On Monday, Jarryd Hayne produced a vintage display - two fabulous individual tries and a try assist, which saw him take home a couple of more Dally M points leaving him at the top of the leaderboard. Indeed, had the Eels got home, there is no doubt he would have taken home Man of the Match honours, not for the first time this season.
However, behind the performance are some intriguing statistics which demonstrate what a markedly different role Hayne plays in the Parramatta side of 2014. Whenever Parramatta was struggling in recent years, commentators would lament that Hayne wasn’t getting involved enough and his needed more from him.
Ironically, Hayne’s purple patch of form has come because he is doing the exact opposite - he is much less involved and, particularly, he is far less involved with Parramatta’s playmaking.
I know we’ve covered this previously on 1Eyed Eel in various discussions, but this week’s stats couldn’t highlight that any more markedly.
Below is a table of the involvement of each of the fullbacks in the NRL this week. The list is topped by the likes of Matthew Moylan, Ben Barba and Sam Tomkins, who are all playing hugely active roles in their side’s attack. Once you get above 30 receives, that’s the kind of numbers you’d see from your traditional pivot/stand-off position in the old game. Some of these teams are using their fullbacks to make up for a lack of creativity in their halves and those fullbacks are doing far more passing and distributing than they are running (sound familiar?).
Down the other end of the table, you have your running fullbacks. Once you hit Billy Slater, the mould of fullback changes. These are the guys (I think we can leave the inexperienced Kurtis Row out of the equation) with the dazzling feet that opposition players struggle to tackle - Slater, Inglis, Dugan, Stewart, Hayne and Boyd.
|
Name |
Receives |
Run |
Non-runs |
|
Matthew Moylan |
45 |
11 |
34 |
|
Ben Barba |
37 |
9 |
28 |
|
Sam Tomkins |
41 |
13 |
28 |
|
Sam Perrett |
37 |
14 |
23 |
|
Michael Morgan |
36 |
14 |
22 |
|
Anthony Milford |
32 |
11 |
21 |
|
Anthony Minichiello |
29 |
9 |
20 |
|
Michael Gordon |
34 |
15 |
19 |
|
Billy Slater |
36 |
18 |
18 |
|
David Mead |
30 |
13 |
17 |
|
Greg Inglis |
28 |
15 |
13 |
|
Josh Dugan |
29 |
17 |
12 |
|
Kurtis Row |
23 |
12 |
11 |
|
Brett Stewart |
27 |
16 |
11 |
|
Jarryd Hayne |
23 |
13 |
10 |
|
Darius Boyd |
19 |
11 |
8 |
It would surprise most that Hayne, particularly in a game where he seemed so visible, is right at the bottom of that list with only Darius Boyd, who played in a thumped Newcastle side, below him for the number of receives and non-runs.
What these stats show is that Parramatta is using Hayne more sparingly than perhaps he has ever been used before. Instead, our halves and Joseph Paulo are racking up huge number of receives as they control the game with Hayne only chiming in at the most opportune moments. It’s worth pointing out that the number of runs Hayne is making is not particularly low - he’s about mid-table on that score, he’s just not being asked to touch the ball unnecessarily. He’s playing a very traditional fullback role and his game is benefitting from it.
Whereas in the past, it seemed as if the weight of expectation to create from every touch, saw Hayne regularly attempting to throw miracle cut-out passes, it is very evident that his default play is now to hold onto the ball. His second try saw him hold back a pass, and instead use his strength to break out of a one-on-one tackle. Despite Hayne’s great strength, it’s the kind of play we seldom saw in recent years as no doubt he would have attempted to create on his outside over the last couple of seasons. Indeed, I’m sure one of the reasons the defender was unable to make that tackle is he was probably expecting the pass to come.
What will be interesting is to see how the rest of the season unfolds. Opposition teams will be starting to take note that Hayne is running more than he is passing. They will adjust, double-marking him and that will have the ironic effect of opening up Hayne’s support and there will be the opportunity to make greater use of his playmaking talents. It’s what potentially stands Hayne out from all of his contemporaries that we have just mentioned. All are such incredible running players that they are difficult to mark-out of the game, but none can so effectively switch up their game and turn creator if opposition teams begin to overmark.
Has Hayne’s game evolved to the point that he has the composure to run or pass based on the reaction of the defence to every play? I think that’s what we’ll find out over the course of this year. If he has had a weakness exposed in his game, it has been his decision-making, as he has tended to get himself caught in two minds and come up poor execution. Right now, he’s not having to make a lot of those decisions because he’s primarily being tasked with running, but rival sides may force a re-think of that later in the season. How Hayne deals with that, will likely not only decide how he fares in individual competitions like the Dally M, but it will probably be a very significant factor in how high the Eels might finish in 2014.
Replies
He is certainly running more than passing which was what a lot of us were calling for him to be doing the last couple of years. He either had to be moved into the 6 jersey or else think run first, pass distant second.
In actual fact there were a couple of times yesterday where I thought he probably should have released the pass rather than hold it, but I am glad he is doing that rather than the reverse. It really makes the pass that much more effective because of the defense it sucks in to tackle a 100 kilo bloke who can run the 100 in under 12 seconds. I think every time he has thrown a cut out pass this year we have pretty much scored.
watching Hayne this season really has me contemplating putting some cash on the Eels to make a good go of this years premiership, now before you start accusing me of overdosing on unicorn milk just have a think about what parra have been able to produce so far, remembering just how far we have come since last season in such a short time. There will be low points along the way just like yesterdays game against the tigers but as long as they learn from it just like they have from earlier low points this season i think it's not beyond Hayne reproducing what he did in 09 but this time hopefully we wont be coming from so far back.
We had one set on the tigers line where neither hayne or our halves touched the ball once, it was just forwards one out or Paulo.
Don't think he has nailed the composure part yet, evidence of that can be seen on Mondays game with his 2 try assist for Tigers.
Nice read this. If hayne does get his descision making right then basically there is no stopping him. The mind boggles thinking about where we may end up this year if hayne does master this.
Paulo had a bad game, it was him at his worse, the past couple of game before that he was doing a good job because he was playing straight and getting through a shit load of work but against the tigers he wanted to play pretty and not get dirty. He just needs to get back to what he was doing in the previous two games, i don't think BA will drop him.
Great read. Stats don't lie.
He actually had 2 try assists. 1 for Sio, 1 for Brooks.
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