Hempstead, N.Y. ? Ben Graham’s journey to the NFL began with a long kick over a big river in Australia.

Sounds like the premise of a heartwarming children’s tale, except this one’s true. New York Jets coach Eric Mangini saw the tape that proved it.

“He kicked the ball over the Yarra River, and that was it for me,” Mangini said, recalling the jaw-dropping video he saw nine years ago.

Graham was competing in a made-for-television event that featured some of the strongest legs in the Australian Football League, where he was a star for the Geelong Cats. He made it to the final of the competition and had to kick it as far as he could into Melbourne’s main river.

“He kicked it over, and at that point, what he was doing with that ball, I was kind of curious to see what he could do for us,” said Mangini, who was then an assistant with the Jets.

Mangini offered him a chance to try out for the team and Graham briefly flirted with the idea.

“Eric saw the footage before I sent the DVDs out to get my name out there on the radar in America, but he was the first one to see,” Graham said in his warm Australian accent. “He worked me out and that started the ball rolling.”

And just like a boomerang, the two are back together – even though it took a while.

Graham is in his second season booming punts for the Jets, and ranks ninth in the NFL with a 38.6-yard net average. It would be higher if not for 61- and 56-yard punts earlier this season that were negated by penalties. Not bad for a guy who knew nothing about punting until last summer.

“If someone had asked me two years ago and said that in two years time, ‘This is where you’d be,’ I would’ve taken it hands down,” Graham said.

The 33-year-old Graham was considered mostly a novelty last summer when Herman Edwards brought him into training camp to compete with veteran Micah Knorr. But with each left-footed, end-over-end thump, it became apparent Graham was the real deal.

He had an impressive rookie season in which he had a net average of 37.9 yards. When Mangini took over as the Jets’ coach, it was a no-brainer that he’d keep Graham.

“He has incredible strength,” said special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff, who previously coached Pro Bowlers Reggie Roby, Matt Turk and Rohn Stark.