{"id":114747,"date":"2025-08-03T04:38:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T04:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/114747\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T04:38:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T04:38:12","slug":"cut-throat-nfl-roster-cull-pits-australian-pair-against-each-other-with-millions-at-stake-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/114747\/","title":{"rendered":"Cut-throat NFL roster cull pits Australian pair against each other with millions at stake | NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a brutal ritual involving Australian punters that takes place this time of year in Louisiana\u2019s intense summer heat, near the bayous and swamps that are home to alligators and venomous cottonmouth snakes. It features former Australian rules footballers battling for a single US$3m NFL<\/a> punting contract with the New Orleans Saints.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s showdown began with Matt Hayball, a former Geelong Cat and the Saints\u2019 incumbent punter, against James Burnip, a 198cm rookie from Mount Macedon in Victoria, who just wrapped a standout punting career at the University of Alabama. The Saints complicated the battle this week by signing a third punter, American Kai Kroeger.<\/p>\n

Only one will survive final cuts on 26 August, when NFL teams must slash their training camp rosters from 90 players to 53. The winner will enjoy the spotlight and riches of playing in America\u2019s most popular sports league, while the losers will be unemployed and left with the long-shot hope one of the other 31 NFL teams might need a punter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the nature of the NFL,\u201d Hayball tells Guardian Australia from a boisterous Saints locker room inside the Ochsner Sports Performance Center in New Orleans. \u201cYou\u2019re always competing for your position, and it\u2019s the same for every other player in this building.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t Hayball\u2019s first showdown. Last year he was the rookie and edged out West Australian and Saints incumbent punter Lou Hedley. A year before that, it was Hedley who was the rookie and ousted the incumbent, US punter Blake Gillikin.<\/p>\n

James Burnipgoes through drills during practice at a New Orleans Saints minicamp in Metairie. Photograph: Gerald Herbert\/AP<\/p>\n

No NFL team has embraced Australian punters more than the Saints. They prize their mobility, toughness and versatile kicking skills, honed from years of booting a Sherrin on both feet. Their special teams coordinator, Phil Galiano, even dubbed Hayball \u201cThe Aussie Flash\u201d last season after a successful fake punt saw him dash 11 yards for a first down.<\/p>\n

Despite the cutthroat stakes, Hayball and Burnip maintain a relaxed camaraderie.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s only going to be one punter at the end of camp, but it\u2019s friendly,\u201d Burnip says. \u201cWe still wake up, get a coffee together, eat, and head out to practice. We\u2019re trying to make each other better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayball says: \u201cJames is talented and a good dude. It\u2019s a similar situation to last year with Lou. We\u2019re learning from each other while competing. But really, we\u2019re competing against ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair are graduates of ProKick Australia, the Melbourne-based punting academy that has sent several hundred former Australian rules footballers to play for US colleges.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt was leaving ProKick for the US when I was just starting,\u201d Burnip says. \u201cWe kept in touch whenever he came back to Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Burnip in Alabama Crimson Tide colours. Photograph: Michael Chang\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Like many before them, both endured the heartbreak of seeing their AFL dreams fade. Hayball was raised in Adelaide, played under-18s as a midfielder with the West Adelaide Football Club and was drafted by Geelong in 2015. But after three years playing for the Cats in the second-tier VFL, he was delisted. He joined ProKick, secured a punting scholarship at Florida Atlantic University, and later transferred to Tennessee\u2019s Vanderbilt University.<\/p>\n

Burnip played junior footy in the Riddell District Football League but, when it became clear the AFL wasn\u2019t in his future, he pivoted. \u201cI found ProKick and the rest is history,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Burnip landed at the US college football powerhouse Alabama in 2021, won the starting job under its legendary coach Nick Saban, and became the Tide\u2019s punter for four seasons \u2013 although Saban often referred to him as a \u201crugby player\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Hayball enters the Saints camp as the incumbent and having led the NFL last season in punts downed inside the opponent\u2019s 20-yard line, recent history favours the rookie. The Saints have opted for the rookie punter in each of the last three training camp duels.<\/p>\n

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Hayball is in the second year of a three-year, US$2.84m contract, so has already pocketed close to US$1m. Burnip, undrafted at April\u2019s NFL draft, quickly signed a three-year US$2.975m free agent deal with the Saints. But with just US$35,000 guaranteed, that\u2019s all Burnip will keep if he is cut this month.<\/p>\n

Kroeger, also a rookie, has had a short and tumultuous NFL career. He punted for the University of South Carolina the past four years, also was undrafted in April, was signed by the New York Jets, waived on 27 July and picked up by the Saints four days later.<\/p>\n

Matt Hayball kicks for college football team Vanderbilt Commodores. Photograph: Icon Sportswire\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

They are all well aware of what the Saints head coach, Kellen Moore, and Galiano are looking for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about consistency, hang time, distance, direction, getting the ball off quickly, and flipping the field,\u201d Burnip says. \u201cIf you can do those things, you\u2019ll have a pretty successful career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayball says he is \u201cchasing perfection with every punt\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year I did a good job getting it inside the 20, but this year I want more plays down inside the 10 or five. Those can be gamechangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Hayball wins the job and stays in New Orleans, he has one non-NFL goal: exploring the Louisiana swamps on an alligator sightseeing tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know [Saints kicker Blake] Grupe is into that kind of stuff, so I might tag along next time he goes,\u201d Hayball says.<\/p>\n

When asked if Americans might expect him to go full Steve Irwin and jump out of the boat and wrestle an alligator, he grins. \u201cNah, I couldn\u2019t see myself doing that. Even though our crocs are way bigger in Australia, I still wouldn\u2019t want to share the water with them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is a brutal ritual involving Australian punters that takes place this time of year in Louisiana\u2019s intense…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":114748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-114747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114962989723285222","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}