DELISTED AFL players have been chasing NFL careers in the United States since former West Coast and Melbourne forward Darren Bennett spent 10 years punting for the San Diego Chargers before he was inducted into their hall of fame.
Unlike Bennett, who initially did a try-out with the Chargers and spent a season on their practice squad before landing a contract, the route from Australia to the NFL is now almost exclusively via college football.
And while Bennett was a pioneer in the 1990s, before the likes of Sav Rocca and Ben Graham followed suit, more former Australian Footballers than ever before are heading to America for a second chance at a professional sport.
At least five punters who have been on AFL lists are set to play college football in 2026, including three drafted by Hawthorn, a former Collingwood rookie and one who made a late pivot to the sport at almost 30.
One of them – ex Magpie Mitch McCarthy – will play in the national championship game next Tuesday (Australian time) after helping Indiana maintain its undefeated record this season by beating Oregon in its semi-final last week.
Four punters in the two college playoff semi-finals were Australian: James Ferguson-Reynolds (Oregon), Dylan Joyce (Miami), Oscar Bird (Ole Miss) and McCarthy.
McCarthy spent a year on Collingwood's list in 2017 after being selected in the rookie draft, in the same window the Magpies picked Josh Daicos and Callum Brown as father-son recruits. But he was delisted without playing a senior game at the Pies and played for Frankston in the VFL before training to become a punter.
The now 28-year-old will compete with Joyce to become just the fourth Australian after Cameron Johnston in 2014, Brett Thorson in 2022 and Joe McGuire last year to win a national championship ring when the game is played in front of 65,000 fans at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, and a television audience in the millions.
But next season, McCarthy will have competition at Indiana from one of his countrymen. Billy Gowers, the former Western Bulldogs and Carlton forward, entered the transfer portal in late December before committing to the Hoosiers on January 7, after impressing in his first season punting for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in the Mountain West Conference.
"The last 12 months have been crazy," Gowers, who played 33 AFL games, told AFL.com.au.
"Moving to Hawaii a couple of weeks before the season started and not really knowing the rules, not really fully understanding what I was getting myself into. We had an incredible season, the most successful Hawaii season for six or seven years and ended up winning a bowl game.
"It was an incredible introduction to college football and college life. Adjusting to going to classes, studying as well as the training demands and different training philosophies and tools we use over here in comparison to what I'd been used to at AFL level.
"It wasn't all smooth sailing, there were a number of challenges, but it was an amazing lifestyle. I'm very thankful that I got to go to Hawaii and start my American football journey there. But now (I'm) off for another challenge and hopefully bigger and better things in Indiana. Part of the appeal was playing in a bigger conference, in front of bigger crowds, with more exposure to NFL scouts and NFL teams.
"The NFL is the goal."
Gowers was one of 60 Australian punters on college rosters for the 2025-26 season, making up almost 40 per cent of division one programs. The Prokick Australia coaching program has launched the journey for most of them under the guidance of Nathan Chapman, the former Brisbane player who founded the company in 2007 after spending time with the Green Bay Packers.
Since 2021, student athletes have been paid indirectly via name, image and likeness deals, but in the past 12 months, schools have been allowed to directly pay players. And the money they could earn – even as punters – in the next level, the NFL, swamps the earning capacity of the top AFL players.
This season, former Sydney academy member Michael Dickson was the highest paid punter in the NFL, earning US$4.05m (AUD$6.06m) with the Seattle Seahawks after signing a four-year US$16.2m (AUD$24.25m) contract in 2025.
Elsewhere, the Chicago Bears paid Tory Taylor US$1.19m (AUD$1.78m), while Mitch Wishnowsky was paid $1.17m (AUD$1.75m) with the Buffalo Bills and Jeremy Crawshaw collected US$1.1m (AUD$1.64m) at Denver. All four are Prokick alumni, where former St Kilda player and Philadelphia Eagles punter Arryn Siposs is now coaching.
The journey of McCarthy and Gowers from the AFL to the USA is becoming increasingly common.
Jackson Ross, who spent three years on Hawthorn's list without playing a senior AFL game, has now spent the past three seasons punting for the University of Tennessee in the powerhouse Southeastern Conference. Every AFL off-season, a group of Hawks players head to Knoxville to watch Ross in action. This season, the Haileybury College product was a semi-finalist in the prestigious Ray Guy Award – awarded to the premier punter in college football – which was won by Thorson, another Australian.
Another former Hawk, Damon Greaves, punted for the Colorado Buffaloes in 2025 after two years with the Kansas Jayhawks. The 25-year-old played 10 games across three years at Hawthorn before being delisted at the end of 2021.
Jasper Scaife is the latest former Hawk to make the move having landed a scholarship with the University of Notre Dame – another famous Indiana institution – after being delisted by Hawthorn last September.
The 21-year-old, who spent 18 months at Waverley Park after being selected in the 2024 Mid-Season Rookie Draft, was chased by a number of state league clubs to continue his Australian Football career in 2026. But he ultimately chose to purse a foreign sport in a foreign land after a rapid offer materialised from the Fighting Irish.
"The move came about pretty abruptly, there wasn't a lot of prior playing," Scaife told AFL.com.au from Notre Dame. "In saying that, I always knew what would be next after AFL and I'm certainly very fortunate to be in that position."
Mackenzie Morgan founded Inside20 punting after returning to Australia when his own college career finished in 2022. Scaife is mates with Morgan and got to work with him after Hawthorn didn't offer him a contract for 2026. Life changed quick.
"I kicked the ball for the first time, got some film and within a couple of weeks I had an offer from Notre Dame, which still shocks me to be frank," Scaife said.
Recently delisted Carlton key forward Harry Lemmey might be the next Australian to head abroad after he opted to join Prokick in recent weeks having signed with West Adelaide in the SANFL last November.
College football is a multi-billion-dollar business where student athletes, having been uncompensated for decades, can now earn plenty of money.
But these five players are the latest hoping to make the leap from the AFL to the NCAA to the NFL.