost hit it too well," he says of the Dublin free. "I could see exactly what he was doing, putting a curl on it to make sure, but he was unlucky in that it just failed to come in. I probably would have kicked it harder and straighter rather than try to curl it."

Corkery is another who prefers to kick off the ground. "It's more accurate. Talking to other kickers like Maurice Fitzgerald, they'd say the same thing. I think it's as much about the set-up as anything else. The way you set yourself for the kick is important, getting the steps right and the approach to the ball. It's like golf.

"Once you have that done you can practise it until it becomes a routine. Then you don't have to hit the ball so hard either. With a 30-metre free it's easy - just the set-up and making sure the balance is right."

Rock feels that the placed ball also eliminates another distraction of the modern game. "When you put the ball down, you step back and focus on it. The other way you're drifting up to the mark and maybe trying to steal a few yards instead of concentrating on the kick."

Corkery has a refinement to his preparatory technique. Rather than stick with exactly the same routine year in, year out, he varies the approach to maintain concentration.

"Once a routine is established I'll change a number of things. You wouldn't notice from watching me, but I find I have to do it, even if it's just the amount of steps I take on one side. I'll do that every six or eight weeks."

Corkery can understand why Cosgrove and other kickers choose to kick from the hand. "I still do it myself, but people will tell you that Croke Park is too slippery for place kicking so they prefer to kick off the hand. Getting the approach right is all about balance, so when it's wet on top it makes it really difficult to place kick."

By Rock's estimate he used to practise 150 kicks a week. Half an hour before training and half an hour afterwards. Both he and Corkery make the point that it's a lot more time-consuming to line up place kicks as opposed to kicks from the hand. Maybe the additional time involved makes it unattractive to younger players.

"No matter what way you're doing it," says Corkery, "you have to practise. Just because a kicker kicks from the hands doesn't mean he can't practise. If you're not going to practise, forget about it."

Looking back on his career, can Rock recall anything similar to the trauma suffered by Cosgrove? "Yes I can. It wasn't a championship match, but it was my first game for Dublin, against Cork in the League in the winter of 1979. The free was about 21 yards out and the weather was wet and windy. I assumed it was easy, but the kick went about five feet in the air and straight to the goalkeeper."

Corkery, asked the same question, falls silent. "No. Thankfully that's never happened to me."