So a lot of people have pointed out that AFL rules are very different than Rugby rules, I’ll admit I am actually ignorant to rugby rules and was mostly alluding to the similarity of being able to pick the ball up with their hands, the ability to kick the ball, and the general oblong shape of the ball. Didn’t mean to offend any Rugby or footy players! Hope you can enjoy the video nonetheless!
In fairness, apart from some mixing up the rugby/Aussie rules stuff (almost equivalent to a felony in some parts here) your analysis of some the key aspects of our game relevant to US football is really impressive. Especially highlighting the switch from long kicks to shorter, lower, faster accurate kicks under pressure is something many aussies don’t even appreciate yet. On ya m8 👍🏼
The ‘spiral’… nah you mean the ‘torpedo’, most got an extra 10-20meters compared to the drop punt, but the punt had better accuracy for most players, some couldn’t kick straight at the best of times.
Every video on AFL made by Americans has hoards of Aussies in the comments acting like know it alls, they'll even say silly stuff like "Aussie rules is more like cross country basketball than rugby..." I thought your comparisons were fair, in the grand scheme of sports.
In Australia we are taught multiple different types of kicks. running and stationary. Drop kicks, Drop punts, Torpedos, Barrels, Snaps, Toe pokes, Stabs and even the legendary fabled Bannana kick. all can be done on the run.
@Lord_SpiderMonkey_AttackI’m not sure wat you mean BUT if you are alluding to Addie Betts checkside from the pocket. Then you praised the wrong man. Peter Daicos is the magician and now we watch his sons, Josh and Nick take it to another level. The Daicos clan, I🫡YOU…..
@@nevmat1595Read Jack Dyers book Captain Blood mate... In the 30s Richmond recruited Jack Broadstock from West Adelaide, he was using the checkside back then, as were others.
AFL basically teaches you how to be a punter, a kicker, a tight end, a wide receiver, a running back, a cornerback a safety, and a basketball player all in one. You develop these skills all at the same time and always without protective equipment. It’s a great game to watch, a great game to play, and a great game for giving you 2 torn ACL’s and a shoulder Reconstruction before you’re 40 😂
Mate i knew my shoulder reco was coming when I dislocated my shoulder the first time mid game and popped it back in lol I wasn't even in pain I was more pissed off it happened during footy lmao
No, AFL does NOT prepare players for any other position in American Football other than punter. The only Australians to play in the NFL in other positions other than punter have obviously come from a league background.
As a young kid in Australia, I remember a new kid from USA joined our school. We welcomed him in and then headed you to play footy at lunch as usual. As soon as someone kicked the ball this kid from the USA said (with thick American accent) "WOOOAAAH, you can kick further than I can throw!!" and just seemed in awe. The rest of us Aussie kids just looked at him confused because of course you can? It's a moment that has always stuck with me of an example of the bias people can have based on the environment they grew up in. Anyway by the end of the year we had that kid kicking the ball better than I ever did because I was always terrible at AFL.
That’s awesome. Literally every American I’ve seen talk about AFL has nothing but good things to say about it, and its cool seeing people outside of Australia interested in it
Imagine any person on the planet thinking their arm could launch a sherrin as far as Ben Graham, the rocca brothers or even a standard running mid could. The only reason an Aussie is there is to get paid bulk for a few minutes of work. Imagine wearing pads after growing up playing footy 😂
As an Aussie, I’ve been watching NFL since the early 80s when we’d be lucky to get 1 game a week at some ungodly hour in the morning. Really great job showcasing the rising influence of our boys over there. Interestingly, Aussie Rules has been poaching Irish talent from Gaelic Football for 20+ years and more recently trying to get some US college kids to try their hand at our game. This weekend, your Mason Cox goes to the Grand Final as quite the trailblazer and success story. Great vid!
Jim Stynes in 87 would be nearly 40 years ago (shit I'm old!). I don't recall NFL in the 80s - Don Lane in the 90s on Tuesday Nights (tapes flown by jet from the US and you'd only get the score of Monday Night Games) - at first I watched the Saturday afternoon repeat and then not very alert Wednesday mornings at school from Sep - Dec. Mum came back from the US with Cowboys shirts years earlier and when I was in the US in early 92 I was in a shop considering switching allegiance to the Oilers (Warren Moon run and shoot). At least in the 90s I was rewarded for staying faithful. In an example of a different time.. My brother rang one of those $5/min numbers in the back of the Yellow Pages to get the score of the 1996 NFC championship game to see if it was worth staying up for - he said something about the AFC game being close and might be a good watch - little did we know! Darren Bennett sort of put an end to the Don Lane golden years - Aussie punters drew interest from Eddie McGuire and Ch 9 got a hold of it for a bit before you needed PayTV.
I was looking for the comment saying this. They move of Irish players to AFL is very similar of Australians to NFL. I wonder if there is space there for Gaelic Footballers to transition to NFL. I'd imagine, though not really identical, that growing up with an oval ball smooths that out a lot from AFL to NFL and Gaelic seems to be more reliant on small passes with a circular/heavier ball from the absolute bare minimum I've watched. Still a lot of kicking under pressure in Gaelic though.
Something you forgot to mention was after Bennet and Rocca kicked the ball they became a defensive player. Both weighed more than 100kg. If they tackled you, you stayed tackled, if you could still breath. There is a lot of footage of this.
@@shadoww7301 spot on. The average player will run anywhere from 10-20km per 3 hour game. For full contact sport, nothing comes close to the levels of fitness required.
Great video buddy. Well put together. Just a few corrections... A: The rules & running patterns of Aussie Rule Football (or AFL) have almost no similarities to Rugby. B: AFL was definitely not evolved from Soccer (Or world Football) at all, In-fact, the codification of AFL in 1858 predates the codification of Premier League Football. & C: The number of passes in a game of AFL heavily outweighs the number of passes in an NFL game.. One quarter of AFL Football would easily have more passes than an entire NFL game..
@@BUZDRIFT without question it's stamina and intellect both sports require game IQ, but jesus i will never get over at how insane AFL games get with players running around to always get in ideal positions AND NOT lose themselves out of stamina and yeah i'm australian myself, watched a bulldogs vs dockers game in marvel stadium
slight correction,The conept of afl [like how the game work and played] where very popular for the ATSI people, it was a common past time, correct me, but the earlyest signs of afl were from 1500,ie very old assie,other than that your entire thing is correct.[and anyways nfl is younger than Afl
@@l8adam It's correct in the sense that the indigenous game called marngrook was said to have inspired Aussie Rules in some part. It definitely pre-dates the inception of Footy, but no idea on the dates.
Aussies are born and brought up with it it's in their genes in sure Americans are good at it but it's like would I choose a American who's played NFL his whole career or someone from France who's played it for couple years
Mate, absolutely your best video on the topic to date. You covered everything excellently, and the fans will appreciate the time you took to make a good 10+ minute video. I really hope your work starts getting picked up by others.
@@IsaacPuntsit’s rare to see a good cross-cultural comparison, with a ton of raw footage from NFL, AFL and maybe there was some NRL in there amongst some soccer. Normally the only kind of conversation that includes more than one kind of “football” is a shouting match where nobody respects anything the other side enjoys. All feels like religion to me. This video is a breath of fresh air, away from that.
As an Australian i truly feel so so much respect for our game and our craft on your behalf so cheers mate ! We love Aussie rules footy and if anyone is interested our version of the Superbowl is this weekend coming ❤
Fascinating video - as an Aussie who is still learning how NFL works, this explains a lot to me, thank you! And AFL has changed from my youth, when we used to have dominant forwards able to kick from a long way out in the 70s and 80s but nowadays they're a rarity owing to the changes you mentioned. If you've never seen a highlight reel of Gary Ablett (Geelong Cats), do yourself a favour and find some here on YT. He and his son are probably two of the best AFL players of all time.
Tony Modra & Barry Robran (who Leigh Matthews clapped one day in a state game, he was that dominant).. Dunstall, Lockett, Kennedy, Buddy there's mobs. There's still plenty of snags kicked from 50+...it's just that the games gotten faster, so kicking to the top of the square or 20-30 out has a higher % of conversion to goals. Same reason the drop kick, stab pass, screwy or torpedo punt went out of the game. Go watch 60s or 70s footy nowhere near the amount of hand passing as today, cos it's quicker
Dude you forgot that the CFL employs Aussie punters too. The ones that wash out in the NFL come to Canada to kick in the 3 Down league The recent CFL Global draft had half of Aussie punters taken in the first round. The Aussies say that the CFL's wider and longer game is more conducive to their style than in the NFL shorter field. Make a video on the impact Aussie punters had on the CFL. We play football up here too
Cracking video. Well done Isaac. Highly recommend attending an AFL game if you are ever in Australia. There is so much that happens off-camera in a game which makes it a completely different spectacle to watching on TV.
Ha, no, not these days. Player movement mainly. Being at the game allows you to see the player who has read the game about 3 kicks before everyone else and charges half the length/width of the field to be in the right spot. You don't see this on TV.
By the way, this Saturday is AFL grand final day and there's a yank (Aussie slang for US ciitizens) playing. His name is Mason Cox, he's a Texan, he's playing for Collingwood, and I think he came across from basketball.
