The art of kicking a floating bomb started somewhere on a Dubbo footy field for Matt Burton when he was a young boy deciding whether he wanted to be a Rugby League star or soccer player.
Burton didn’t know too much about tactics back then for either sport. Like most young kids, he just knew he liked trying to kick the ball as high and far as he could to test out his teammates.
“During junior footy I used to put them up and test all the boys out and we used to have little competitions and stuff like that,” Burton told nswrl.com.au.
“I used to play soccer as a kid as well, so I don’t know if that’s got something to do with it. We were only young; we didn’t really have positions then. We just used to try and belt the ball as hard as we could so that’s probably the same as I try to do now.
“I played a bit of soccer and footy when I was nine and the legs were a bit worn out after that. I ended up giving up soccer and playing Rugby League full-time when I was 12.”
That’s good news for the Brydens Lawyers NSW Blues. From the footy fields, Burton progressed to the streets of Dubbo as a teenager where the bombs he launched were getting higher and higher and the targets changed to the local power lines.
He kept working on his craft after moving from the Group 11 competition to take up an NRL offer at the Penrith Panthers, but his kicking game wasn’t really required after playing the 2021 premiership-winning year at centre.
This season saw Burton switch to Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs as their starting five-eighth and the spirally torpedo bombs which he launches to terrorise his opponents has quickly become a feature of his game.
“I get a lot of tips off our coaches at the Bulldogs,” Burton said.
“I do goal-kicking with Daryl Halligan and (assistant) Craig Sandercock is always in my ear about the bombs and just working on them.
“I just try to put heaps of time and effort into it and try and perfect them so I can pull them off in the games.”
Burton certainly perfected one in Game Two of the Ampol State of Origin series in Perth. With the second half just underway and the Blues up 14-12, Burton unleashed a towering bomb that swirled, swerved and dipped away from the outstretched hands of Queensland winger Murray Taulagi.
“If I hit one good you know straight away that you’ve hit it well,” Burton said.
“I’ve just got to keep working hard and keep practising so I can execute them in the game.”
Burton’s bombs have been a feature at training for the Brydens Lawyers NSW Blues for the past week in Kingscliff with the back three of James Tedesco, Brian To’o and Daniel Tupou receiving plenty of aerial threats to test them.
The NSW centre was happy to run through his technique later on with nswrl.com.au but we’re sworn to secrecy until after the decider on Wednesday night. Needless to say, it has a lot to do with the way you grip the ball and where you need to strike it.
“We don’t want to give too much away,” he said, laughing.
