From Dumbalk to US championship

TomHAYES

APAIRofGippsland punters battled it out on the biggest college football stage in the US last month during the NCAA College Football PlayoffNationalChampionship, when TCU Horned Frogs took on the Georgia Bulldogs.

Traralgon’s Jordy Sandy and Dumbalk’s Brett Thorson competed in front of more than 72,000 spectators at SoFi Stadium in California.

Both punters playedtheir respective parts for their sides, but it was ultimately Thorson and Georgia who won the National Championship, by alandslide 65-7.

Multiple records werebroken during the night,some unpleasanttolook at from Sandy and TCU’s point of view.

It was the biggest winning margin -a whopping 58 points -inachampionship gameinthe CFPera (since the 2014 season).

The second-biggest margin in the CFP era was just 28 points, occurring twice, in 2019 and 2021.

Georgia became the first school to win back-to-back CFP National Championships, which led to multiple players becoming two-time National Champions.

Ensuringits dominance, Georgia became the thirdschool to complete aCFP season 15-0, after LSU and Clemson did so in the 2019 and 2020 seasons.

As for the Aussiesindividual performances, on the losing side, Sandy had five punts totalling 185 yards (169 metres), while Thorson was only needed once, thanks to the dominant Georgia offence, nailing a48-yardpunt (44 metres), in the thirdterm.

Although the 2022 season is now wrapped up, both Sandy and Thorson will be back in action for the 2023 season, beginning later this year in August.

Sandy will enter his fifth year,while he turns 30 in 2023, as he was allowed to stay for an additional year due to COVID interruptions.

As for Thorson, his futureappears bright after amore-than-successful first year in the system.

Throughout the season, he made aname for himself with amonster 75-yardpunt, which was the biggest of any Georgia punter in nearly 10 years.

Beforethe season had begun, he ranked well among other freshmen punters; number one from Australia and number four overall, according to 247sports.com.

As both locals look set to have another stirring campaign in 2023, we will be eagerly waiting for the season to kick off later in the year