Interesting video Isaac Have found myself in the stands in NFL a number of times wondering why most punters can't adapt to pressure and why they just don't get AFL players. While living in Cali often went out to kick the footy with Aussie friends at local grounds, we were often approached by school coaches about our kicking which is as natural to us as American kids throwing the ball
In fairness, there are the following football codes in Australia: • Australian Rules [AFL] • Rugby League [NRL] • Association Football [A-League] • Rugby Union • International Rules [AFL/Gaelic Hybrid] Yes, Gridiron is also a code here albeit minor like International Rules.
This was a really well done video. What I remember about Bennett is he lit a couple guys up on returns. Houston punter Laine Wilkins is another Aussie. His first year he only had 5 punts returned. None of them were for positive yardage. Also, people need to watch Footy, it is the best.
Darren Bennett i loved him in the AFL and at the chargers I got told once that he punted the ball from one end of the field into the grandstands at the other when he got asked how far he could actually kick the ball and then he got told don't do that in a game because it's to far 🤣 what a legend to me he is anyway 😃👍
Good analysis of Aussie rules in regards to goal kicking. BTW I saw Darren Bennet play his first game of senior WAFL footy here in 1982. He was only 16 and I knew he'd be a star. Going to the NFL was another thing.
6:57 I remember watching that game, specifically that play. It stuck in my mind because of the way the punter took down the returner. Clearly it was unusual at the time.
For years the cats trip home from Melbourne was a sad one I remember signs over the Prince's Highway near Laverton, Always the bridesmaid never the bride 😆 they eventually got that monkey of their back though.
Bloody Cats! If you weren't such a respectable team I'd have to say something nasty. Something like I'd say to Collingwood supporters😂 🐅 🐯 Yellow & Black!!!
Fantastic work Isaac - thank you. As an Aussie Dad whose son is currently playing D1 footy I can vouch for the effectiveness of the ProKick program. There are 3 other things I think Aussie punters bring to American footy: 1.Vision - our footy fields are sooooo much bigger than yours. When I first stood on an American footy field (in Oz) I was shocked at how small the field was. Given Aussies move from large to small fields gives them an advantage in seeing who is where on the field and will influence where they place the ball. 2. The banana kick - your video showed many examples of this kick in Aussie footy, especially shots on goal from tight angles. This kick is being used really effectively in college footy. For example, my son used this in 3 consecutive games to create a muffed punt which was recovered by his team. The "banana" is a difficult punt to catch. 3. Tackling - this is a feature of our game and Aussie punters are not afraid to tackle any returner who might break through. You might remember Mitch Wishnowsky (49ers) pancaking some poor bugger not too long ago. Love your channel mate and wish you continuing success!
@@matthias8161 AFL /= soccer or ruby. AFL is the oldest codified* sport on the world ruclips.net/video/XMZYZcoAcU0/видео.html ruclips.net/video/u_SqfNNfhmM/видео.html for introductions to the best sport in the world :)
Gaelic football is what popularised rugby in Ireland, which they brought over and created AFL with a mix of it and the aboriginal game marngrook. Thats what I was taught as a kid.
And it's mostly myth, based on hearsay and conjecture, and combined with an anachronistic understanding of all those sports at the time of the codification of Aussie Rules.
@@BrandonjSlippingAway not true.Thomas Will's grew up watching native Australians playing Marngrook! That's what he put a set of rules to! His story says so!
@@R-vl9ue Yeah but nah. That is just conjecture and not supported by anything except people projecting assumptions onto the man based on the fact he spent time with indigenous people as a child. 1) He was only one of about five people that crafted the original X rules of the Melbourne Football Club, and not the only person with a say. 2) Marn Grook was essentially like all forms of mob football, it had a loose goal but not strict rules. It was characterised by trying to keep the ball up in the air. Early Aussie rules did not look like this, and it took about 20 years to become more of an aerial game, by then Wills' days involved with football was well over. 3) The ball spent a lot of time on the ground in the original rules because it was illegal to pick it up, you could only catch it out of the air if the situation arose. 4) The game of Australian football, while fairly unique today, did not have rules that were radically different to games being played in Britain at the time. The style of Sheffield football for instance, who contributed the corner kick to the FA, also had a mark rule very similar to early Aussie rules. Eventually Sheffield was folded into the FA like all the other independent schools and clubs, and the ones who weren't fell under the RFU. 5) Wills was just more familiar with contemporary British sports culture in general, because he was football captain at Rugby school. And while it's true he didn't think the game in its entirety suited Australian conditions, it still occupied a space in his mind, and he pushed to implement things from it to Australia. Two of these was moving to an oval ball (which he was successful with), and the other was adding a crossbar (which he wasn't).
@@BrandonjSlippingAway well of course the rules were changing their been evolving to this day. But their is no conjecture that when he put those rules down in 1854 he had Marngrook as observed as a child part of his mind set for his version of it with other influences of Rugby from his days at school in England! He must have the Mark's catching no offside. You can see it?
AFL has almost nothing in common with Rugby. Rugby is essentially American Football without the body armour and not being allowed to pass the ball forward. Aussie Rules is a Very different sport.
6:04 Seeing Jezza Cameron from the Geelong Cats (my team and one of my fav players) kick a that ripping goal from the boundary as an Aussie on an American vid makes me smile from ear to ear. CARN THE CATTAS
Another key to the Aussie takeover of the kicking game is that these guys coming from Australia are older and have REAL experience compared to an 18-year-old kid. Here comes a grown ass man at 6'2 200lbs, 3 years of semi-pro or better experience, and a full beard...trying out against a 5'10 160lbs, pimple-faced soccer player who moved out of his parent's place a week ago.
A lot of us Aussies are great kicks because all we used to do in the cool months all through our youth was kick-to-kick with friends, not long after we start walking. Some of the earliest photos of me are of me kicking a football. 😄 Many days, we'd kick the ball all afternoon until it was so dark that the ball started hitting us in the face .🙂.. Then I'd practice little kicks to myself for hours while sitting on the couch.
BRILLIANT BRILLIANT analysis Mr. Punts! As an Australian Rules Football tragic (born and bred in Ulverstone, Tasmania) and two year resident of Pittsburgh (Go Steelers!) your analysis and understanding of BOTH codes is AMAZING!!! Great video. I have subscribed!!!
I have helped coach punters as well as kickers at the high school level and have always taught the spiral. A few years ago I started teaching an Aussie style kick only in short yardage punts to keep the ball going into the endzone. I never considered teaching Aussie style punts with a rollout because I didn't think it was worth the time. Now after watching this video it has me questioning why this method is still rare at the lower level. It's genius if the return team doesn't bring enough players to block the punt, and it allows the coverage team a ton of time to get down the field. It also makes it so you can play mind games with the return guy.
@@thatgnaralooguy In the US, most sports fans don't even care about AFL. They all care about American football, basketball, and baseball as their top sports. I have brought up how crazy AFL can be to several Americans and they don't even want to talk about it. In their opinions nothing will be better than American football.
@@erics607 that's a sad way to look at it, given that america still has a ton to learn from other styles of techniques across all sports it will take time to break that sporting ignorance, but stuff like this and ur mindset changing are prime examples of the gradual integration of international techniques and styles being integrated deeper into the american sports phenomena dope
@@The_Jazziest_Coffee I've always been intrigued by the punting/kicking aspects of American football, and there are a lot of American coaches who don't care about that aspect of the game because it's not as exciting to them. I on the other hand love it because it can cause a lot of issues for opposing teams since they're not used to seeing it. In the US, if you want to run a fake punt, the coach has to tell the players they're going to run a fake punt. With the Aussie style, the player can decide to fake it whenever he wants to, but most American's think the players are told to do that. A lot of American football coaches are extremely stubborn when it comes to change, so it can take a long time for things to catch on, even if it will help their team.
@@The_Jazziest_Coffee We have a massive amount to learn from America too when it comes to sport. it is mainly on the sport science side which our small population doesnt help. due to financial limits etc. ive been looking into baseball recently as a cricket fan and its crazy how scientific it is and just how robust their pathways to professionalism are compared to ours.
I think it was actually college football teams that starting recruiting Aussies, then the NFL naturally takes the successful punters from the college level.
Cheers from Sydney. Thanks for your acknowledgement of Aussie Rules Football, the oldest of all modern football leagues which began back in the 1850's. It was developed to keep Australian cricket players fit during winter.
9:08 Aussie viewer here. Sav Rocca kicked that goal from the centre square at the MCG. That is a genuine 70 metre kick just to the goal line and it probably went five metres past that. Secondly, the Australian kicking style is different for other reasons besides the spin. If you look very closely, you will see that for a right leg kicker, the right hand stays in contact with the ball a lot longer, guiding it down to the boot. And remember, most Australian players can kick well with either foot. And you’re quite right. This kicking under pressure or on the run is nothing. It’s what they do. They are used to looking down field for a lead from an unguarded player, so they’re looking _past_ the line of scrimmage. And yes: they’re used to taking hits. They don’t wear padding. And if anyone is interested, Google a player called Mason Cox, who plays for current AFL Champions, Collingwood. He’s the tallest player in the league and he’s an ex-college basketball player from Texas. I don’t know if there are any other Americans in the AFL but he’s been by far the most successful.
That was a really interesting topic for a video, I've always wondered why there wasn't more Australian punters in the nfl. In Ireland we have a game called gealic football, it shares alot of similarities with aussie rules, would be interesting to see if those skills transfered similarly.
