Australians show their punting prowess in the NFL

From the sandlot football fields to NFL stadiums, there is a common cry from players hoping to make their mark on the big stage.

“I’ve always aimed to become the next Peyton Manning.… I’ve always tried to run like Adrian Peterson.… I knew that one day I could catch passes just like Randy Moss.”

And how about this? “I want to be just like Thomas Morstead.… I have always tried to copy the incredible moves of Steve Weatherford.… I always wanted to grow up to be another Mike Scifres.”

Uh … who?

Well, Morstead is the punter for the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. Weatherford punts for one of the current AFC favorites, the New York Jets, recently highlighted on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” television series. And Scifres punts for the San Diego Chargers.

The American dream? Hardly.

Most NFL punters started playing football at other positions and, as the competition increased with each level of play, settled into a kicking position.

Not much has changed over the years for a position player that every coach, teammate and fan hates to see come on the field — “Can’t get a first down, have to bring out the punter.” So, NFL clubs started looking elsewhere to gain a competitive edge; a place where it is illegal to throw the ball in their football games....

Australia.

“Over here you grow up throwing. We grow up kicking,” said Australian Mat McBriar, a Pro Bowl kicker for the Dallas Cowboys. “That is what we do.”

And more are doing it in the NFL.

• Ben Graham, a lefty booter who enjoyed a 12-year career as a forward for the Geelong Cats in the Australian Football League, helped the Arizona Cardinals reach the Super Bowl in 2009 and last season tied an NFL record for most punts inside the 20 (42, tied with San Francisco’s Andy Lee, 2007).

Sav Rocca, a full forward who enjoyed a brilliant AFL career with the Magpies of Collingwood, signed with the Philadelphia Eagles as the oldest rookie in NFL history (33) and is one of the best long-distance kickers in the league.

Darren Bennett, a former Melbourne Demons forward, punted so well for the Chargers that he was named to the NFL’s 1990s All-Decade Team.

Chris Bryan, an ex-Carlton (Melbourne) ruckman, who until recently was punting for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

These Australians didn’t spend their youth dreaming of kicking in the NFL, but they couldn’t dream of not kicking a football.

“Most Americans grow up with the game wanting to be the quarterback or receiver,” Rocca said. “They don’t want to be the punter. We specialize in that. It becomes second nature for us coming over here and doing it.”

Said Graham: “We kick the ball from age 4 or 5. It is natural to us. American college punters have probably punted the ball 50,000 times to get to that level, whereas I have probably punted the ball 500,000 times. It is knowing your way around a football which gets us to a certain point.”

Literally kicking the football on its point is one of the tricks of the trade Australians have brought to the NFL. This technique stops the ball from spiraling and the different spin is apt to make the football land like a golf iron shot on a soft green. Perfect for what the NFL calls “the pooch punt” — when a team tries to position the other near its end zone.

“There is no denying the Australians have changed our game by taking punting to another level,” said Kevin Spencer, special teams coach for the Arizona Cardinals. “And now you have NFL teams sending scouts out there as a result of this success.

“It is obvious they are such good athletes as they have been able to adapt their skills to our sport.”

And Australian football demands different skills. The objective of the game is to score points advancing the ball through the opponent’s goal. The main way to score points is by kicking the ball between the major goal posts.

The primary methods for advancing the football are kicking, handballing (hitting the ball out of one hand with the other hand; similar to an NFL lateral) and running with the ball. A distinctive feature of the game is “the mark,” where players anywhere on the field who catch a ball from a kick are awarded a free kick.

The ability to kick the ball to teammates in the Australian game has been a difference-maker for NFL jobs. Coaches covet punters who can kick directionally and accurately so special-team players can converge on the football, and clubs can keep the ball away from game-breaking returners.

“These Australians have spent their lives kicking to a moving target on the run,” Spencer said. “Ben [Graham] has the ability to place a ball to a moving receiver via punting as if Kurt Warner or Derek Anderson were throwing it on a rope.”

But why make the move to the American game?

“Knowing guys had come here before me and knowing how far they could kick, I didn’t want to look back 20 years and realize I could’ve made it in the NFL, but have regrets not trying,” Rocca said. “That was the reasoning.”

But certainly not the only reason. The average AFL salary is $222,000, while punters/kickers in the NFL make an average of $860,000. McBriar is among the NFL’s highest-paid punters with a five-year, $8.5-million contract. Australians also claim a job as an NFL punter is less taxing on the body, punting is a way to extend their athletic careers and.…

“There is an Australian thing that we will have a go at anything,” Bennett said.

The success of the Aussie kickers in the NFL has not gone unnoticed back home. While not every Aussie teen has the complete skill set to compete in his native sport, those with extraordinary kicking talent can take their abilities elsewhere. Specialized academies such as ProKick Australia and OzPunt in Melbourne are attracting and developing local talent to punt American style. Their success has already garnered more than a dozen scholarships for their prized pupils at American colleges.

And the trend seems to have legs. Cameron McGillivray, founder of OzPunt, keeps a chart of the best young U.S. punters by age, knowing that coaches are looking for those who can consistently punt 40 yards with 4.5 seconds of hang time. One of his students is quickly making the transition.

“Chris McGlade, a 15-year-old local, has only worked out three times with an American football,” McGillivray said, “but he’d be No. 1 in America right now for his age group with the numbers he produced today, which was 4.9 versus the best in America at 4.4.”

The difference doesn’t stop there, since Australians aren’t dreaming to throw like Manning, run like Peterson or catch like Moss.

“Ben [Graham] is really good and getting better all the time with the Cardinals. He has a lot of potential,” McGlade said. “I aspire to have the success Ben has had.”

sports@latimes.com