Much has been written about where Jarryd Hayne's best position is. Many say fullback, many say five-eighth. In this writer's firm opinion Hayne is a fullback through and through. People may say that he plays like a five-eighth due to his ball-playing and kicking ability. However, by Hayne playing five-eighth, he has to make more tackles than playing at fullback and is closer to the defensive line. Let's look at Hayne's five-eighth abilities. He has a very good kicking ability and has a lot of ball-playing ability. He has a good second-man ball and can hit his target. The downside to him playing at five-eighth is his defensive workload. Being in the front line it is very easy to run forwards at him and tire him out in defence, this then impacts his attack.
As a fullback, Hayne does not play in the conventional, supportive role. He plays very much as another play maker, as well as supporting in attacking plays. For the past few seasons Hayne has been relied upon to lead Parramatta's attack. As a fullback he has space to roam and chime when needed. This season he has already shown his ability to finish off an attacking move rather than create it by scoring off 2 kicks and a break by Roberts. By Hayne playing at fullback he doesn't have to be at the forefront of the ball playing facet of the team. Hayne is at his best when he runs the ball. This is due to his agility, speed and size. Often defenders make the mistake of rushing up at Hayne, trying to crowd him. With his size and agility he can often beat defenders one on one. This is due to a number of factors. One is that he has the room to move and the other is that he is fresh as he has not had to make a large number of tackles.
One thing is for sure. Whenever Hayne plays at fullback he is dangerous and is seen as a marked man. It's one thing for defences to mark him but it's another to stop him. Hayne is a natural footballer and, in some eyes, is the complete footballer. As Peter Sterling stated, he has the kicking game of Jonathan Thurston, the vision and ball-playing ability of Darren Lockyer, the speed of Billy Slater, the size and strength of Greg Inglis and the agility of Benji Marshall. IMO HAYNE IS BEST WHEN HE PLAYS AT FULLBACK.
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Agree mate, it's not even a debate anymore after that City/Country game.
He has stated quite clearly he does not want to play 5/8 & you only have to watch him when picked there he is not interested (like today).
Agreeed i have aways thought he is a fullback
But Hayne isn't playing like a fullback. He is creating the play, not supporting it. We essentially play with three halves, but for all the opportunities we create, without a dedicated support player, we limit how many chances we can take advantage of.
Yes, Hayne himself performs better when he sits at the back, barely does any defensive work, and can pick and choose when to take part in attack. WHO WOULDN'T?! But it hasn't worked for THE TEAM for the last two and a half years.
Let's look back at the premiership winning teams over the last decade:
Minor:
2011: Storm, Slater
2010: Dragons, Boyd
2009: Dragons, Boyd
2008: Storm, Slater
2007: Storm, Slater
2006: Storm, Slater
2005: Parra, Burt/McKinnon
2004: Roosters, Minichiello
2003: Panthers, Wesser
Major:
2011: Sea Eagles, Stewart
2010: Dragons, Boyd
2009: Storm, Slater
2008: Sea Eagles, Stewart
2007: Storm, Slater
2006: Boncos: Hunt
2005: Tigers, Hodgson
2004: Bulldogs, Patten
2003: Panthers, Wesser
The theme seems to be that your fullback is a support player, taking advantage of opportunities, not a ball player, creating opportunities.
+ 1000
The problem is we have to change our structure to accommodate Jarryd. Make no mistake, Jarryd plays a very five-eighth like role at Parramatta - fullback just lets him play on both sides of the park. I continue to agree that Kearney has created a nice platform to enable Jarryd to do the best of both worlds - he can inject himself into the front line and play a ball-receiver role but he still gets to take advantage of Jarryd's fullback play.
We've already seen it can work, but the problem is it forces us to get used to structures that can't be replicated when Jarryd isn't there because nobody can come into the site and do what Jarryd does.
If you move Jarryd to six, you can then play with a more traditional structure. You can someone playing a fullback-role that doesn't require super-human powers and you can chop-and-change around with far less impact, than if you structure a side to take advantage of Jarryd's skills. And the problem with Jarryd is that he is so talented and can create so much that you have to structure everything around him, because if he plays "just a fullback" he's not nearly the threat as if you take advantage of his triple-strike capability. Nor does he being "just a fullback" justify the huge slice of our cap if he is on.
So, yes, the ideal world is Jarryd plays like he is now. As a playmaking number one - Sandow and Roberts play essentially supporting roles to that. Jarryd stays fit and the world is peachy, but as we've seen already this year, basing your entire attacking system around one unorthodox player, playing an unorthodox role that nobody else can replicate is a VERY risky approach that has so far backfired.
Coud easily make as a 6 under the right conditions and coach one day.
However, 1 is his best position for now and at least the next couple of years.
And to say the City/Country game reflects anything on his ability to play the position is ridiculous. He will never be a successful six, when he is just thrown into the position. He needs a full off-season learning how to tackle, learning to have a lot more patience and when to strike and it's going to take time. Even Darren Lockyer was NOT an immediate success at six.
his a number 1 end of story
We understand why Ricky Stuart doesnt want to pick Hayne at fullback for NSW and its because of the reason you stated, 1eyed. He believes, and its quite hard to argue, that it would be hard to accommodate his playing style into a rep team. A traditional support player is what most halves are used to playing with and throwing Hayne in there would disrupt a lot. However, surely in a week and a half camp, you can get Hayne playing both roles. As we've seen, he can get on the end of an attacking kick so he's got that covered. He should also be given almost free reign of popping up into the front line when attacking inside the opposition 30. Other than in that attacking third of the field, surely he can play a traditional supporting role?? And the occasional kick from inside their own half would be invaluable to NSW as he is the biggest kick in the game. He should also attempt to do that more for us as well.. Supporting forwards through the middle of the field, but in the attacking zone, chime in the front line whenever he wants.
Also, an observation i made, when Hayne plays for NSW he doesn't demand the ball like he does at Parra. If he was picked at fullback to do the role i've suggested, he would definitely have to demand the ball go to him.
I think Hayne can probably play that traditional fullback role, but does he play it as good as someone like Dugan. His support play has never been outstanding, for example? In many ways, the other aspects of his game have hidden the weaknesses of his traditional fullback game. And I just don't think Stuart wants to complicate his structures by giving the Hayne the kind of responsibility your talking about when attacking.
The reality is that Stuart has settled on what he wants the long-term spine to be and thats Dugan, Carney, Pearce. Most NSW fans have called on this kind of thinking - get some key players in and sticking by them. So who knows... all I know is that right now, I'm kind of glad that Jarryd is going to be available to play for us.
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