Not as well, because the Gaelic football is round, while the Australian football has about the same dimensions as the American. Not only that, but in Australian football you can run with the ball just occasionally *touching* it to the ground, while the Gaelic football has to be "hopped" like an occasional basketball dribble. We've had lots of Gaelic football in the Northeast USA growing up parallel with American football, but it's not like it could ever have been said to have affected playing form.
They used to put the All Ireland finals on tv out here mate...no idea why they stopped, it's a gd game to watch. Plus like the bloke above said, plenty of Gaelic football fellas come to Australia & pick the game up quickly.
IIRC, at the end of the AFL season, our players go, or at least used to go, to Ireland and play a match that was a combination of rules between AFL and Gaelic Football.
I've always wondered why the NFL never took on potential free agent AFL players. Been kicking all sorts of ways since they were kids and grew up with rough and tumble high pressure situations... as well as having the history of professional sports. Just figured it was the American way to keep it all in house but I'm glad to see us lads having a bash over there :)
Great video mate, nice to see the correlations of both sports, us kiwis and Aussies like to hassle American football, but both sports are not easy at all to switch up and it's been great to see some guys like Mailata and others make the transition over there and actually do well, much respect!!!!
Every random punting vid, no matter the subject, must include the epic Sean Landeda 'ghost kick' at the goal line resulting in an immediate touchdown at Soldier Field, en route to a playoff shutout. And this doesn't disappoint, there it was, 40 years later in a profile on modern AUSTRALIAN punters. Never gets old!
As an Aussie watching this I’m having a blast. Playing footy is my favourite thing and knowing that American professionals can’t do it as easily as we can soothes my soul hahah
Mate, unreal video 🙌 You know more about Aussie rules footy than a lot of Australians. Hopefully no one calls it a "rugby" style punt after watching this. One thing that limits our style in the NFL is the rule where only the gunners can move down the field after the snap and everyone else must wait for the ball to be punted. Whereas in college, every player can release down field as soon as the ball is snapped and don't have to wait for it to be punted.
@@AB-zf6by A lot of things are played in every state and territory. AFL is only on most NSW and Qld people's radar this week and then only if a local team is in it.
And you have to check out the torpedo bomb from the Rugby League - Nathan Cleary and particularly Matt Burton. NFL should definitely consider that nightmare of a kick.
As an Australian who loves the influence and extraordinarily long and rich history of Australian rules football, thank you so much for your accuracy and research, and thanks as well to Darren Bennett!
You should do a sequel video to this about how Aussie Rules Football started recruiting Gaelic Football and Hurling players from Ireland! The risk and chaos of Aussie Rules is madness, but the Irish sports are just totally nuts! The recruiting started in the 1980’s and the Irish athletes transitioned to AFL so quickly that within a decade the two countries had developed a hybrid game called ‘International Rules’ which they play against one another in a biennially held 3 match series, essentially in honour of a) how similar the games are and b) how much respect the two nation’s have for each other’s crazy ass sports 😂
No mate, Robin Mulholland was asked to come to Australia (SA) in the late 60s. He was a good rover. Played for Central Districts (my team) we were the worst team in the SANFL for yrs! There's probably other Irish fellas came over to play Aussie Rules, but lm positive Robbie was one of the first, a cpl came over later (to Centrals) but didn't get many games 👍
In Australia, the spiral kick you refer to is called a torpedo hence as it travels straight like a torpedo. There are variations to the torpedo kick, outside kick on the boot(most common), inside kick on the boot and the torpedo bomb, as it's name suggests.....it travels and lands on the point of the ball. Now on to the drop punt with is the staple kick in Aussie Rules, there are variations and one that's hard to master is the bullet pass. As the name suggests when you kick a bullet pass it travels low and flat and getting no more than 6 feet off the ground, but being on the receiving end you have to be ready as it comes in fast and hard.
Sam Kerr one of the best female soccer players in the world grew up playing Aussie Rules Football too. And those guys like Sav Rocca only played 'Grid Iron' when their AFL Careers were over, so what you saw was them at probably 70% of what they were in their prime. Really AFL players could probably go and be successful in lot's of different sports, if there was any desire to leave the greatest game in the world(even for more money) to play something else.
i dont think so. they are only successful in this sport due to the specific skills required to play punter. i dont think an AFL player could play any other position in the NFL other than punter . they are too scrawny. if someone like Jarryd Hayne couldnt do it no chance an AFL player could. us Aussies have to remember though we have a small population so our athletes actually arent that impressive compared to the US on average,. having a massive population means you have way more professionalism and money all throughout the grass roots and top tier competitions which in turn generates very athletic people. like being an AFL player means you are in the best 40 players of a relatively small population compared to the US. using Sam Kerr as an example is a bit misleading because womens sport especially in a country with a population of only 25 million, is still pretty unprofessional and they have a much smaller pool of players compared to men. which makes being a pro in 2 sports much easier than men. just look at how many women play both NRLW and AFLW.
wow - this was very interesting - as an Aussie I didn't know that there are so many Aussies playing College football and had never heard of Dixon = Great stuff
The thing with the torpedo punt kick is what us Aussies call it, is it can roll off the side of the boot & you can kick it out of bounds. You guys should try to kick like we do for more precision but you can try to kick the leather off the ball & get the out of bounds result too. That's why it takes years to perfect. that's why you recruit from Australia. Take a good look at the way we snap at goals on 90 degree angles for left or right footers & get even more distance around 50 metres + & up to 70-80 metres. Lefties have better depth perception as everyone is right eye dominant. I recommend using lefties for accuracy & try ankle weights to increase kicking distance in training until you don't need the weights anymore. I have tried & tested & it works. & if you want to run rings around your competition do all running replaced with steep hill work then it's easy on a flat surface. It can take some time before you notice the results 1-3 months before it's clearly the way to go. take it from experience, so take it easy with the ankle weights at 1st as you can injur your ankles until you build up to get used of the ankle weights.
Dunno if you're NRL or AFL raised but the AFL kids grow up wondering why NRL/NFL players kick a ball so loosely. We hit the sternum from 40 metres away no problem. NRL don't seem to finesse as well
@@blimolhm2790 because they're kicking for meters not to put the ball in the hands of the opposition. I grew up playing union and AFL. The kicking in rugby is far more diverse for the backs with clearing kicks, chip and chases, drop kicks, place kicks, kicking for touch etc. AFL the kicking is a simpler skill set but the entire team knows it. Ie - you wouldn't trust a prop to kick in rugby. Which is why I'd have thought NFL would borrow more from both codes of rugby.
Gotta say (as an Aussie who grew up kicking the football from age 3 or so) that very few Australians could pull off that gorgeous TD pass that the Bowling Green punter did on the fake punt in the Mobile Alabama Bowl yesterday. So you have that over us.
I thought one of the biggest reasons it doesn't work in the NFL is that gunners can't run before the ball is kicked vs college where they can run on the snap
I’m neither an NFL or AFL fan, I’m just someone with a casual interest in rugby (I’m English, and predominately a football (soccer) and cricket fan) but RUclips directed me here from another video about a Scottish rugby coach working with the Philadelphia Eagles on scrum and line out style plays. It’s been fascinating watching the cross pollination of sports. You’ve seen it in cricket too with say Eoin Morgan’s Irish Hurling inspired batting technique. There must be loads of untapped potential for other crossovers between sports.
I think the real reason behind why the college Aussies haven't had as much impact in the NFL is because NFL coaches are so rigid and unwilling to take a risk on anything that is not the "traditional" style. Just look at the lateral pass for example. You could absolutely wreck an opposing team with 3 or 4 laterals in a play. It's legal in the rules but they won't touch it because it's not traditional. NFL coaches need to evolve their game, the tools are already there in the rules but they are too scared of criticism and fear losing their jobs.
Good point but since the NFL is basically the only professional American Football competition of note (sorry CFL) there is no external pressure to change. With football (soccer) in Europe there is always going to be competition between the top leagues just not in the Champions League but also in attracting the best players. Even in basketball the rigid positional style of the past faded because of the influence of non-American players. Same with baseball. And of course baseball had moneyball change everything. But the NFL is a behemoth. By far the biggest domestic sporting league on the planet. It totally dwarfs the Premier League. There just isn't any internal or external pressure for it to change. I know theres college football but that is something thats very different and not really a direct competitor to the NFL.
Brad Wing was a great example of this 10+ years ago at LSU. 48 of his 118 punts were inside the 20, and he still holds the school record for career punting average at 44.6. Kinda strange you didn't mention him.
Australian Football mostly comes from pre-codified Rugby and Soccer and many would say Aboriginal game Marn Grook but there's no documented evidence from Marn Grook. Rugby/Soccer/Gaelic Football were all called Football back in those days and were a mish-mash of each other before they were codified, there were hundreds of different versions of these games. Codified Football Games in chronological order: 1859 - Australian Football (many rules based on Rugby rules of 1845 and Cambridge rules of 1856) 1863 - Soccer (most rules from Cambridge 1848-1856 and Sheffield rules of 1858) 1871 - Rugby Union (most rules adopted from Rugby school of grammar 1845) 1887 - Gaelic Football (many rules adopted from Australian Football 1866 rules) 1895 - Rugby League (Breakaway sport from Union) 1903 - Canadian Football (started from 1860's Rugby, later burnside rules) 1906 - American Football (started from 1860's Rugby, later adopted mostly Walter Camp rules from 1880)
Most kids in the southern Australian states grow up kicking the ball - in the park, with our dads and brothers, at school with friends, club footy, etc.. There's a hell of a lot of us who could punt reasonably well despite lacking relative athleticism. It's part of our upbringing.
