There's nothing in rugby league quite like Matt Burton's bombs.
There's a few players across the league that can really launch them, but nobody does it like Burton and as high as they look on television the sensation hits very differently in person, as it did in Canterbury's epic 15-14 victory over North Queensland on Sunday night.
Necks become stiff watching the ball swirl in the air. Men grow old waiting for it to come down. The crowd doesn't quite cheer when Burton lets fly, but you can feel their collective expectation. They want to see the bombs, because they want to see an explosion.
Burton got one of those kicks early in the second half and the crowd reacted accordingly, even though the Cowboys managed to clean it up after letting it bounce.
He got another in golden point, and it looked deadly until North Queensland fullback Tom Chester made the catch of the day.
He'd tried it once or twice before, but didn't quite hit the meat of the ball. That's not a fatal blow though, because the bomb is just one weapon in Burton's extensive arsenal.
Matt Burton found the winning touch in Canterbury's win over North Queensland.(Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
He has a fine touch and clear vision to back up the mind-bending power, as he showed with his sharp grubber for Jacob Preston's try in the first half, and while he couldn't unleash his dynamic running game on the sodden Stadium Australia turf we all know he has that as well.
Burton wasn't perfect on Sunday night, but he has the juice. There are plenty of good players in the NRL but not all of them can take the footy in extra time from wide out and far back and kick the leather off the Steeden right through the posts.
Some guys have what it takes when it counts and Burton has it, because he has everything, but he can still have so much more.
The challenge for him is not finding his gifts, but taming and mastering his prodigious abilities, to play with control – not of the team, but of himself.
There's no guarantee he ever gets there but falling short of that goal is far from failure. The player he most resembles in style, Canberra's Jack Wighton, has yet to fully figure himself out after over 200 NRL matches but still has a Clive Churchill Medal, a Dally M, a score of Test and Origin caps and club legend status at the Raiders to his name.
The responsibility of making sure Burton maximises his own potential is not just on the man himself. Situation, as ever, plays a role.
Wighton only settled into five-eighth in his eighth season in first grade and has never been paired with a halfback for longer than two seasons.
As a result, Wighton has become one of the most vexing players in the sport. The sheer interest in his next move since he announced he would explore his options on the open market is proof of his ability and pedigree.
There is plenty of Canberra star Jack Wighton in Matt Burton's game. (Getty Images: Daniel Pockett)
But even now, after achieving so much, he can struggle with decision-making and lapses of concentration and given he's closer to the end of his career than the start that will likely be the way it stays.
It sounds like a paradox but Wighton is a great footballer while not being a great five-eighth even though it is his best position. If Burton ended up with Wighton's career it would be a terrific result and he would retire with a brilliant resume but it's easy to imagine him having even more.
But to get there, Burton has his own situational challenges to overcome. Outside of Reed Mahoney, he lacks a little support in the playmaking department.
Fullback Hayze Perham has impressed with his running through the first five weeks of the season, and did so again in flashes on Sunday night, but is still developing as a passer while Kyle Flanagan is still rediscovering his confidence after a difficult few seasons.
It means the margin for error for Burton is much thinner than anybody would like. The Bulldogs can struggle to find the key attacking touch if either he or Mahoney is not providing it – although the lively addition of Josh Reynolds, who set up a try for Preston, might go some way to helping that.
Right now, the Bulldogs are also a little thin in the forwards. Key middles Luke Thompson and Tevita Pangai Jnr have yet to play a game this season, Viliame Kikau missed the Cowboys match due to concussion and Raymond Faitala-Mariner departed in the opening minutes and did not return.
None of these are fatal flaws, for Canterbury's season or for Burton's development. This is a team with plenty of ticker – they didn't lead North Queensland for a single second on Sunday night until Burton's field goal sailed through the posts.
There is so much upside for Cameron Ciraldo's side. The forwards will return eventually and Burton will have a more solid platform to work off. Perham is looking better by the week and threw a crucial ball in the lead up to the last-second equalising try to Josh Addo-Carr.
As Ciraldo pointed out after the match, Burton himself has barely a season's worth of NRL experience in the halves and finding that total understanding of his own football is something that even the best playmakers in the league take years to learn, if they learn it at all.
But it is hard to be patient when the bombs are reigning down from heaven, or when Burton ducks down a blindside with five minutes to go, chips for himself, regathers and forces a drop out to keep Canterbury alive, or when he boldly kicks for Addo-Carr deep inside his own half, or when he takes the ball with the game on the line and hits it so sweetly and so truly it might land halfway back to Belmore if he really put his full boot into it.
These are the good things, the very best of rugby league, the things some teams spend years searching for and what they dream of finding.
Burton has so much to give and he can do so many things. How can you not want more of it? How can you not want it right now?
