The 21-year-old recently returned from a two-week tour of the US, where he visited colleges from California to Washington.

Smith has been making weekly visits to Melbourne, departing Wangaratta at 4am on a Sunday, to train with Prokick Australia’s Nathan Chapman.

Former Hawthorn and Brisbane player Chapman, who trains athletes with big kicks into American football punters and place kickers, worked closely with Wodonga’s Josh Bartel before he made it to the Canadian Football League with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

While Smith stressed he still had plenty of work to do before realising his American punting dream, he said his goal was to win a scholarship and make it onto a D1 college roster.

“I thought I would go over and see how it all worked,” he said.

“It went not too bad from all reports but there’s no guarantees. I’ve definitely still got a fair bit of work to do but the coaches are optimistic that it’s not beyond me, which is good.”

Smith has been a mainstay in the Rovers’ defence with his booming left foot but said mastering an NFL-style ball was much different to kicking the Sherrin.

“It’s definitely hard while I’m still playing football, that’s for sure, because it’s a different style of what you do,” he said.

“Your body is trained from a young age here to kick a football the way you kick a football and it doesn’t really work the same way if you try and kick an NFL ball like that.

“You shank a fair few so it’s a lot about teaching yourself how to kick an NFL ball and training your body to do it that way and not the way you want to kick a footy.”

Smith missed the Hawks’ recent matches against Wangaratta and Corowa-Rutherglen but will play out the final two matches of the season before turning his attention to American punting.

Yarrawonga recruit Wade Lees scored a scholarship with the University of Maryland late last year.