An an Aussie Rules player of many years ago, coaching to be a better kicker only really came to our game in a big way in the late 70s and onwards. I have been asked to be a kicking coach for my local Aussie Rules club, but unfortunately time did not allow me to go and help the juniors out. I would have loved to give something back to the game i loved to play every weekend. It is at this stage of development (12-17 years old) that coaching of any specialist skill can be the most benefit
was hoping to see some of those wild plays by Michael Dickson where the play broke down and he improvised. I visited Australia in the 90s and my one regret is we didn't see an Aussie football game.
I appreciate the efforts for calling it “footy” .. hehe. I Am looking forward to this, I remember when it happened but no coverage of it and probably to young as well
Common mistake of American commenters; that Aust. Rules Football is like Rugby. Its antecedents were the indigenous game of Maarngrook - played with a possum skin ball, and Gaelic Football, leading many sons and daughters of Ireland to come to Oz to bless us with their skills.
8:18 the guy in blue shows a classic move, show the guy the ball out wide and at the last moment, pull it in for the kick. Technical terms for the Australian kicks, Droppy and Screwy, I'm sure you'll be able to work out which one is what.
Growing up in NSW country I had never heard of Aussie Rules until my dad mentioned it when I was 17 yo. Never played it or been to a game. So many sports in Australia but AFL has the same issue as NFL, no other country plays it or knows the rules. So you never see how amazing a team is when u have the best players in each position. The southern states love the game so maybe one day it will leave our shores. AFL appears to be a sport connected to community, without that connection success will not come. An observation only about a sport played in another state but for me it is as alien as NFL. Good luck, sports with mates is as good as it gets.
I know it isn’t really related but in the AFL team Collingwood we have a talk Texan named Mason Cox, he had never played AFL but when he came to Australia he was an absolute gun, I don’t know the exacts but he ended up in the team that just won the premier ship, he is so tall that he’s effective in a lot of situations, he has fell off slightly in recent years but his height gives him a lot of versatility
Great points on the added attributes in a Aussie punter. As an aside, I always thought what made Devin Hester a great return man was that he was a defensive back and enjoyed the contact.
Haven't watched AFL since the '80s (when ESPN carried it in the middle of the night here). From what I remember it was quite fun to watch and the rule set was simple enough to figure out most of the rules from just a few minutes watching. Aside from the big 3 in the US, it's probably my favorite professional sport.
Very nice to see the AFL mentioned. These players run for kilometres every game with few breaks, each quarter, in the game. The 'small men', who are' followers' are the princes of fitness.
In rugby you punt to gain territory so if you can aim punt for the corner and make ball bounce on field first before is goes out? of play the punt returner can't attack. I'm from New Zealand Aussie football has similar kicking style to rugby. Another set of skills that helps in rugby to gain yards is the offload pass where you pass ball just after you been tackled so? in Gridiron do a outside run play from QB to FB and FB takes Tackle and offloads to HB. In rugby there are cut passes and? this technique is rugby 101 is the draw and pass you draw defender to ball runner and pass ball in gap/space to the next ball runner running in the gab making space with no blocker that is how we do it in rugby with no blockers :)
Australian Rules basically developed from Gaelic football (from Ireland). The two football codes are uncannily similar even today and Australia and Ireland have played a few internationals using a kind of hybrid structure and rules.
Some of those Aussies that went to the NFL did it when they had already retired from a successful career in the AFL. Sav Rocca had already spent 15 years in the AFL (the highest level of the sport) before going to the NFL.
Every American I've watched an AFL game with, has commented on two things... The ability to run and kick or pass under pressure, especially from an incoming infamous 'hip & shoulder' and the fact that we don't wear helmets or protection, aside from the mouth guard. Always remind them though, that we aren't made of sugar and spice Down Under
Mate, in Oz we learn those skills at a very early age and grow into them - it doesn't matter how athletic you are, if you come late to Aussie rules you will never compete at even a club level - even Mason Cox, with as much experience (and pro-level coaching) in the game as he has had, still looks very awkward during live play on the field - have you ever once seen him in the open field running full pelt bouncing the ball and kick-passing it to a teammate? No - If he were not 7 ft tall he wouldn't even rate in club footy, honestly On the other hand, find an athletic Aussie, even AFL level, and give him a Yank footy and see how far and accurately he can throw it downfield (like 40-50 yds) in a perfect spiral and hit a running bloke on the numbers - I'll bet you won't
In early 1989, my brother and I went to Waverley Park in Melbourne to watch a practice match for our team, the Melbourne Demons. There was a new player in the forward line built like a superman. He had number 19 on his back, and we found out his name was Darren Bennett. The most obvious thing about his technique was his kicking, which we both agreed, looked like an American punter. Probably not entirely surprising that’s where he ended up.
Aussies have shown that they can run with the ball , they can tackle , they can kick distance , but they can also kick accurately . So my question is have any of the Aussie punters kicked a short pass directly to one of their team mates , or isn't that one of the objectives of the position ? Would it be advantageous in some way to hit a team mate on the chest at 30 yards , because thats what we do in AFL , or further out.
MOST kicking/punting of the ball downfield is on the run to a teammate, usually 20-40 yards away - like a QB rolling out to hit a receiver. Difference is that every player has this skill (all 18 of them on the team) in the Aussie game.
So a lot of people have pointed out that AFL rules are very different than Rugby rules, I’ll admit I am actually ignorant to rugby rules and was mostly alluding to the similarity of being able to pick the ball up with their hands, the ability to kick the ball, and the general oblong shape of the ball. Didn’t mean to offend any Rugby or footy players! Hope you can enjoy the video nonetheless!
Mate, it's a travesty to say they are anything alike. Aussie rules is more like cross country basketball than rugby...
In fairness, apart from some mixing up the rugby/Aussie rules stuff (almost equivalent to a felony in some parts here) your analysis of some the key aspects of our game relevant to US football is really impressive. Especially highlighting the switch from long kicks to shorter, lower, faster accurate kicks under pressure is something many aussies don’t even appreciate yet. On ya m8 👍🏼
The ‘spiral’… nah you mean the ‘torpedo’, most got an extra 10-20meters compared to the drop punt, but the punt had better accuracy for most players, some couldn’t kick straight at the best of times.
Every video on AFL made by Americans has hoards of Aussies in the comments acting like know it alls, they'll even say silly stuff like "Aussie rules is more like cross country basketball than rugby..."
I thought your comparisons were fair, in the grand scheme of sports.
Rugby is much much more similar to American football than Australian football
In Australia we are taught multiple different types of kicks. running and stationary. Drop kicks, Drop punts, Torpedos, Barrels, Snaps, Toe pokes, Stabs and even the legendary fabled Bannana kick. all can be done on the run.
And the chip..
@Lord_SpiderMonkey_AttackI’m not sure wat you mean BUT if you are alluding to Addie Betts checkside from the pocket. Then you praised the wrong man. Peter Daicos is the magician and now we watch his sons, Josh and Nick take it to another level. The Daicos clan, I🫡YOU…..
@Lord_SpiderMonkey_Attackbanna kicks are easy to catch wtf u on about floaters are the hardestb
@@nevmat1595Read Jack Dyers book Captain Blood mate...
In the 30s Richmond recruited Jack Broadstock from West Adelaide, he was using the checkside back then, as were others.
Dont forget the Drop kick.!!
And I'm not talking about the guy out the front of centrelink getting his pay check .!!
AFL basically teaches you how to be a punter, a kicker, a tight end, a wide receiver, a running back, a cornerback a safety, and a basketball player all in one. You develop these skills all at the same time and always without protective equipment. It’s a great game to watch, a great game to play, and a great game for giving you 2 torn ACL’s and a shoulder Reconstruction before you’re 40 😂
Jack of all trades.. Just a master at kicking😂
It hurts when I sneeze...
Mate i knew my shoulder reco was coming when I dislocated my shoulder the first time mid game and popped it back in lol I wasn't even in pain I was more pissed off it happened during footy lmao
No, AFL does NOT prepare players for any other position in American Football other than punter. The only Australians to play in the NFL in other positions other than punter have obviously come from a league background.
@@stackhat8624sounds like you actually haven’t watched any AFL
As a young kid in Australia, I remember a new kid from USA joined our school. We welcomed him in and then headed you to play footy at lunch as usual. As soon as someone kicked the ball this kid from the USA said (with thick American accent) "WOOOAAAH, you can kick further than I can throw!!" and just seemed in awe. The rest of us Aussie kids just looked at him confused because of course you can? It's a moment that has always stuck with me of an example of the bias people can have based on the environment they grew up in. Anyway by the end of the year we had that kid kicking the ball better than I ever did because I was always terrible at AFL.
wholesome asf
That’s awesome. Literally every American I’ve seen talk about AFL has nothing but good things to say about it, and its cool seeing people outside of Australia interested in it
@@WilliamMullaney There's a couple of good reaction videos out there of NFL players watching AFL
Imagine any person on the planet thinking their arm could launch a sherrin as far as Ben Graham, the rocca brothers or even a standard running mid could. The only reason an Aussie is there is to get paid bulk for a few minutes of work. Imagine wearing pads after growing up playing footy 😂
We had a similar one with the kid coming over from USA and the reaction to the kicks. We got put back in our places when he tackled you.
