When you’re a boy in Australia, you punt.
On a peewee football team in the United States, perhaps one or two kids are trained as punters. But all 18 players on an Australian rules football team have to be able to punt on the run, from a variety of angles and distances.
“All growing up I was kicking the ball in the park,” said Tom Hackett, a native of Australia. “If you can’t kick, you’re not going to make it very far.”
Hackett, like many of his young countrymen, had the dream of being an Australian rules football player.