By Ian Ransom
(Reuters) – Less than three months after former rugby league player Jordan Mailata barged his way to Super Bowl glory with the Philadelphia Eagles, Australians will watch the NFL draft with interest to see where the next homegrown talent might emerge.
Australia has a long history of producing NFL punters, with their dominance in college football becoming contentious.
But offensive tackle Mailata has shown Aussies can thrive in other positions, having become the nation’s first to play in a Super Bowl win during the Eagles’ triumph over Kansas City.
Mailata’s ascent to the pinnacle of the game was big news in Australia where contact sports, Australian Rules football and rugby league, reign supreme in a crowded market.
Fans will also follow Jordan Petaia’s progress as the rugby union international strives to make the grade at the Los Angeles Chargers after signing a contract with them.
Like Mailata, former Wallabies centre Petaia, seen as a potential tight end by the Chargers, earned his chance after going through the NFL’s International Player Pathway (IPP) training programme.
A number of Australians will hope to join Mailata and Petaia with NFL contracts after the 90th draft in Green Bay, Wisconsin, but the biggest chances may have to wait until late in the three-day event when teams top up their punters.
Melbourne native Alex Mastromanno has been linked with the Denver Broncos after being named in the College Football All-America Team in 2024 following his strong season in his senior year at Florida State.
James Burnip, another Melbourne man who punted for Alabama University, has also generated draft buzz along with Florida Gators punter Jeremy Crawshaw and Vanderbilt’s Jesse Mirco.
All four were trained at ProKick Australia, a specialist kicking academy in Melbourne that transforms local footballers into elite punters.
Some 25 ProKick graduates are coming out of U.S. colleges this year and many will have fingers crossed during the draft, said the academy’s founder and coach Nathan Chapman.
“It’s been a big year. Hopefully someone will get drafted,” Chapman told Reuters.
ProKick Australia has a high hit-rate of putting mature-age Australians into U.S. colleges on sports scholarships, which critics have branded unfair on younger American athletes.
One disgruntled American parent has led a class action against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), alleging the body disproportionately favours international athletes over domestic ones.
There is unlikely to be much complaint, however, if hulking Australian Laki Tasi gets drafted or picked up as an undrafted free agent in the following days.
Seen as a potential defensive linesman and lacking a professional sporting background, Tasi trained with Petaia at the NFL’s Asia Pacific Academy in Australia before heading to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida in January for the IPP’s 10-week training programme.
Though much heavier than Petaia, he has plenty in common with the Queenslander, sharing Samoan heritage and a childhood in rugby-mad Brisbane.
“He’s probably the most intriguing that’s draft-eligible to me,” NFL Academy head Will Bryce told Reuters.
“He’s 6’6”, he’s 300-plus pounds, he’s powerful, big lower body, thick hips. There’s some potential there.
“Just hearing how he hit the bag on that IPP pro day was violent and it was different to everyone else.”
MELBOURNE CLASH
While Mailata’s success helped inspire Petaia and Tasi’s NFL bids, American football will enjoy another spur in Australia next year when the NFL plays its first game in the country at the 100,000-seat Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The regular-season game will feature the Los Angeles Rams as the designated home team in a matchup that will most likely be the season-opener for both teams.
Chapman, a former professional Australian Rules footballer who punted for the Green Bay Packers in a few pre-season games, said the Melbourne clash would be another shop window for the sport and the Australian talent dreaming of NFL careers.
“I think there’s talent here in Australia in a number of positions,” Chapman told Reuters.
“There’s an excitement that more players want to get involved which opens up the talent pool.
“Getting a game here will create more buzz and also allow coaches to expand their networks and knowledge about what is actually here.”
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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