The nine greatest purveyors of the long throw-in, including Liverpool ...
A Liverpool coach who Andy Gray criticised and an Arsenal enemy who reduced Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes to tears are long throw-in heroes.
Jason Kissi (Godmanchester Rovers)
A quite phenomenal thrower, you’d think a league club would sign him up just for his throwing ability. He has thrown it into the net from parallel with the penalty area. Imagine having someone who can do that? He sends it arcing over the keeper who’s on the near post.
Rory Delap (Stoke City)
The classic purveyor of the artform. But it was a brilliant agent of chaos when he first deployed it. No-one had a clue how to defend against it. He would throw it to the penalty spot and half a dozen six-footers would charge at it, scare the opposition and bundle it into the net.
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Megan Campbell (London City Lionesses/Ireland)
You don’t need to be a muscle bound monster. She’s quite slight, but my God, she must have perfected the technique as she can throw it with speed and power from the touchline about 25 yards from the dead-ball line, over 40 yards, bouncing once in the six-yard box and into the net.
Dave Challinor (Tranmere)
The original long throw superstar. Defences feared seeing him 25 yards out, drying the ball, ready to hurl one onto Wayne Allison’s head to score. Unlike some, it looked like it took a lot of effort. For years, it elevated him from being a bog standard centre-back. He held the world record. This was 152 feet (46.34 metres) Wow.
Andy Legg (Cardiff City)
Not even famous in his own house. He nonetheless could throw it from one touchline to the other and held the world record for the longest throw, regularly throwing the ball over 30 metres if he was taking a short one and the world record was 44.6 m (48.8 yards) which is ridiculous.
Michael Lewis
I don’t know who he played for – it was an American college team, I think – but he now has the world record of 59.8 metres in Texas and created an elaborate somersault to throw the ball a long way. That’s almost inhuman.
Ian Hutchinson (Chelsea)
Back when Chelsea players wore cravats and were one of the hardest and most successful, winning the FA Cup by beating Leeds, Hutchinson was a secret weapon. Because football wasn’t on the telly much, teams didn’t realise the boy could deploy the technique known as ‘hoying it’. It was his throw that set up the winning goal in that replay for David Webb.
Thomas Gronnemark
A former athlete who has made a career out of being a throw-in coach, working for Liverpool for five years from 2018. He set a new official Guinness World Record for the longest throw-in in 2010, recording a distance of 51.33 metres. The mechanics of the technique is what he concentrates on and he is hugely influential.
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Aron Gunnarsson (Cardiff/Iceland)
He scored their very first Premier League goal in August 2013 against Manchester City. One of the classic long hurlers who was worth his place just for the throw. Also played for Coventry and is now in the Middle East.
