A question for Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Corey Mace:

How long can his CFL team endure having a kicker who is struggling from beyond 40 yards?

“I don’t know, man,” said Mace, coach of the reigning Grey Cup champions, during his post-practice media scrum Tuesday at Mosaic Stadium. “People would say our kicking was a struggle last year and it ended up OK for us.

“We’ll see, man. You know, obviously with (Riders rookie kicker Alex Hale), we’ve got faith in the kid. He’s done some really good things for us in his totality of stuff. But he’s gotta make his kicks.

“That’s just everybody doing their job and he knows that. It’s no secret. But I know he’s working his tail off at it, so we’ll keep rolling.”

There were no new kickers at Tuesday’s workout, when the Roughriders resumed practising following a 28-26 road victory three days earlier against the first-place Edmonton Elks.

Hale missed a 42-yard field goal in Edmonton. Twice after touchdowns the Roughriders attempted two-point conversions rather than letting Hale kick 32 yards for singles.

The decisions were strategically sound based on the scoreboard in each situation, but it led to another question:

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Has Hale’s performance made Mace change his in-game strategies?

“I know what it looks like, but some of these games have been a little bit crazy,” said Mace, before referring specifically to an into-the-wind, 42-yarder Hale missed that was returned 120 yards for a touchdown.

“I think I learned. That one in Calgary that burned us before the half, that was my fault. I shouldn’t send him. The conditions were terrible.

“That alone has made me think about certain things, just kind of what’s happening as far as the conditions in the game on top of a bunch of other things like, we’ve got a really good punter. We’ve been able too keep guys down there. Our cover teams are good. Sometimes we’ve gone for it. Our offence looks good.

“So yeah, there’s a lot of factors that go into it. It’s not strictly just sending the kicker out there. It’s more the decisions I’ve made in the past that weren’t very smart, that hurt the team on my behalf.”

Hale has made only one of five attempts beyond 40 yards. A 20 per cent success rate.

Every other CFL kicker has made at least five field goals from beyond 40 yards and none are below 60 per cent accurate from that distance.

Hale’s 70.6 per cent overall accuracy rate is the lowest among the CFL’s current kickers. He has made 11 of his 17 field-goal attempts heading into Friday’s game against the winless Ottawa Redblacks.

Ottawa recently re-signed Lewis Ward, who has a career accuracy rate of 86.5 per cent.

Ward is replacing injured kicker Brett Lauther, a longtime Rider who was waived by Saskatchewan in the off-season after making 72.2 per cent of his field goals in 2025.

Lauther’s career with the Riders culminated in a 25-17 Grey Cup victory over the Montreal Alouettes, which included a missed 39-yard, fourth-quarter field goal.

Lauther is 20-for-20 kicking field goals this season.

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The Roughriders could have signed Ward.

Or they could have kept returnee Michael Hughes, who didn’t miss a kick for the Riders last season while Lauther was on the injury list.

Or they could have kept Jonathan Kim, who looked impressive during training camp.

Hughes and Kim were surprisingly waived during the pre-season.

The Roughriders instead chose to keep Hale, an Australian who fills a mandated roster spot for a Global player, rather than retaining one of his American counterparts.

It was a questionable decision then. It’s even more questionable now.

One more question for Mace:

Are the Riders thinking of bringing in another kicker?

“You always look at all those different options,” said Mace. “We’ll see, but ultimately we’re gonna have to send somebody out there to get the job done and, right now Alex has been there and doing that.

“I’m going to have faith in him to do that. If we chose to bring somebody in for competition, you know we’ll always do what’s best for the team. But Alex is more than capable of doing it. We’ve seen it.”

Hale also averages a league-low 62.3 yards per kickoff.