As a punter who’s going to college to punt next year, i’ve learned so much from the aussies. Very thankful for them and their style
What school you going to?
@@windu2472 Still undecided. Have a few visits coming up and then i’ll make a decision
Good luck mate I hope to see you in the NFL one day!
@@luisalvarado7619 best of luck!!!
Look up how to do torpedoes, it's an Aussie rules style for kicking it super far.
As an Aussie, I’ve been watching NFL since the early 80s when we’d be lucky to get 1 game a week at some ungodly hour in the morning. Really great job showcasing the rising influence of our boys over there. Interestingly, Aussie Rules has been poaching Irish talent from Gaelic Football for 20+ years and more recently trying to get some US college kids to try their hand at our game. This weekend, your Mason Cox goes to the Grand Final as quite the trailblazer and success story. Great vid!
Mason Cox was a basketballer, having played for the Oklahoma State Cowboys. He was never an American Football player.
@@wendyanderson3920 correcting an error that wasn't made.
I remember Don Lane having an hour long round up program of the previous week in the NFL which aired late at night on the ABC.
Jim Stynes in 87 would be nearly 40 years ago (shit I'm old!). I don't recall NFL in the 80s - Don Lane in the 90s on Tuesday Nights (tapes flown by jet from the US and you'd only get the score of Monday Night Games) - at first I watched the Saturday afternoon repeat and then not very alert Wednesday mornings at school from Sep - Dec. Mum came back from the US with Cowboys shirts years earlier and when I was in the US in early 92 I was in a shop considering switching allegiance to the Oilers (Warren Moon run and shoot). At least in the 90s I was rewarded for staying faithful. In an example of a different time.. My brother rang one of those $5/min numbers in the back of the Yellow Pages to get the score of the 1996 NFC championship game to see if it was worth staying up for - he said something about the AFC game being close and might be a good watch - little did we know! Darren Bennett sort of put an end to the Don Lane golden years - Aussie punters drew interest from Eddie McGuire and Ch 9 got a hold of it for a bit before you needed PayTV.
I was looking for the comment saying this. They move of Irish players to AFL is very similar of Australians to NFL. I wonder if there is space there for Gaelic Footballers to transition to NFL. I'd imagine, though not really identical, that growing up with an oval ball smooths that out a lot from AFL to NFL and Gaelic seems to be more reliant on small passes with a circular/heavier ball from the absolute bare minimum I've watched. Still a lot of kicking under pressure in Gaelic though.
Something you forgot to mention was after Bennet and Rocca kicked the ball they became a defensive player. Both weighed more than 100kg. If they tackled you, you stayed tackled, if you could still breath. There is a lot of footage of this.
Love it! Didn’t know that but I can believe it because a few unlucky Americans were subjected to their defensive prowess
@@IsaacPunts For punters they played really good defence, but punters are usually, along with kickers, the least athletic people on the field.
@@buckbuchanan4902 not the aussie ones, AFL (aussie football) doesn't stop and start as often as NFL
@@buckbuchanan4902 AFL is probably the most stamina draining sport in existence so that doesnt affect them at all
@@shadoww7301 spot on. The average player will run anywhere from 10-20km per 3 hour game. For full contact sport, nothing comes close to the levels of fitness required.
Great video buddy. Well put together. Just a few corrections... A: The rules & running patterns of Aussie Rule Football (or AFL) have almost no similarities to Rugby. B: AFL was definitely not evolved from Soccer (Or world Football) at all, In-fact, the codification of AFL in 1858 predates the codification of Premier League Football. & C: The number of passes in a game of AFL heavily outweighs the number of passes in an NFL game.. One quarter of AFL Football would easily have more passes than an entire NFL game..
Well said! Also, NFL was conceived in 1920 where AFL was conceived in the 1850s. AFL is way older and requires more intellect, stamina and strength!
@@BUZDRIFT without question it's stamina and intellect
both sports require game IQ, but jesus i will never get over at how insane AFL games get with players running around to always get in ideal positions AND NOT lose themselves out of stamina
and yeah i'm australian myself, watched a bulldogs vs dockers game in marvel stadium
slight correction,The conept of afl [like how the game work and played] where very popular for the ATSI people, it was a common past time, correct me, but the earlyest signs of afl were from 1500,ie very old assie,other than that your entire thing is correct.[and anyways nfl is younger than Afl
it was played wit i think kangeroo skin with emu feathers as stuffing
@@l8adam It's correct in the sense that the indigenous game called marngrook was said to have inspired Aussie Rules in some part. It definitely pre-dates the inception of Footy, but no idea on the dates.
Aussie rules is an absolute blast to play and the USA club structure is very healthy - there's clubs in just about every city. Give the game a shot!
Bravo! Well said. I agree.
Aussies are born and brought up with it it's in their genes in sure Americans are good at it but it's like would I choose a American who's played NFL his whole career or someone from France who's played it for couple years
Mate, absolutely your best video on the topic to date. You covered everything excellently, and the fans will appreciate the time you took to make a good 10+ minute video. I really hope your work starts getting picked up by others.
Thanks friend, I hope so as well
@@IsaacPuntsit’s rare to see a good cross-cultural comparison, with a ton of raw footage from NFL, AFL and maybe there was some NRL in there amongst some soccer.
Normally the only kind of conversation that includes more than one kind of “football” is a shouting match where nobody respects anything the other side enjoys. All feels like religion to me.
This video is a breath of fresh air, away from that.
As an Australian i truly feel so so much respect for our game and our craft on your behalf so cheers mate ! We love Aussie rules footy and if anyone is interested our version of the Superbowl is this weekend coming ❤
Up the lions!
@@BULL.79Absolutely mate!!
Anyone but Collingwood!!
Hope ya flog em!!
Go pies
@@baabaabaa-Elgood luck with that flogging 😂😂
@@satiricgames2129 Ha! Go brush ya tooth!!
Fascinating video - as an Aussie who is still learning how NFL works, this explains a lot to me, thank you! And AFL has changed from my youth, when we used to have dominant forwards able to kick from a long way out in the 70s and 80s but nowadays they're a rarity owing to the changes you mentioned. If you've never seen a highlight reel of Gary Ablett (Geelong Cats), do yourself a favour and find some here on YT. He and his son are probably two of the best AFL players of all time.
Glen Jakovich has entered the chat.
Tony Modra & Barry Robran (who Leigh Matthews clapped one day in a state game, he was that dominant).. Dunstall, Lockett, Kennedy, Buddy there's mobs.
There's still plenty of snags kicked from 50+...it's just that the games gotten faster, so kicking to the top of the square or 20-30 out has a higher % of conversion to goals.
Same reason the drop kick, stab pass, screwy or torpedo punt went out of the game.
Go watch 60s or 70s footy nowhere near the amount of hand passing as today, cos it's quicker
Is Gary the guy who ended up mayor of Geelong?
Dude you forgot that the CFL employs Aussie punters too. The ones that wash out in the NFL come to Canada to kick in the 3 Down league The recent CFL Global draft had half of Aussie punters taken in the first round. The Aussies say that the CFL's wider and longer game is more conducive to their style than in the NFL shorter field. Make a video on the impact Aussie punters had on the CFL. We play football up here too
Cracking video. Well done Isaac. Highly recommend attending an AFL game if you are ever in Australia. There is so much that happens off-camera in a game which makes it a completely different spectacle to watching on TV.
Like what bro? Biff?
Ha, no, not these days. Player movement mainly. Being at the game allows you to see the player who has read the game about 3 kicks before everyone else and charges half the length/width of the field to be in the right spot. You don't see this on TV.
@@dajay2k He means the bum sex.
I wouldn’t bother watching afl games post 2010 they’ve turned the game soft by taking the hits out of the game… best era to watch was 84-06
@@jamiebaker8017The shit has always been cross-country ballet.
By the way, this Saturday is AFL grand final day and there's a yank (Aussie slang for US ciitizens) playing.
His name is Mason Cox, he's a Texan, he's playing for Collingwood, and I think he came across from basketball.
I heard he was from Oklahoma. Or was that just the basketball team he played for?
No Mason Cox is from Texas, his whole family flew over to Melbourne to watch him play in the Grand Final on Saturday.
Aaaaaand he just won the premiership.
Best grand final I've watched in years. Closest fucking game of footy I've ever watched!
@@ZekPlaysHD Go Pies!
And Mitch Wishnowsky (from Perth) played for the 49ers in this year’s Superbowl.
This is a fantastic mini-documentary. Awesome narration, editing, score, and story telling.
Interesting video Isaac
Have found myself in the stands in NFL a number of times wondering why most punters can't adapt to pressure and why they just don't get AFL players.
While living in Cali often went out to kick the footy with Aussie friends at local grounds, we were often approached by school coaches about our kicking which is as natural to us as American kids throwing the ball
In fairness, there are the following football codes in Australia:
• Australian Rules [AFL]
• Rugby League [NRL]
• Association Football [A-League]
• Rugby Union
• International Rules [AFL/Gaelic Hybrid]
Yes, Gridiron is also a code here albeit minor like International Rules.
