There is a brutal ritual involving Australian punters that takes place this time of year in Louisiana’s 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 $US3m NFL punting contract with the New Orleans Saints.
This year’s showdown began with Matt Hayball, a former Geelong Cat and the Saints’ 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.
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’s 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.
“It’s the nature of the NFL,” Hayball tells Guardian Australia from a boisterous Saints locker room inside the Ochsner Sports Performance Center in New Orleans. “You’re always competing for your position, and it’s the same for every other player in this building.”
This isn’t Hayball’s 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, American punter Blake Gillikin.
James Burnipgoes through drills during practice at a New Orleans Saints minicamp in Metairie. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP
No NFL team has embraced Australian punters more than the Saints in recent years. They prize their mobility, toughness and versatile kicking skills, honed from years of booting a Sherrin on both feet. Special teams coordinator Phil Galiano even dubbed Hayball “The Aussie Flash” last season after a successful fake punt saw him dash 11 yards for a first down.
Despite the cutthroat stakes, Hayball and Burnip maintain a relaxed camaraderie.
“There’s only going to be one punter at the end of camp, but it’s friendly,” Burnip says. “We still wake up, get a coffee together, eat, and head out to practice. We’re trying to make each other better.”
“James is talented and a good dude,” says Hayball. “It’s a similar situation to last year with Lou. We’re learning from each other while competing. But really, we’re competing against ourselves.”
Hayball and Burnip are graduates of ProKick Australia, the Melbourne-based punting academy that has sent several hundred former Australian rules footballers to play with US colleges.
“Matt was leaving ProKick for the US when I was just starting,” Burnip says. “We kept in touch whenever he came back to Australia.”
James Burnip in Alabama Crimson Tide colours. Photograph: Michael Chang/Getty Images
Like many before them, both endured the heartbreak of seeing their AFL dreams fade. Hayball was raised in Adelaide, played U18s 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’s Vanderbilt University.
Burnip played junior footy in the Riddell District Football League, but when it became clear the AFL wasn’t in his future, he pivoted. “I found ProKick, and the rest is history,” he says.
Burnip landed at US college football powerhouse Alabama in 2021, won the starting job under legendary coach Nick Saban, and became the Tide’s punter for four seasons – although Saban often referred to him as a “rugby player”.
While Hayball enters the Saints camp as the incumbent and having led the NFL last season in punts downed inside the opponent’s 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.
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Hayball is in the second year of a three-year, $US2.84m contract, so has already pocketed close to $US1m. Burnip, undrafted at April’s NFL draft, quickly signed a three-year $US2.975m free agent deal with the Saints. But with just $US35,000 guaranteed, that’s all Burnip will keep if cut later this month.
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.
Matt Hayball kicks for college football team Vanderbilt Commodores. Photograph: Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
They are all well aware of what Saints head coach Kellen Moore and Galiano are looking for.
“It’s about consistency, hang time, distance, direction, getting the ball off quickly, and flipping the field,” Burnip says. “If you can do those things, you’ll have a pretty successful career.”
Hayball says he is “chasing perfection with every punt.”
“Last 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 game changers.”
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.
“I know [Saints kicker Blake] Grupe is into that kind of stuff, so I might tag along next time he goes,” Hayball says.
When asked if Americans might expect him to go full Steve Irwin and jump out of the boat and wrestle an alligator, he grins. “Nah, I couldn’t see myself doing that. Even though our crocs are way bigger in Australia, I still wouldn’t want to share the water with them.”