Busselton’s Damon Greaves makes impressive debut for new college Colorado after transferring from Kansas

Busselton’s Damon Greaves produced an impressive first showing for his new college Colorado last week. Greaves, who transferred to the Buffaloes over the off-season after two seasons with Kansas, had five punts for a total of 225 yards in their season-opening 27-20 loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday. In American football, teams have four attempts to advance the ball 10 yards, with punters tasked with kicking the ball on the fourth attempt to ensure teams defend from a more favourable field position. Greaves was taken out of East Perth in 2018’s AFL draft by Hawthorn and went on to play 10 AFL games across three seasons with the Hawks. While spending 2022 back with the Royals, he began training for a code switch and joined the growing ranks of Australian punters in college football by committing to the Jayhawks in 2023. Greaves replaced another Australian punter in Mark Vassett at Colorado and has inherited his nickname of “Mate”, with coach Deion Sanders wasting no time in christening him as “New Mate”. Joining the Buffaloes will give Greaves more chances to play in front of national audiences — the school’s low-profile football program became one of the most culturally relevant in the country after the appointment of Sanders, one of the greatest players in the sport’s history, as coach in 2023. Sanders’ sons Shedeur and Shilo both played under him at the Buffaloes but turned professional at the end of last season. Greaves’ next game will come when Colorado take on Delaware at 3.30am on Sunday WA time.