Not a bad idea to go back to ai play and really learn all the controls. There’s a lot more depth to them than what most people give it credit for.
As for the kick out, it almost sounds like you’re holding the clearance kick modifier, exactly what you describe happens if you do that. Try to make sure you’re using X and no other kick modifiers other than manual with hud to start with and then go from there.
This game actually works best for the most part with single well timed pushes of the buttons rather than holding them down and mashing them, it took some time for me to adjust to that alone when I started playing AFL 23.
Skeeta’s videos are a great place to start