Aussie Super Bowl hero Michael Dickson believes NRL star Matt Burton could make the leap into the high-stakes world of NFL punting – provided his attention to detail is immense.
Burton’s towering bombs have garnered comparison to NFL punts for years, with the Canterbury five-eighth recently filmed blasting the pigskin more than 60 metres at pre-season training.
The 25-year-old has admitted his interest in a code switch and had the chance to train at the Las Vegas Raiders’ facilities this week as the Bulldogs prepared for the NRL’s opening round at Allegiant Stadium.
Sydney-born Dickson follows the AFL more closely than the NRL, having previously dreamed of an Aussie Rules career as a member of the Sydney Swans academy.
But the newly minted Super Bowl champion has no doubt an NRL athlete of Burton’s calibre could transition into the NFL if he wanted.
‘I’m sure he could do it,’ the Seattle Seahawks punter said.
Aussie Super Bowl hero Michael Dickson believes NRL star Matt Burton could make the leap into the high-stakes world of NFL punting – if his attention to detail is immense
Burton is open to a code switch and had the chance to train at the Las Vegas Raiders’ facilities this week as the Bulldogs prepared for their NRL season opener against the Dragons
‘It’s quite different to Aussie Rules and league, the sweet spot (on the ball) is completely different. He would eventually find the sweet spot kicking an NFL ball.’
Dickson’s punting journey took him to Melbourne to train with Prokick Australia, on to college at the University of Texas and finally to Seattle when the Seahawks drafted him in 2018.
The 30-year-old has risen in the ranks to become the NFL’s highest-paid punter and only the second Australian to play on a winning Super Bowl team after his Seahawks defeated New England earlier this month.
But the fame and fortune has been underpinned by meticulous hard work.
Early on, Dickson realised American football punters were not afforded the same luxuries he once had chasing a Sherrin, and what Burton has playing in the NRL.
‘In league, you can hit a bad ball and be like, ‘That’s it, I want to make this tackle, I want to do something here (to make amends)’,’ Dickson said.
‘(In the NFL) you might only get three or four punts a game. And if one or two of them aren’t perfect, you can still hit a decent ball but it’s not perfect, then 50 per cent of your game wasn’t up to standard.
‘It’s very easy to hit one good punt.
Sydney-born Dickson previously dreamed of an Aussie Rules career as a member of the Sydney Swans academy (pictured, playing in the Super Bowl for Seattle)
‘But it’s really quite difficult to have a year where out of 70 punts, 65 of them are really good punts. That’s a very hard thing to do, so I give it the attention and the effort that it deserves.’
Since 2020, Dickson has kept journals documenting and analysing almost 1000 punts he has sent up in games and training sessions.
Off the park, he reads books on stoicism, performance psychology and discipline as he pushes to master his craft.
Dickson counts Ryan Holiday and Michael Gervais among his favourite authors, and was given a Kindle for Christmas to up his reading game this off-season.
‘I try to leave no stone unturned,’ Dickson said. ‘It’s about extreme discipline in the detail.’
Aside from working hard, Dickson said to make it in the NFL Burton would need to be physically up to scratch and believe in himself to an almost excessive degree.
‘You’ve got to have a big leg, and you have to be somewhat delusional,’ he said.
‘A lot of the time, you’re going out there when the game’s not going well, the offence wasn’t doing their thing. You need to go out there and think, I’m about to flip this game.’