This was a really well done video. What I remember about Bennett is he lit a couple guys up on returns. Houston punter Laine Wilkins is another Aussie. His first year he only had 5 punts returned. None of them were for positive yardage. Also, people need to watch Footy, it is the best.
Darren Bennett i loved him in the AFL and at the chargers I got told once that he punted the ball from one end of the field into the grandstands at the other when he got asked how far he could actually kick the ball and then he got told don't do that in a game because it's to far 🤣 what a legend to me he is anyway 😃👍
Good analysis of Aussie rules in regards to goal kicking. BTW I saw Darren Bennet play his first game of senior WAFL footy here in 1982. He was only 16 and I knew he'd be a star. Going to the NFL was another thing.
6:57 I remember watching that game, specifically that play. It stuck in my mind because of the way the punter took down the returner. Clearly it was unusual at the time.
Love me some Aussie Rules Footy. (Geelong fan for Life) Thanks for showing people who don't know how that sport has affected "American Football"
Go the Cats! Became a fan in 2020 and an international member last year
Go Hawks. Really wished I had better coverage of the matchs.
For years the cats trip home from Melbourne was a sad one I remember signs over the Prince's Highway near Laverton, Always the bridesmaid never the bride 😆 they eventually got that monkey of their back though.
Carn Catters!
Bloody Cats! If you weren't such a respectable team I'd have to say something nasty. Something like I'd say to Collingwood supporters😂 🐅 🐯 Yellow & Black!!!
Fantastic work Isaac - thank you. As an Aussie Dad whose son is currently playing D1 footy I can vouch for the effectiveness of the ProKick program. There are 3 other things I think Aussie punters bring to American footy:
1.Vision - our footy fields are sooooo much bigger than yours. When I first stood on an American footy field (in Oz) I was shocked at how small the field was. Given Aussies move from large to small fields gives them an advantage in seeing who is where on the field and will influence where they place the ball.
2. The banana kick - your video showed many examples of this kick in Aussie footy, especially shots on goal from tight angles. This kick is being used really effectively in college footy. For example, my son used this in 3 consecutive games to create a muffed punt which was recovered by his team. The "banana" is a difficult punt to catch.
3. Tackling - this is a feature of our game and Aussie punters are not afraid to tackle any returner who might break through. You might remember Mitch Wishnowsky (49ers) pancaking some poor bugger not too long ago.
Love your channel mate and wish you continuing success!
is australian footy soccer or something? sorry not familiar with the terms ur using bro
@@matthias8161 AFL /= soccer or ruby. AFL is the oldest codified* sport on the world ruclips.net/video/XMZYZcoAcU0/видео.html ruclips.net/video/u_SqfNNfhmM/видео.html for introductions to the best sport in the world :)
@@matthias8161 It's the sport the creator was referencing throughout the video
@@matthias8161 search for AFL, Australian Football League, its our national competition and definitely not soccer 😉
@@simoncross7728 thank you! that looks like a ton of fun
Gaelic football is what popularised rugby in Ireland, which they brought over and created AFL with a mix of it and the aboriginal game marngrook. Thats what I was taught as a kid.
And it's mostly myth, based on hearsay and conjecture, and combined with an anachronistic understanding of all those sports at the time of the codification of Aussie Rules.
It seems that Gaelic is the basis for most contact football sports tbh
@@BrandonjSlippingAway not true.Thomas Will's grew up watching native Australians playing Marngrook!
That's what he put a set of rules to! His story says so!
@@R-vl9ue Yeah but nah. That is just conjecture and not supported by anything except people projecting assumptions onto the man based on the fact he spent time with indigenous people as a child.
1) He was only one of about five people that crafted the original X rules of the Melbourne Football Club, and not the only person with a say.
2) Marn Grook was essentially like all forms of mob football, it had a loose goal but not strict rules. It was characterised by trying to keep the ball up in the air. Early Aussie rules did not look like this, and it took about 20 years to become more of an aerial game, by then Wills' days involved with football was well over.
3) The ball spent a lot of time on the ground in the original rules because it was illegal to pick it up, you could only catch it out of the air if the situation arose.
4) The game of Australian football, while fairly unique today, did not have rules that were radically different to games being played in Britain at the time. The style of Sheffield football for instance, who contributed the corner kick to the FA, also had a mark rule very similar to early Aussie rules. Eventually Sheffield was folded into the FA like all the other independent schools and clubs, and the ones who weren't fell under the RFU.
5) Wills was just more familiar with contemporary British sports culture in general, because he was football captain at Rugby school. And while it's true he didn't think the game in its entirety suited Australian conditions, it still occupied a space in his mind, and he pushed to implement things from it to Australia. Two of these was moving to an oval ball (which he was successful with), and the other was adding a crossbar (which he wasn't).
@@BrandonjSlippingAway well of course the rules were changing their been evolving to this day. But their is no conjecture that when he put those rules down in 1854 he had Marngrook as observed as a child part of his mind set for his version of it with other influences of Rugby from his days at school in England! He must have the Mark's catching no offside.
You can see it?
You should cover AFL this year, it’s so fun to watch.
AFL has almost nothing in common with Rugby.
Rugby is essentially American Football without the body armour and not being allowed to pass the ball forward.
Aussie Rules is a Very different sport.
6:04 Seeing Jezza Cameron from the Geelong Cats (my team and one of my fav players) kick a that ripping goal from the boundary as an Aussie on an American vid makes me smile from ear to ear. CARN THE CATTAS
“The greatest phenomenon in sports history…” 🤣😂I love this channel! Keep up the good work!
Another key to the Aussie takeover of the kicking game is that these guys coming from Australia are older and have REAL experience compared to an 18-year-old kid. Here comes a grown ass man at 6'2 200lbs, 3 years of semi-pro or better experience, and a full beard...trying out against a 5'10 160lbs, pimple-faced soccer player who moved out of his parent's place a week ago.
A lot of us Aussies are great kicks because all we used to do in the cool months all through our youth was kick-to-kick with friends, not long after we start walking. Some of the earliest photos of me are of me kicking a football. 😄 Many days, we'd kick the ball all afternoon until it was so dark that the ball started hitting us in the face .🙂.. Then I'd practice little kicks to myself for hours while sitting on the couch.
BRILLIANT BRILLIANT analysis Mr. Punts! As an Australian Rules Football tragic (born and bred in Ulverstone, Tasmania) and two year resident of Pittsburgh (Go Steelers!) your analysis and understanding of BOTH codes is AMAZING!!! Great video. I have subscribed!!!
Hey mate, do they teach the Yank punters to kick with either leg? I was thinking if you know he's only got one side, surely the other team catch on?
ANOTHER TASMANIAN?? GDAY
I have helped coach punters as well as kickers at the high school level and have always taught the spiral. A few years ago I started teaching an Aussie style kick only in short yardage punts to keep the ball going into the endzone. I never considered teaching Aussie style punts with a rollout because I didn't think it was worth the time. Now after watching this video it has me questioning why this method is still rare at the lower level. It's genius if the return team doesn't bring enough players to block the punt, and it allows the coverage team a ton of time to get down the field. It also makes it so you can play mind games with the return guy.
I'm surprised you never looked into it. We kick footies in the crib.
@@thatgnaralooguy In the US, most sports fans don't even care about AFL. They all care about American football, basketball, and baseball as their top sports. I have brought up how crazy AFL can be to several Americans and they don't even want to talk about it. In their opinions nothing will be better than American football.
@@erics607 that's a sad way to look at it, given that america still has a ton to learn from other styles of techniques across all sports
it will take time to break that sporting ignorance, but stuff like this and ur mindset changing are prime examples of the gradual integration of international techniques and styles being integrated deeper into the american sports phenomena
dope
@@The_Jazziest_Coffee I've always been intrigued by the punting/kicking aspects of American football, and there are a lot of American coaches who don't care about that aspect of the game because it's not as exciting to them. I on the other hand love it because it can cause a lot of issues for opposing teams since they're not used to seeing it. In the US, if you want to run a fake punt, the coach has to tell the players they're going to run a fake punt. With the Aussie style, the player can decide to fake it whenever he wants to, but most American's think the players are told to do that. A lot of American football coaches are extremely stubborn when it comes to change, so it can take a long time for things to catch on, even if it will help their team.
@@The_Jazziest_Coffee We have a massive amount to learn from America too when it comes to sport. it is mainly on the sport science side which our small population doesnt help. due to financial limits etc. ive been looking into baseball recently as a cricket fan and its crazy how scientific it is and just how robust their pathways to professionalism are compared to ours.
Best special teams content on youtube. This is awesome
I came here to say this 👍
I remember watching AFL and thinking "woah it's crazy how those guys punt from anywhere" and come to find out the NFL thought so too
I think it was actually college football teams that starting recruiting Aussies, then the NFL naturally takes the successful punters from the college level.
Cheers from Sydney. Thanks for your acknowledgement of Aussie Rules Football, the oldest of all modern football leagues which began back in the 1850's. It was developed to keep Australian cricket players fit during winter.
9:08 Aussie viewer here. Sav Rocca kicked that goal from the centre square at the MCG. That is a genuine 70 metre kick just to the goal line and it probably went five metres past that.
