Patrick Murtagh’s NFL contract with Detroit Lions shows new frontiers for aspiring Aussie athletes

Back in January, NFL scouts had the same reaction when they first sighted one-time Gold Coast Sun and newly-signed Detroit Lion Patrick Murtagh.

“They were surprised with how well I was catching the ball,” Murtagh tells CODE Sports.

“But coming from an AFL background that's what we do, all day, every day. Then we get given gloves over there, which makes it so much more stickier and easier to grab!”

It's this catching element of Murtagh’s signing that shapes as a watershed moment for Australian athletes, particularly those who have taken speckies since Auskick. It’s made more intriguing given that Murtagh himself was only converted to the high marking of Australian rules in his late teens.

Murtagh has been signed off the back of an intensive 10 week placement in the NFL’s International Player Program as a tight-end, a position that requires a mixture of offensive and defensive skills very different to previous Australian NFL converts.

“Being from Australia there was a stereotype, ‘Oh you’re here to punt the ball’ … but I was always coming as a tight end.”

Punters like Chargers great Darren Bennett paved the way for a string of Aussies with an AFL-background, while Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle and one time rugby league player, Jordan Mailata is the latest Australian NFL success story.

Murtagh represents one of the first Australians signed to catch the ball. He thinks there are a lot of transferable skill-sets between the codes for specific positions.

“In the AFL you want to catch it out in front of you because you have a defender trying to punch the ball from behind, and he can punch it if you try to take it on your chest,” Murtagh explains.

“The same goes here, when you're running your routes you want to catch it out in front of you because you have a defender right up you too. I found that pretty similar and it gave me confidence throughout the camp having that experience and catching ability.”

The Detroit Lions see Murtagh as big enough to block other big bodies and someone who can run like the wind, jump like a kangaroo and catch the ball at its highest point.

It's the sort of skill-set that key forwards in the AFL possess, Murtagh’s old Suns teammate Ben King springing readily to mind, though he is at pains not to single out one player, believing many have the raw ability.

“Everyone in an AFL team has high quality traits and elite skills, so it is possible. Ben King, yes, but anyone really.”

Head of the newly created NFL Australia, Charlotte Offord is understandably thrilled with the success of Murtagh. She is not planning on any AFL team-poaching expeditions but thinks there are many transferable skill-sets between Australian football and other domestic sports.

“They all know about the punting ability, but we haven’t focused on the Australian football skill of catching the ball at its highest point, while running flat out under physical pressure,” Offord tells CODE Sports.

“There are athletes around Australia that have grown up with the ability to do this, so Pat’s success just opens the door a bit to that.”

Which is not to say it would be an easy path. Murtagh says the technical aspects of running routes and when to block has been a more challenging process than picking up the nuances of the Australian game when at the Suns, but there’s also some physical challenges that any aspiring Australian Sherrin-chaser would need to overcome.

“The blocking was very foreign to me, I had to learn and adjust really quickly. In the AFL the biggest guy you get on the field is about 110kgs, whereas the smallest guy you have to block on the field in the NFL is 110kgs,” he laughs.

“So that’s a big change, these boys are powerful and it's very technical how you do things.”

Murtagh’s ability to be adaptable, a legacy of his time learning the various skills of the AFL, was impressive in a system used to dealing with more one-dimensional athletes.

“I primarily learned the tight end skills, but whenever I had some extra time I tried to learn an extra skill, whether that be punting or long snapping, just adding extra tools to my toolbox.”

For a still very young man, Murtagh’s sporting journey has covered an extraordinary amount of ground, so he thinks others can follow in his footsteps.

“Hopefully I can open the door, and not just AFL, any sport,” he says.

“I finished school, then I went to athletics, then I went to AFL and now I'm here on an NFL list and I’m only 23 years old.

“Do everything you can while you’re young, try everything you can, you just don't know where you might end up.”

So if you’re young, big, quick and can pluck a high grab, then the NFL might be calling. Just like it’s previously been for those who could roost the ball extraordinary distances.

Murtagh flies out on Monday to Detroit as the living embodiment of that possibility, but knowing the hardest part is yet to some.

“It's going to take a lot more sacrifice and hard work, but you can’t put a roof on your dreams.”