Hayne versus Slater for NRL Grand Final glory

Columnist

By Spiro Zavos, 30 Sep 2009 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: Billy Slater, Jarryd Hayne, Melbourne Storm, NRL, parramatt, Parramatta Eels, Rugby League

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Jarryd Hanye in action during the Week 3 Playoff NRL match between the Bulldogs and the Parramatta Eels at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Friday, Sept. 25, 2009. AAP Image/Action Photographics, Grant Trouville

Before the epic Eels-Bulldogs semi-final match, the leathery former coach and player, Chris Anderson, suggested that the best way to get Jarryd Hayne out of the match was to kick to him early and tire him out by making him run a lot and take some massive hit.

It is history now that the tactic wasn’t used and Hayne’s magic play sparked the Eels to a great victory.

This notion of kicking to a danger-man fullback is counter-intuitive. But it is sound tactics.

You get to run the fullback around early, smash him (as the Storm did to Karmichael Hunt in their match against the Broncos), and most importantly, ensure that he gets the ball under your terms, not his.

Hayne was at his strongest towards the end of the match when the Eels needed his brilliant play to open up what was a typically tough and resilient Bulldogs defence.

He came into the line and tormented the defenders by sometimes jogging backwards to force them out of the line. If they resisted this temptation, Hayne would run around them and unload to team-mates running through the gaps he had opened up.

It’s clear that at some stage in his early rugby league career Hayne played some touch football.

He has all the touch footballers speed off the mark, the eye and hand speed with cunning passes to create gaps for his runners. He can break himself and is strong in breaking tackles.

Billy Slater, his opposite number in the Storm side, is just as brilliant a match-winner as Hayne but in a different way. He plays in the line a lot and tends to make his plays off the kicks and unloads of his team-mates.

This season he has scored 17 tries (6th best in the NRL), he has had 19 try assists (the 12th best), 160 tackle breaks (2nd in the NRL), and 22 linebreaks (4th in the NRL).

With these sort of statistics, it is easy to see why he is regarded as the key player for the Storm in scoring tries and setting them up for devastating runners like Greg Inglis.

The pundits are saying, and one must agree with them, that the outcome of the grand final could depend on which of these gifted fullbacks plays a blinder on the day.

The medal for the best and fairest on the field in a grand final is named in honour of the greatest fullback of them all, Clive Churchill.

‘The Little Master’ virtually invented the running fullback game that Hayne and Slater play so splendidly.

There is an irony in the fact that the Clive Churchill Medal has only been awarded to one fullback, Robbie O’Davis playing for Newcastle in 1997, since the award was first made in 1986 with Peter Sterling being the inaugural winner.

It would be fitting, in my opinion, that one of modern masters of the fullback position, either Hayne or Slater, wins the Clive Churchill medal for their brilliant, match-winning play in the 2009 grand final.

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The Crowd Says (9) | Page 1 of Comments

The Link said | September 30th 2009 @ 1:37pm | Report comment

Spiro, thats a pretty interesting stat that only one fullback has taken out the Clive Churchill. Surely in years to come with the plethora of talented No.1′s in the NRL more and more will take it out.

Although in big games is it more the halfbacks and props that really decide whether the game is won or lost and the fullbacks exploit the momentum and direction that these players provide?

I think Hayne, Slater and Inglis are the most exciting players in the NRL, what a great GF it promises to be to have them all on show.

Thanks again for the RL piece. Parra by a wisker for me.

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Campbell Watts said | September 30th 2009 @ 1:38pm | Report comment

Should be a cracker of a match-up Spiro – can’t wait!

Shame Channel 9 are making me, by not showing the game live in Perth

Not happy Jan!

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- macavity said | September 30th 2009 @ 3:44pm | Report comment
  
  ch9 don’t deserve the next TV rights.
  
  it is shameful how they treat the greatest game.
  
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Bill said | September 30th 2009 @ 1:54pm | Report comment

Hitting the ball at pace and making a line break- no one better in the game than Slater.
Taking the ball from a standing start and making a line break – Hayne all the way.