Secondly, the Australian kicking style is different for other reasons besides the spin. If you look very closely, you will see that for a right leg kicker, the right hand stays in contact with the ball a lot longer, guiding it down to the boot. And remember, most Australian players can kick well with either foot. And you’re quite right. This kicking under pressure or on the run is nothing. It’s what they do. They are used to looking down field for a lead from an unguarded player, so they’re looking _past_ the line of scrimmage.
And yes: they’re used to taking hits. They don’t wear padding.
And if anyone is interested, Google a player called Mason Cox, who plays for current AFL Champions, Collingwood. He’s the tallest player in the league and he’s an ex-college basketball player from Texas. I don’t know if there are any other Americans in the AFL but he’s been by far the most successful.
Sanford Wheeler and Jason Holmes
@@TimmyTickle Thanks. I’ll look them up.
That was a really interesting topic for a video, I've always wondered why there wasn't more Australian punters in the nfl. In Ireland we have a game called gealic football, it shares alot of similarities with aussie rules, would be interesting to see if those skills transfered similarly.
Not as well, because the Gaelic football is round, while the Australian football has about the same dimensions as the American. Not only that, but in Australian football you can run with the ball just occasionally *touching* it to the ground, while the Gaelic football has to be "hopped" like an occasional basketball dribble. We've had lots of Gaelic football in the Northeast USA growing up parallel with American football, but it's not like it could ever have been said to have affected playing form.
Yeah it translates fine, that’s why there’s so many Irishmen playing AFL. Look ‘em up.
They used to put the All Ireland finals on tv out here mate...no idea why they stopped, it's a gd game to watch.
Plus like the bloke above said, plenty of Gaelic football fellas come to Australia & pick the game up quickly.
IIRC, at the end of the AFL season, our players go, or at least used to go, to Ireland and play a match that was a combination of rules between AFL and Gaelic Football.
I've always wondered why the NFL never took on potential free agent AFL players. Been kicking all sorts of ways since they were kids and grew up with rough and tumble high pressure situations... as well as having the history of professional sports. Just figured it was the American way to keep it all in house but I'm glad to see us lads having a bash over there :)
Great video mate, nice to see the correlations of both sports, us kiwis and Aussies like to hassle American football, but both sports are not easy at all to switch up and it's been great to see some guys like Mailata and others make the transition over there and actually do well, much respect!!!!
Aussies put the “foot” back in football. Plain and simple.
Horseback - on foot - football.
Every random punting vid, no matter the subject, must include the epic Sean Landeda 'ghost kick' at the goal line resulting in an immediate touchdown at Soldier Field, en route to a playoff shutout. And this doesn't disappoint, there it was, 40 years later in a profile on modern AUSTRALIAN punters. Never gets old!
As an Aussie watching this I’m having a blast. Playing footy is my favourite thing and knowing that American professionals can’t do it as easily as we can soothes my soul hahah
Try *throwing* a footy 60 yds like a Yank can
@@windigo44touché sir
No idea why this came up in my feed, glad it did, this was fascinating, cheers.
Mate, unreal video 🙌 You know more about Aussie rules footy than a lot of Australians. Hopefully no one calls it a "rugby" style punt after watching this. One thing that limits our style in the NFL is the rule where only the gunners can move down the field after the snap and everyone else must wait for the ball to be punted. Whereas in college, every player can release down field as soon as the ball is snapped and don't have to wait for it to be punted.
That is the rule that should be explained to us Aussie's. did not know that one.
I am pretty sure given that AFL is our national game the we know more than the presenter about it.
@@0Zolrender0 national game for half the nation.
@@ribbonsofnight played in every state and territory. It is the national game.
@@AB-zf6by A lot of things are played in every state and territory. AFL is only on most NSW and Qld people's radar this week and then only if a local team is in it.
Damn, I was shocked at how well an American understood AFL kicking and it’s history. Awesome video.
And you have to check out the torpedo bomb from the Rugby League - Nathan Cleary and particularly Matt Burton. NFL should definitely consider that nightmare of a kick.
This was one of the best (or the best) analysis video from you.
Im not an Aussie but I'm interested in this very much
As an Australian who loves the influence and extraordinarily long and rich history of Australian rules football, thank you so much for your accuracy and research, and thanks as well to Darren Bennett!
You should do a sequel video to this about how Aussie Rules Football started recruiting Gaelic Football and Hurling players from Ireland!
The risk and chaos of Aussie Rules is madness, but the Irish sports are just totally nuts!
The recruiting started in the 1980’s and the Irish athletes transitioned to AFL so quickly that within a decade the two countries had developed a hybrid game called ‘International Rules’ which they play against one another in a biennially held 3 match series, essentially in honour of a) how similar the games are and b) how much respect the two nation’s have for each other’s crazy ass sports 😂
No mate, Robin Mulholland was asked to come to Australia (SA) in the late 60s.
He was a good rover.
Played for Central Districts (my team) we were the worst team in the SANFL for yrs!
There's probably other Irish fellas came over to play Aussie Rules, but lm positive Robbie was one of the first, a cpl came over later (to Centrals) but didn't get many games 👍
In Australia, the spiral kick you refer to is called a torpedo hence as it travels straight like a torpedo. There are variations to the torpedo kick, outside kick on the boot(most common), inside kick on the boot and the torpedo bomb, as it's name suggests.....it travels and lands on the point of the ball. Now on to the drop punt with is the staple kick in Aussie Rules, there are variations and one that's hard to master is the bullet pass. As the name suggests when you kick a bullet pass it travels low and flat and getting no more than 6 feet off the ground, but being on the receiving end you have to be ready as it comes in fast and hard.
Aussie rules ain’t nothing like rugby
Nuh uh
Best video i've seen on youtube in a long time!
Sam Kerr one of the best female soccer players in the world grew up playing Aussie Rules Football too. And those guys like Sav Rocca only played 'Grid Iron' when their AFL Careers were over, so what you saw was them at probably 70% of what they were in their prime. Really AFL players could probably go and be successful in lot's of different sports, if there was any desire to leave the greatest game in the world(even for more money) to play something else.
i dont think so. they are only successful in this sport due to the specific skills required to play punter. i dont think an AFL player could play any other position in the NFL other than punter . they are too scrawny. if someone like Jarryd Hayne couldnt do it no chance an AFL player could. us Aussies have to remember though we have a small population so our athletes actually arent that impressive compared to the US on average,. having a massive population means you have way more professionalism and money all throughout the grass roots and top tier competitions which in turn generates very athletic people. like being an AFL player means you are in the best 40 players of a relatively small population compared to the US. using Sam Kerr as an example is a bit misleading because womens sport especially in a country with a population of only 25 million, is still pretty unprofessional and they have a much smaller pool of players compared to men. which makes being a pro in 2 sports much easier than men. just look at how many women play both NRLW and AFLW.
also i find it funny how everyones favourite sport is "the greatest game in the world"
@@liam3104i aint reading allat
wow - this was very interesting - as an Aussie I didn't know that there are so many Aussies playing College football and had never heard of Dixon = Great stuff
'similar rules to rugby'
this man just united all of Australia
The thing with the torpedo punt kick is what us Aussies call it, is it can roll off the side of the boot & you can kick it out of bounds. You guys should try to kick like we do for more precision but you can try to kick the leather off the ball & get the out of bounds result too. That's why it takes years to perfect. that's why you recruit from Australia. Take a good look at the way we snap at goals on 90 degree angles for left or right footers & get even more distance around 50 metres + & up to 70-80 metres. Lefties have better depth perception as everyone is right eye dominant. I recommend using lefties for accuracy & try ankle weights to increase kicking distance in training until you don't need the weights anymore. I have tried & tested & it works. & if you want to run rings around your competition do all running replaced with steep hill work then it's easy on a flat surface. It can take some time before you notice the results 1-3 months before it's clearly the way to go. take it from experience, so take it easy with the ankle weights at 1st as you can injur your ankles until you build up to get used of the ankle weights.
The punter kicks are even bigger than Matt burtons bombs in state of origin last year
Being an Aussie I'd have thought that NRL would take more from rugby seeing as the kicking is more diverse (punting/place kicking etc).
Dunno if you're NRL or AFL raised but the AFL kids grow up wondering why NRL/NFL players kick a ball so loosely. We hit the sternum from 40 metres away no problem. NRL don't seem to finesse as well
@@blimolhm2790 because they're kicking for meters not to put the ball in the hands of the opposition. I grew up playing union and AFL. The kicking in rugby is far more diverse for the backs with clearing kicks, chip and chases, drop kicks, place kicks, kicking for touch etc. AFL the kicking is a simpler skill set but the entire team knows it. Ie - you wouldn't trust a prop to kick in rugby. Which is why I'd have thought NFL would borrow more from both codes of rugby.
Gotta say (as an Aussie who grew up kicking the football from age 3 or so) that very few Australians could pull off that gorgeous TD pass that the Bowling Green punter did on the fake punt in the Mobile Alabama Bowl yesterday. So you have that over us.
