If this year has shown anything, the sides that have succeeded have been those who have had quality across the park.
The way Rugby League has evolved it really is the ultimate team game. If you don’t have each and every one of your seventeen players doing their job, you will struggle to win games.
In the first instance, defence has never been more critical. Most sides run incredibly sophisticated attacking structures that force decisions right across the defensive line. You simply can’t afford to have a single weak-link in your defence, or you’ll leak too many points to ever be consistently competitive. On the flipside, sides like the Storm, Sharks and even the Eels before it all became too much, have been winning games off the back of their defence. The top teams are those with the best defence.
Similarly in attack, you need multiple options. Again, those same sides at the top of the table threaten you all over the park. They have halves who can take the ball to line and pick options, great edge runners they can go short too, they have a top class fullback out the back who can deliver a final pass or run and they have big boppers in the middle who take the team forward. And critically they have clever halves who cause uncertainty in the middle and cause defences to not number up properly.
If you fall down in any one area, you’re simply not in the game.
On the other hand, what we haven’t really seen this year is any one individual totally dominate the game, and that goes right through the season and also into representative matches.
Jarryd Hayne is in many respects a luxury player. Fullbacks are like the cream on top of the pie. You can put the best fullback in the world in an otherwise ordinary side, and you’ll struggle to get results as the Parramatta side’s of recent seasons can attest to.
However, put Hayne into a top-class team where he gets that little extra space and opportunity and he’s better than anyone. His performances at representative level are testimony to that.
Hayne is a great fit for the Gold Coast. They have a solid, all-round team and they’re biggest deficiency is that little bit of X-factor and given they’ve got good young halves on reasonable coin, there in the position to splash for a star fullback. Personally, I think they’re potential is being over-rated at present on the basis that they have flown under the radar and once the competition gets serious, I think they lack overall quality. As Ash Taylor tackles the dreaded second-year syndrome and Greg Bird gets another year older, they run the risk, as Parramatta did, of looking for Hayne to be a creator. We’ll see how that pans out.
On the flipside, Hayne just wasn’t a great fit at this time and juncture for the Eels. Bevan French has been groomed for the Eels fullback role, and to date he’s justified every rap placed on him.
With Clint Gutherson also representing a genuine fullback option, we have much more significant deficiencies at seven and nine, and we probably lack a big body in the middle. The Eels could have afforded Hayne, and despite what Max Donnelly said in the press, we wouldn’t have needed to move players on, but we would have struggled to solve those deficiencies. Importantly, we’re not just talking this year, but it would have been tough to build out a squad over the longer-term with such a significant investment in Hayne, on top of the significant salary demanded by Corey Norman and the investment we’ve already made in players like Michael Jennings.
That’s a factor Gold Coast will have to face down the track. Ash Taylor will come off contract next year and if he holds his form he could potentially go from a $200k rookie to a $600k+ marquee half. That’s when Gold Coast will start facing a salary cap squeeze.
If the Eels fail to improve their stocks at seven and nine, it may yet prove to be a miscalculation not going all-out for Hayne. Land a big fish like Cooper Cronk, though, who better addresses the current deficiencies in the Eels roster, and the Eels will be more than justified in not attempting to chase the Titan’s offer. I’ll add that Brad Arthur has built his team on the mantra of “keep turning up for each other” and employing one player on outlandish money does nothing to enforce that and develop that level of team camaraderie. I’m more than willing to back the coach’s judgement and watch the player market unfold, because as the Titans have shown, one can go from zero to hero very quickly.
Replies
If that's the gist , I wholeheartedly agree .
As a player I'm not overly concerned we didn't sign him. I don't agree he is a perfect fit for the Titans, the Titans have good young halves that are playing direct at the line with Hayne in the team you play out the back. Look how much better Norman has been in the years since Hayne left, in the first year many people were questioning his signing, he had to play out the back to give Hayne early ball know he plays direct at the line and was the form 5/8 of the comp.
In short 1.2 mil for a fullback is stupid, to justify that money you have to bring him into the game that means playing out the back to Hayne and the compromise of your halves taking on the line.
the club is bigger than hayne his brand was built on being aligned with us. We have a Semi trailer and French tickler who needs him.
We are one of only a few teams that have a decent amount of salary cap space going into 2017 so this puts us in a great position to acquire who we want next year.
Surely he must be a step brother or an adopted brother Dr Wong?
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