Successful teams base their clubs around key players in key positions. Having stability amongst your marquee senior players, lets your recruit around the talents of those players and ensure you have a balanced squad that can implement a game plan that the coach wants to implement.
For Parramatta, our side has been based around one player - Jarryd Hayne. But for all of Hayne’s brilliance, he was almost impossible to build a team around. Hayne was such a dominant figure within Parramatta that halves found it very difficult to strike a balance with him. If you’re a number seven wanting to go one way, and your fullback calls it and it goes the other way, it’s difficult to put your stamp on the game as a playmaker.
The result has been that Parramatta has pieced together an odds-and-ends team that signalled no clear intent or strategic direction. Stephen Kearney joined the club preaching defence and the ability to grind a game out Melbourne Storm-style, yet signed ad-hoc players with known discipline problems like Chris Sandow, Willie and Essie Tonga. RIcky Stuart came to the club promising a clear-out directed towards a five-year plan. but nobody - including himself - seemed to know what the five-year plan was. We picked up the only players we could given we were a rabble at board-room level and anchored to the bottom of the table.
Brad Arthur came to the club and was immediately able to demonstrate a blueprint for the way he expected the Eels to play. He clearly wanted more aggression in both attack and defence, and implemented structures designed to put the opposition in two minds, but still the freedom for the players to play what they saw in front of them.
It was clever because it gave Jarryd Hayne more space (not freedom) than he’d ever had since 2009 and it allowed Chris Sandow to play as much of his natural game as possible.
However, it was just as obvious that the Arthur-led Eels had gaps in their roster. The Eels missed steel and experience in the forwards and ruthlessness and control in the halves. We signed Anthony Watmough with the goal of solving the first problem, but the latter was a bigger issue to solve. Most Eels fans would agree that Chris Sandow, while often brilliant, too often took wrong options or didn’t come up with the right last tackle play, while Corey Norman has never quite been able to put his stamp on the game and also seemed to get frazzled when pressure.
It meant that the Eels failed to apply enough pressure during games. They weren’t getting rewarded for tough defensive efforts, by winning repeat sets; and they tended to lose control of games, recording regular blow-out losses.
And that’s where Kieran Foran comes in. Foran is no slouch in terms of creativity or his kicking game, but they’re not his forte, either. Foran’s talent is being out to come up with the big play when pressure needs to be applied; which he does either through effort or just having a cool head and knowing what the right play is for that particular time.
What Foran will give us, is a leader on the field. A player that the ball will go to when we need the right play; a player that will make sure the game is well-managed. And that is a player that you can build a roster around. I think if Chris Sandow is retained and holds down the seven (and I think he will) that he very well complements Foran and will have even more freedom to play his natural game, which is primarily a running game. WIll Hopoate will love running off Foran, just as Brett Stewart has at Manly.
It seems likely that Foran willl assume the captaincy and solve a leadership dilemma that has plagued the Eels, arguably since the loss of Nathan Cayless. And he just fits with that Brad Arthur blueprint as a fierce competitor, who plays the game tough and hard; and who can carry out a plan but also take an opportunity when he sees it.
And that’s why Foran will be worth every cent. He’s not just a player we can build a roster around, he’s a player we can build a club around. He not only plays the game in the style we want to play, he’s also going to provide a benchmark for the type of character that we want at our club.
Replies
I'm excited. If you asked me which 1 player was at the top of my dreaming wish list, I would have said Foran. I just hope the reports are true.
I believe I called it weeks ago!
I wish the search on here wasn't so shit, because I'd like to find my post from about two years ago before he re-signed with Manly when I said he'd be number one target. I'm stoked beyond comprehension.
Phil are you saying that Parra wouldn't be a better side this year with the inclusion of Hayne?
Just interested to hear your thoughts.
I think Parra are now a better balanced side that isn't relying on one super star.
So that is the crux of what I've been saying for the last three years - I've been dusted from pillar to post for my long-standing desire to see Hayne move to six, and what people failed to understand in terms of what I was trying to say, was that we couldn't get balance with Hayne at one. I don't believe any football team can have balance with its most dominant player at fullback. We improved when Arthur pulled back on Hayne's responsibility and made him play more a traditional game and yeh, I think we're going to improve again this year by allowing our halves to control the game. That's why when Hayne left, I was so cool with it and had my rant about everybody crying over it. You've got to get a football team right in terms of having the right people doing the right things, and when you bend all the rules of Rugby League that's just a recipe for.... well, two wooden spoons.
None of which is to denigrate Hayne. Put him a side where he just gets to be a fullback (ie Origin) and he's arguably one of the best to ever play the game, but he's not a good choice of player to build an NRL club around.
Great read. You've summed up my thoughts exactly.
I agree with everything except for the point you made about Foran assuming the captaincy. Thats too much pressure for him in his first season. Without a doubt he will be captain some day, but he would need atleast a year or two under his belt to be a genuine leader within the team.
We've come so far in the last couple of seasons. Without getting too carried away, the turnaround has been remarkable. I remember a while ago there was a rumour that Matt Prior was going to sign and everyone was stoked. Matt. FUCKING. Prior.
lol. That's gold
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