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Westy said | September 30th 2009 @ 3:04pm | Report comment

The fullbacks for both teams are sublime the key for me is Smith. He has the potential to outthink his opposition. Dean Young is a very good player for St george but Smith would never had sent his forwards into the lions den against Broncos . he would have kicked or run early rather than see his props bashed from pillar to post.
Rugby league or rugby union or football or AFL i respect good man management and Bellamy is second to none. Bomber thompson is no slouch either.
I like Spiro i think , see merit in discussing the upcoming NRL grand final. I watch NRL as do many rugby supporters .
I had a thoroughly enjoyable time on friday night watching parramatta and canterbury and Uni v Randwick on Sunday.
I go out of my way to talk about the rugby league I actually” watch “not in terms of propaganda but of the reality of where I live and what I do. there is something quite joyous being in parramatta at the moment.
I saw Inu at cabramatta last night at the SG Ball trials talking to the younger players and spectators. Over 4000 at a parramatta training session the town in blue and gold. Hindmarsh kissing babies as well as any politician. hayne adored by the young girls and boys and birt with his knowing permanent smile.
I like the game and its tribalism. To ignore it does not quite reflect the real world in NSW at any rate.
This tribalism started long before News LTD and Poker machines. This team unapolegetically represent Parramatta and its environs.They make no apologies for doing so. it is their part of the universe in which they exist for the moment
these parra fans true may only come out in large numbers when they win but it is wonderful to watch.
good luck to parramatta but i fear melbourne one of the best coached and structured teams in the competition with a touch of class to boot in Inglis and Slater
By the way young Chambers heads to the Reds next year. His defence has improved and he does read lines.

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Warren Vargas said | September 30th 2009 @ 5:59pm | Report comment

It should be a great game to watch, just for Hayne and Slater, but I think the Storm have a bit too much class over the Eels. Expect Cameron Smith and Greg Inglis to have a huge say in who wins.

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Pippinu said | September 30th 2009 @ 8:07pm | Report comment

It’s the game within the game isn’t it? It adds an extra dimension when two stars are facing each other on opposite sides, especially when they play the identical position and are so pivotal to their team’s hopes.

Did anyone see NRL Tactics tonight. I caught the top three tries, the top two being tries by the Eels, each one giving us a different look as to why Parra has been able to zoom into the grand final from 8th spot:

1. individual brilliance from Hayne, where he effectively eluded the whole of the Dragons on his own for just about the most amazing solo effort you are ever likely to see (deemed 2nd best); and
2. what the old commentators often describe as “razzle dazzle” – keeping the ball alive, continuously, under seemingly impossible odds, players backing up, being there on the spot, and as usual, Hayne involved once, maybe even twice (the no. 1 try).

As I said on another thread – high risk, high reward – it explains why Parra leaked a stack of tries in falling in at 8th, but then were able to climb into the grand final.

It’s the sort of footy that is very, very difficult to defend against – do you rely on your discipline, structure and ability to make them pay for their mistakes? Or do you have to match them in throwing it around? Might be too late before you decide on the right course of action!!

Storm should win, to emulate Geelong’s effort of a win, loss, win. Very solid team, solid defence, plenty of indivdual brilliance of their own – and they have the hunger and grand final experience.

But if Parra hold their nerve, and really go for it, I mean really go for it, throw all caution out the window – it could be one of the very best grand finals we have ever seen.

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Tom Alexander. said | September 30th 2009 @ 8:25pm | Report comment

Just have a feeling the Storm have one too many playmakers. Smith, Cronk and Finch have the Big Game/Grand Final experience which should prove the difference. I expect they will try to use the grubber kick (kicking game in general) ala Hazem El-Masri, near the Parramatta try-line, to force hayne back in goal or to keep turning him around. Melbourne in a close one.

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mushi said | October 1st 2009 @ 11:37am | Report comment

The bash the fullback strategy was actually used pretty well by Bellamy against slater in the first origin of 2008. Will be interesting to see how it is employed.

Another interesting thing to watch for as a legacy from Haynes effective Pause. Shuffle. Attack will be which side of the fence teams focus on next year.

Will teams adopt the tactic in attack with their handy ball players who lack the natural ball playing ability to cause havoc in the traditional manner but have the pace and agility to exploit a static line of defence.

Or will defences be drilled more to react to this by being more aggressive as a group by coming forward as in a more coordinated line and shutting down the ball player and his options simulataneously.

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