There's a few players across the league that can really launch them, but nobody does it like Burton and as high as they look on television the sensation hits very differently in person, as it did in Canterbury's epic 15-14 victory over North Queensland on Sunday night.
Necks become stiff watching the ball swirl in the air. Men grow old waiting for it to come down. The crowd doesn't quite cheer when Burton lets fly, but you can feel their collective expectation. They want to see the bombs, because they want to see an explosion.
Burton got one of those kicks early in the second half and the crowd reacted accordingly, even though the Cowboys managed to clean it up after letting it bounce.
He got another in golden point, and it looked deadly until North Queensland fullback Tom Chester made the catch of the day.
He'd tried it once or twice before, but didn't quite hit the meat of the ball. That's not a fatal blow though, because the bomb is just one weapon in Burton's extensive arsenal.
Matt Burton found the winning touch in Canterbury's win over North Queensland.(Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
He has a fine touch and clear vision to back up the mind-bending power, as he showed with his sharp grubber for Jacob Preston's try in the first half, and while he couldn't unleash his dynamic running game on the sodden Stadium Australia turf we all know he has that as well.
Burton wasn't perfect on Sunday night, but he has the juice. There are plenty of good players in the NRL but not all of them can take the footy in extra time from wide out and far back and kick the leather off the Steeden right through the posts.
Some guys have what it takes when it counts and Burton has it, because he has everything, but he can still have so much more.
The challenge for him is not finding his gifts, but taming and mastering his prodigious abilities, to play with control – not of the team, but of himself.
There's no guarantee he ever gets there but falling short of that goal is far from failure. The player he most resembles in style, Canberra's Jack Wighton, has yet to fully figure himself out after over 200 NRL matches but still has a Clive Churchill Medal, a Dally M, a score of Test and Origin caps and club legend status at the Raiders to his name.
The responsibility of making sure Burton maximises his own potential is not just on the man himself. Situation, as ever, plays a role.
Wighton only settled into five-eighth in his eighth season in first grade and has never been paired with a halfback for longer than two seasons.
As a result, Wighton has become one of the most vexing players in the sport. The sheer interest in his next move since he announced he would explore his options on the open market is proof of his ability and pedigree.
There is plenty of Canberra star Jack Wighton in Matt Burton's game. (Getty Images: Daniel Pockett)
But even now, after achieving so much, he can struggle with decision-making and lapses of concentration and given he's closer to the end of his career than the start that will likely be the way it stays.
It sounds like a paradox but Wighton is a great footballer while not being a great five-eighth even though it is his best position. If Burton ended up with Wighton's career it would be a terrific result and he would retire with a brilliant resume but it's easy to imagine him having even more.
But to get there, Burton has his own situational challenges to overcome. Outside of Reed Mahoney, he lacks a little support in the playmaking department.
Fullback Hayze Perham has impressed with his running through the first five weeks of the season, and did so again in flashes on Sunday night, but is still developing as a passer while Kyle Flanagan is still rediscovering his confidence after a difficult few seasons.
It means the margin for error for Burton is much thinner than anybody would like. The Bulldogs can struggle to find the key attacking touch if either he or Mahoney is not providing it – although the lively addition of Josh Reynolds, who set up a try for Preston, might go some way to helping that.
Right now, the Bulldogs are also a little thin in the forwards. Key middles Luke Thompson and Tevita Pangai Jnr have yet to play a game this season, Viliame Kikau missed the Cowboys match due to concussion and Raymond Faitala-Mariner departed in the opening minutes and did not return.
None of these are fatal flaws, for Canterbury's season or for Burton's development. This is a team with plenty of ticker – they didn't lead North Queensland for a single second on Sunday night until Burton's field goal sailed through the posts.
There is so much upside for Cameron Ciraldo's side. The forwards will return eventually and Burton will have a more solid platform to work off. Perham is looking better by the week and threw a crucial ball in the lead up to the last-second equalising try to Josh Addo-Carr.
As Ciraldo pointed out after the match, Burton himself has barely a season's worth of NRL experience in the halves and finding that total understanding of his own football is something that even the best playmakers in the league take years to learn, if they learn it at all.
But it is hard to be patient when the bombs are reigning down from heaven, or when Burton ducks down a blindside with five minutes to go, chips for himself, regathers and forces a drop out to keep Canterbury alive, or when he boldly kicks for Addo-Carr deep inside his own half, or when he takes the ball with the game on the line and hits it so sweetly and so truly it might land halfway back to Belmore if he really put his full boot into it.
These are the good things, the very best of rugby league, the things some teams spend years searching for and what they dream of finding.
Burton has so much to give and he can do so many things. How can you not want more of it? How can you not want it right now?
