Have you guys actually tried throwing balls into those goals, it really looks pretty easy to me, you have a huge backboard, and a big hoop. Plus it's hardly like shooting from half court. what about wheeling the little goal up to the plexiglass, and just plopping them over the top? I hardly think this is a challenge reserved for basketball players. The woman shooting balls into the stationary goal during the kickoff demonstration practically had a 95% success rate- practice makes perfect. Just build a goal, assign a human player, and get him/her to practice 24-7.
One of the problems with past games, is that many robots relied on their ability to hinder another team's efforts, for example, ramming a robot who is trying to stack, having a tug of war over a goal. a perfect example would be a ramp-blocking robot from last year. I think the goaltending rule is designed to allow the robots/humanplayers to "do their thing" and show their abilities so to speak. I don't really know why you would want to block their goal, because don't you want to have the closest score possible? As far as goal tending by placing a ball on a goal, wouldn't that be undesireable, because it would just increase their score?
I myself could care less about goaltending, as far as I'm concerned, it wouldn't have much affect on the outcome. As for the interperetations of the rules- What is your intent? is it to block balls from entering the goal? if yes, then NO it is not allowed! Just think- what are you trying to accomplish? Is it in the spirit of the game?
