The Chosen one cant be stopped; sick of hearing about shutting him down...

More than 32 years of coaching have taught Wayne Bennett a valuable lesson - no-one is unstoppable - not even Parramatta sensation Jarryd Hayne.Hayne has been a one-man wrecking crew in propelling the Eels to an improbable finals berth, but St George Illawarra coach Bennett said he wasn't fearing another Hayne onslaught in Friday night's NRL blockbuster.Parramatta head into the game against the Dragons on the back of seven straight wins, a run in no small part thanks to Hayne's purple patch of form.Bennett claimed he had come up with gameplans to stop the most dominant of players - including rugby league Immortal Wally Lewis - when Bennett and a rampant `King' went head to head in the local Brisbane club competition throughout the 1980s."I've coached enough games to know that there's nobody in the game that if you get it right you can't stop it," Bennett said."I've seen some great players in our game - you accept that they get you once or twice perhaps but at the end of the day you know that if you've got a good team that they can't run mayhem against you and create absolute havoc."Whether the Dragons are a good enough team has been brought into question in recent weeks, particularly last week when they leaked 41 points in going down to struggling South Sydney.But Bennett backed the side which still boasts the best defensive record in the competition to shut Hayne down."Jarryd is a wonderfully gifted player and I'm sure he'll create his moments out there for us on Friday night, but is he unstoppable? Can you stop a lot of the stuff? You can," Bennett said."Can you do it all night? That's a more difficult thing but if you do it enough then it gives you the chance to stay in the game."I coached against the great Wally Lewis in the early years - they do make life difficult for you."Since being moved to the No.1 jumper in round 10, Hayne has never been limited to less than 144 metres in a game.Five times he has run for in excess of 200 metres, while on ten occasions he has made multiple line breaks.In only six of his 14 games at the back has he failed to provide a try assist, while he is also going about his work with some degree of efficiency with just two errors in his last seven matches.Now he's added an extra weapon to his arsenal, with Hayne coming up with three 40-20 kicks in vital wins over Penrith and Wests Tigers over the last fortnight.But Dragons backrower Ben Creagh - a teammate of Hayne's during NSW's Origin campaign - said it was the Eels star's uncanny mix of strength and speed that made him tough to contain."He's a very hard man to tackle," Creagh said."I remember when he was playing centre earlier in the season when we played them and I was against him on the right edge and he's a handful just with how strong he is."When he's got 30 metres to work with at fullback he's got even more time with the ball - we'll just try and contain him as much as we can."

"To me if I look at 2019 David Fifita to the 2024 version I'm not seeing that progression to his skill set.
Hes always trying to run over people which okay is his strength but he's not added anything to move him to that next level.
I honestly don't…"

"Gambling in itself is easily addictive. I came across two old friends recently. One lost $ 300,000 plus in the space of 2 years the other one lost over a million over a period of years and had to downsize their home all due to Poker machines. They…"

Replies

Dan September 1, 2009 at 9:09pm

Haha... I loved the effectiveness of Elliots 4-man plan to shut him down last week. Can't wait to see him tear up Saints.
- Johno > Dan September 2, 2009 at 8:14am
  
  Yeah, I'm sick of this chosen one stuff as well. He is just a very exceptional footy player, other than that he is no different to anybody else.
  - Bourbon Man > Johno September 2, 2009 at 8:57am
    
    Hear Hear Johno and noknob! This 'Chosen One' shit is unbelievably haughty!
waldo September 2, 2009 at 12:15am

Take a look at Jarryd's serious hit on Lockyer and remember what Easts did to Craig Wing when he went to Souths. You'll see that anyone can be stopped.

Given luck, Hayne gets the superman award every week. If we're all extra unusually lucky he will astound everybody at the Grand Final. Til then I'm praying that the beautiful run we've had over the last seven weeks continues. Bring on the dragons.
- Clint > waldo September 2, 2009 at 1:49pm
  
  Was that the hit when he was playing for Fiji in the world cup?
stevo September 2, 2009 at 1:46pm

wake up bennett every other team said there goin 2 stop him and where did they get nowhere
waldo September 2, 2009 at 2:57pm

The vid was featured here for a while. I thought it was Origin.
MaxZ/3iaGGiZ September 2, 2009 at 4:59pm

Sing along now...."He is The Chosen One.... and it is it is a glorious thing to be THE CHOSEN ONE!!!!"

This reply was deleted.

Eels Blogs

The Chosen one cant be stopped; sick of hearing about shutting him down...

Replies

More stuff to read

Eels blogs

Moving Forward (literally)

Poppa's Corner: Games are there to win; Opportunities Lost; We haven't learnt that yet, nor has the coach!

Looks like a fracture for Bailey

Presser v Dolphins

Note: this page contains paid content.

Social Blogs

Jim Sarantinos on SEN: Moses an outside chance before R9

Highest score

Cyclone Alfred

OLD MEN CAN THINK QUICK WHEN THEY NEED TO

Note: this page contains paid content.