I have a fear.
I fear that Parramatta had long settled on Ben Roberts as their five-eighth for next year. I fear there is going to be pressure for early wins next year at whatever the cost and that we may opt for the safe option and go into the off-season with the plan in place to play Maitua and Roberts as our halves combination with Jarryd Hayne returning to fullback.
I've wanted to see how Hayne would perform at six before I settled on who would be the halves combination for next year. Personally, I've seen enough to say that without question Hayne should be our long-term six.
Right now, Jarryd Hayne is not an elite five-eighth. Right now, you might even argue that Ben Roberts is a better five-eighth than Jarryd Hayne. I wouldn't agree with you, but it would make the subject of a willing debate. However, right now is not where our heads should be. Our heads and our focus should be on September 2012.
Hand up those who think that a Sandow/Roberts combination can have us in contention at that time? Sandow and Roberts is a level below Sandow and Sutton - a combination that has consistently failed to get Souths to a final series.
And if Parramatta again find points hard to come by, all we're going to see his Hayne again having to come into fullback as a playmaker and once again we'll lose that support play that we've finally re-gained by Luke Burt playing as a more traditional fullback. I would hope the one thing that we have learnt this year is that you need your fullback to play like a fullback.
Hayne to five-eighth is only a matter of time. We can dilly dally around and this debate will continue until it happens. Every time Parramatta loses next year or Ben Roberts has a bad game, we'll again start arguing where Jarryd should play. If Roberts doesn't fire next year or he gets injured and Jarryd has to come into five-eighth mid-way through the season and is again forced to learn the position on the job, how will that have helped our cause.
On the other hand, we have the opportunity to use the off-season for Jarryd to get some intensive mentoring from a player like Matthew Johns and for us to build our structures around a Hayne/Sandow combination which we can hopefully lock down as our core for most of this decade.
For the first time in many years we can go into a season knowing exactly who are halves are going to be and structure everything around that.
I can give you any number of other reasons as to why it makes sense to shift Hayne now. Like Luke Burt being a better fullback than Ben Roberts is a five-eighth. Like how much easier it is to recruit for the fullback position as opposed to finding players with skill enough to play in the halves. Like how Hayne already appears to have lost a yard of pace and with his size he's not going to get any faster. How the money to retain him is going to be easier if he is playing rep football, and his best hope of that is as a six. I've got plenty more.
But in the end, I just ask you to keep your eyes firmly on that date: September, 2012. With a year and a half of playing fullback under his belt, and with a quality halfback inside of him - how good might Hayne be. How good could a Hayne and Sandow combination be?
Just maybe, good enough to threaten for a premiership. You can't say that about the alternative.
Replies
Oh ye of little faith.
Hayne will be at 6 next year, I've just got to make it seem like it's his idea to cater for his ego. It's all part of the patented SK-mind-games - they make Inception look like Playschool.
If all else fails I'm going to plant a speaker in his room and do my best "God" impersonation during his prayer session. If he won't listen to Uncle Steve, he'll certainly listen to The Big Man Upstairs.
"Your preferred position is at 5/8th. I have spoken. Oh, an try to stay away from the Cross will you? I thought we already spoke about that!"
Roberts has been as bad, if not worse, than KK since he has come back in to 1st grade.
He has a long way to go to convince me he is even worthy of a bench spot let alone starting at 6. In saying that, I'm not even sure Hayne is the ultimate answer there either. But there is no doubt he will be better at 6 if there's a Sandow at 7.
Personally I wouldn't be averse to any of the following combo's starting next year - this assumes Tom Humble is still around
1, 6, 7, 13, 14 - Hayne, Maitua, Sandow, Horo, Humble
1, 6, 7, 13, 14 - Hayne, Humble, Sandow, Maitua, Roberts
1, 6, 7, 13, 14 - Burt, Hayne, Sandow, Maitua, Humble/Roberts
Now given it seems unlikely that Humble will A) be with the Eels in 2012 or B) be given a run in 1st grade, I would happily have Mortimer at 14 instead in those instances above where I have listed Humble at 14...
Totally agree. I have never rated Roberts - even when he was playing 'okay' football a season or two ago. He is currently playing very ordinary football and is not an on-field leader. Neither is Sandow.
Sandow is very talented and will improve our side exponentially but we will need the class of Hayne to help direct traffic in order to get the best out of Sandow.
Well that's interesting! My only concern about playing Hayne at 6 is whether his heart was in it - and as we know from Jarryd, he tends to play on emotion. It took Lockyer a season or two to settle into the 5/8th role and Hayne is playing markedly better at 6 now than when he played 5/8th in the beginning of 2009.
He's obviously learning the role but is only going to get better and whilst we love seeing him go on those 80m runs, I'd prefer to see him with ball in hand each week than the him languishing at fullback only exploding once every few weeks or so.
Roberts is very average and I don't think we should waste our time forming another new halves combo when Hayne's future is at 6!
Let Sandow dominate next year and let Hayne ease himself into it, after a whole offseason and a good half season next to an experienced halfback by mid season we will be seeing the best of Hayne at 6.
I would rather persevere with Hayne and Sandow next year, when Roberts fails, we will have to start again for the 100th time in 20 years!!!!
Kearney has said hayne at 6 is temporarily, roberts will be 5/8 next year.
Anyway hayne was fatigued playing last night im sure he cant wait to go back to fullback.
I like hayne at 6 as well, however with a decent 7 next year id love to see what he can do at 1
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