I thought one of the biggest reasons it doesn't work in the NFL is that gunners can't run before the ball is kicked vs college where they can run on the snap
I’m neither an NFL or AFL fan, I’m just someone with a casual interest in rugby (I’m English, and predominately a football (soccer) and cricket fan) but RUclips directed me here from another video about a Scottish rugby coach working with the Philadelphia Eagles on scrum and line out style plays. It’s been fascinating watching the cross pollination of sports. You’ve seen it in cricket too with say Eoin Morgan’s Irish Hurling inspired batting technique. There must be loads of untapped potential for other crossovers between sports.
I think the real reason behind why the college Aussies haven't had as much impact in the NFL is because NFL coaches are so rigid and unwilling to take a risk on anything that is not the "traditional" style. Just look at the lateral pass for example. You could absolutely wreck an opposing team with 3 or 4 laterals in a play. It's legal in the rules but they won't touch it because it's not traditional. NFL coaches need to evolve their game, the tools are already there in the rules but they are too scared of criticism and fear losing their jobs.
Good point but since the NFL is basically the only professional American Football competition of note (sorry CFL) there is no external pressure to change. With football (soccer) in Europe there is always going to be competition between the top leagues just not in the Champions League but also in attracting the best players.
Even in basketball the rigid positional style of the past faded because of the influence of non-American players. Same with baseball. And of course baseball had moneyball change everything.
But the NFL is a behemoth. By far the biggest domestic sporting league on the planet. It totally dwarfs the Premier League. There just isn't any internal or external pressure for it to change. I know theres college football but that is something thats very different and not really a direct competitor to the NFL.
Man, this video was more well done than anything I've seen on sports center in awhile.
Brad Wing was a great example of this 10+ years ago at LSU. 48 of his 118 punts were inside the 20, and he still holds the school record for career punting average at 44.6. Kinda strange you didn't mention him.
Bennett, Rocca and Ben Graham were standouts as huge kicks in the AFL
In Australia we call it a TORPEDO kick. It bends like a banana, The DROP PUNT is for smaller passes
another fact starting in 1858 AFL is the oldest football league in the world. Followed by Soccer which didn't start until 1871
Australian Football mostly comes from pre-codified Rugby and Soccer and many would say Aboriginal game Marn Grook but there's no documented evidence from Marn Grook.
Rugby/Soccer/Gaelic Football were all called Football back in those days and were a mish-mash of each other before they were codified, there were hundreds of different versions of these games.
Codified Football Games in chronological order:
1859 - Australian Football (many rules based on Rugby rules of 1845 and Cambridge rules of 1856)
1863 - Soccer (most rules from Cambridge 1848-1856 and Sheffield rules of 1858)
1871 - Rugby Union (most rules adopted from Rugby school of grammar 1845)
1887 - Gaelic Football (many rules adopted from Australian Football 1866 rules)
1895 - Rugby League (Breakaway sport from Union)
1903 - Canadian Football (started from 1860's Rugby, later burnside rules)
1906 - American Football (started from 1860's Rugby, later adopted mostly Walter Camp rules from 1880)
Most kids in the southern Australian states grow up kicking the ball - in the park, with our dads and brothers, at school with friends, club footy, etc.. There's a hell of a lot of us who could punt reasonably well despite lacking relative athleticism. It's part of our upbringing.
An an Aussie Rules player of many years ago, coaching to be a better kicker only really came to our game in a big way in the late 70s and onwards. I have been asked to be a kicking coach for my local Aussie Rules club, but unfortunately time did not allow me to go and help the juniors out. I would have loved to give something back to the game i loved to play every weekend. It is at this stage of development (12-17 years old) that coaching of any specialist skill can be the most benefit
Bro 50 to 60 metres is common guys have kicked out to 80+ with spirall type kicks. And remember a metre is further than a yard
was hoping to see some of those wild plays by Michael Dickson where the play broke down and he improvised. I visited Australia in the 90s and my one regret is we didn't see an Aussie football game.
I appreciate the efforts for calling it “footy” .. hehe.
I Am looking forward to this, I remember when it happened but no coverage of it and probably to young as well
Great video. Explained brilliantly. Respect from Aus
Common mistake of American commenters; that Aust. Rules Football is like Rugby. Its antecedents were the indigenous game of Maarngrook - played with a possum skin ball, and Gaelic Football, leading many sons and daughters of Ireland to come to Oz to bless us with their skills.
8:18 the guy in blue shows a classic move, show the guy the ball out wide and at the last moment, pull it in for the kick.
Technical terms for the Australian kicks, Droppy and Screwy, I'm sure you'll be able to work out which one is what.
As a Dickson fan I really appreciated this video. I can definitely seen the correlations with his style of play.
Growing up in NSW country I had never heard of Aussie Rules until my dad mentioned it when I was 17 yo. Never played it or been to a game. So many sports in Australia but AFL has the same issue as NFL, no other country plays it or knows the rules. So you never see how amazing a team is when u have the best players in each position. The southern states love the game so maybe one day it will leave our shores. AFL appears to be a sport connected to community, without that connection success will not come. An observation only about a sport played in another state but for me it is as alien as NFL. Good luck, sports with mates is as good as it gets.
I know it isn’t really related but in the AFL team Collingwood we have a talk Texan named Mason Cox, he had never played AFL but when he came to Australia he was an absolute gun, I don’t know the exacts but he ended up in the team that just won the premier ship, he is so tall that he’s effective in a lot of situations, he has fell off slightly in recent years but his height gives him a lot of versatility
RICHMOND 💛🖤
Thanks for an outstanding video. Really enjoyed how in depth you went into the history of aussies in the NFL
Great points on the added attributes in a Aussie punter. As an aside, I always thought what made Devin Hester a great return man was that he was a defensive back and enjoyed the contact.
Haven't watched AFL since the '80s (when ESPN carried it in the middle of the night here). From what I remember it was quite fun to watch and the rule set was simple enough to figure out most of the rules from just a few minutes watching. Aside from the big 3 in the US, it's probably my favorite professional sport.
Very nice to see the AFL mentioned. These players run for kilometres every game with few breaks, each quarter, in the game. The 'small men', who are' followers' are the princes of fitness.
Great content brother 👍🏾 very interesting and informative
Super awesome, loved the historical deep dive
In rugby you punt to gain territory so if you can aim punt for the corner and make ball bounce on field first before is goes out? of play the punt returner can't attack. I'm from New Zealand Aussie football has similar kicking style to rugby. Another set of skills that helps in rugby to gain yards is the offload pass where you pass ball just after you been tackled so? in Gridiron do a outside run play from QB to FB and FB takes Tackle and offloads to HB. In rugby there are cut passes and? this technique is rugby 101 is the draw and pass you draw defender to ball runner and pass ball in gap/space to the next ball runner running in the gab making space with no blocker that is how we do it in rugby with no blockers :)
Dont care whatsoever on footy or most sports. But ended up watching the entire video. Great work!
Australian Rules basically developed from Gaelic football (from Ireland). The two football codes are uncannily similar even today and Australia and Ireland have played a few internationals using a kind of hybrid structure and rules.
Didn’t even know this was an Isaac video. Good shit bro
very intriguing, well done!
Some of those Aussies that went to the NFL did it when they had already retired from a successful career in the AFL.
Sav Rocca had already spent 15 years in the AFL (the highest level of the sport) before going to the NFL.
Every American I've watched an AFL game with, has commented on two things... The ability to run and kick or pass under pressure, especially from an incoming infamous 'hip & shoulder' and the fact that we don't wear helmets or protection, aside from the mouth guard. Always remind them though, that we aren't made of sugar and spice Down Under
Mate, in Oz we learn those skills at a very early age and grow into them - it doesn't matter how athletic you are, if you come late to Aussie rules you will never compete at even a club level - even Mason Cox, with as much experience (and pro-level coaching) in the game as he has had, still looks very awkward during live play on the field - have you ever once seen him in the open field running full pelt bouncing the ball and kick-passing it to a teammate? No - If he were not 7 ft tall he wouldn't even rate in club footy, honestly
On the other hand, find an athletic Aussie, even AFL level, and give him a Yank footy and see how far and accurately he can throw it downfield (like 40-50 yds) in a perfect spiral and hit a running bloke on the numbers - I'll bet you won't
NFL, NRL and EPL have absolutely nothing in common with Aussie Rules Football.
In early 1989, my brother and I went to Waverley Park in Melbourne to watch a practice match for our team, the Melbourne Demons. There was a new player in the forward line built like a superman. He had number 19 on his back, and we found out his name was Darren Bennett. The most obvious thing about his technique was his kicking, which we both agreed, looked like an American punter. Probably not entirely surprising that’s where he ended up.
Hey Pat McAfee. Love your respect for our game. Reachout mate as I have shit load of info I can relate to our game.
Matt Burton in the NRL what a leg
The state of origin kicks were gigantic
This video is 10/10 but I’m rating it 12/10 because you called a torp, a barrel and that’s legendary to hear that from an American 😂
Aussies have shown that they can run with the ball , they can tackle , they can kick distance , but they can also kick accurately . So my question is have any of the Aussie punters kicked a short pass directly to one of their team mates , or isn't that one of the objectives of the position ? Would it be advantageous in some way to hit a team mate on the chest at 30 yards , because thats what we do in AFL , or further out.
MOST kicking/punting of the ball downfield is on the run to a teammate, usually 20-40 yards away - like a QB rolling out to hit a receiver. Difference is that every player has this skill (all 18 of them on the team) in the Aussie game.