Will Kearney be humbled by history in the NRL?

You use the term "real FOOTBALLER" and I will use the term overrated. You tell me which is more meaningless in a discussion of rugby league. The fact is Hayne hasn't lived up to the hype he generated in 2009. Does Old Man Minichiello's selection over him for the Number 1 jersey in Origin 2 2011 say nothing?

'Over-rated' is a meaningless word that could be logically applied to ANY player by someone who doesnt like or appreciate their talents. The word is a short-cut to thinking, for the usage only of uninsightful hacks.

You must have missed those stats I just gave you...one beats and the other rivals those both Darren Lockyer and Benji Marshall last season.

Yes, Parra is poor, and Hayne is over rated. The last 10 weeks of '09 seem like such a long time ago now.

Since when is it ONE player's responsibility to lead a team into the finals? Parra have been poor overall, but without Hayne's efforts (24 try assists and 18 line break assists last season) they'd have collected back to back wooden spoons the last two years.

Yeah, he so good that he managed to just get them to 14th in 2011, with a massive 6 wins for the season! Go "No Look" Jarryd!

I suggest you take a look at Jarryd's stats over the past few seasons before you start saying things like "not living up to expectations". They are still very impressive. The reason Jarryd's game has suffered of late is because of how he is being coached to play. He is no robot. Even last year, in a poorly coached, beaten side, Hayne's stats are very impressive (bar the scoring of tries - but he set up tonnes of them). Anderson gave him free reign in 2009 and we all saw what happened. In 2010, Anderson was instructed to change the style of play to be built around the "future of Parramatta" in Daniel Mortimer. Anderson eventually told them to shove it later in the year, sacking Mortimer (sorry, "rested") & letting Hayne and the boys loose again. Parramatta slaughtered the Broncos that night but Anderson sealed his fate by going against the mob. That night, Osborne flew to Melbourne to sign Kearney.

You're taking my opinion out of context. At no stage did I mention Fitzgerald. The bloke was (& still is as far as I know) an arrogant ass. All I am saying is the people running the club at the moment make him look like a martyr. To sack a coach of Anderson's ability and credentials for nothing more than an assistant coach (sorry but that is my opinion of Stephen Kearney) was ludicrous. What I find funniest of all (not that I really am laughing much these days) is that the reason they sacked Anderson was due to poor results and missing the 8 - and bloke got them to GF. Hello???

Jarryd Hayne hasn't been able to 'live up to expectations' the last two seasons because he's been required to play BOTH Fullback and Half-Playmaker.....it should never be a FULLBACK'S responsibility to lead an entire team's attack, but thats the situation Hayne has had to deal with. ANY young fullback's form would suffer under those circumstances. Even Hindmarsh had openly admitted that Parra often depend soley on Hayne to get them points. Having pretty much saved them from the wooden spoon the last two seasons, and racked up an astonishing 18 line-break assists and 24 try assists last season, Hayne has done the best he can with the players he's had to work with....but he needs help. He cant do it alone, the same as Billy Slater couldnt do it alone without Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk to work with every week. Whether or not Sandow is worth the money Parra are paying him remains to be seen...he's only been in the side for a cup of coffee. However, there was no point in signing a player with an unpredictable free-play style like Sandow if you are going to put shackles on him like Kearney is clearly doing. Sometimes, you need to let players like that just follow their INSTINCTS. and be themselves.

The gulf might lesson if NSW would pick a team of their best and most dangerous attacking players instead of pussyfooting around with 'safe defensive teams' for game one every year and picking proven brain-snap fumblers (Kurt Gidley, Brett Morris) who clearly cannot handle the hi-octane pressure of Origin football. Not to mention those 'Origin Style Players' (Michael Ennis - since when does 'niggling' win Origin?) Stuart is already chirping about Terry Campese being the NSW #6, the same Campese who has barely played in over a year and has really shown nothing so far this season to suggest he should be the Blues Five-Eighth, but like Dugan, he's one of Ricky's boys....meanwhile, attacking dynamo's like James Maloney, Feleti Mateo, Jamal Idris and Brett Stewert continue to be ignored. Another attacking dynamo Jarryd Hayne, who can play just about anywhere and more importantly scores POINTS for NSW in every series he plays in (he's up to 7 Origin tries now) will likely be left out of game one again this year (Stuart doesnt like Hayne personally, you can see it in his body language and expressions every time he talks about him...but disliking a player is not reason to leave them out of a side). Your right...it sadly doesnt look like ending....the reason for that is not JUST due to the Maroon's class. Truth is, as Phil Gould has pointed out, we have gifted a lot of QLD's success to them. You REALLY wanna beat The Maroons? Only one way to do it....score more tries than they do (obviously)...to do that you need an ATTACKING team.....but in the build up to watch Game One this year in Melbourne, watch the pussyfooting by Stuart begin

Where do you get that every prospect is compared to the 80s legends? That may have been true post-86 for a few years but no longer. Sandow has been called the best halfback since Sterling but any intelligent league fan knows that anyone making that statement isn't implying he's anywhere near Sterling's class. I haven't seen anyone mention Kearney and Jack Gibson in the same breath. Parramatta isn't suffering under the weight of expectation in relation to their glory run in the 80s. The club is suffering because it has made awful recruitment decisions and has a superstar who has not lived up to expectations (Hayne), a halfback not worth the money he's being paid (Sandow) and very few elite-level players on the books after that. It's a pedestrian team. Let's not start to weave narratives that are not playing out in reality.

Yeah I'd say that there would be very few coaches who would have done better then bellamy as NSW coach. The gulf in class between NSW and QLD over the last few seasons is unbelievable considering the history of Origin. Sadly it doesn't look like ending that soon either.....

No doubt that it is a long-term plan but it's an enormous risk that has the potential to backfire spectacularly. The name escapes me but I do remember a supposedly very talented Roosters player doing the same thing and he was never the same player when he returned. To me it still gives off the impression that they've basically written off 2012 and 2013 which would worry me......if I were unfortunate enough to be an Eels fan :) I'd also say that there could be a fair chance that Jamil could follow in Will's footsteps and go on a mormon mission as well during his career. ShyBlueMoon is right, Burt will be long gone by 2014. Sandow finally developing some level of consistency seems very remote as well.

Hindy's one downfall is that he is TOO nice.....i agree with him calling for some of his teamates to step up his game, but he should really be doing is forcefully telling his coach to let them offload, throw the ball around a little and build some second phase play. This ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE style of Kearney's is NOT working, end of story...Hindy needs to speak up, if not publicly, then privatley

Any club that lets Feleti Mateo walk out the door, while failing to sign anyone even resembling a star player to replace him the following season clearly has management issues.

Burt will be retired by 2014....he's a Champion, but he's stuggling with the pace of the game NOW...time catches up with all of us

Hayne is the only real FOOTBALLER The Eels have...take him out of the side and Parra get the wooden spoon both last season and in 2010.

I thought Parramatta were going to sort out Chris Sandow's defensive issues. Not the fact that he's a little bloke who will always struggle against much bigger guys, but the way he charges up out of the line and leaves massive gaps to run through. All of the Cowboys traffic was directed at the fringes and nearly every single member of the NQ backline posted a linebreak, as did Cooper and Taumololo. It's entirely possible that Kearney's entire reputation has been based on the rosters he's worked with, like how Craig Bellamy was a dismal failure as NSW Origin coach, but very successful at coaching a team that features arguably the best fullback, arguably the best halfback and arguably the best hooker. Mind you the same could be argued that any coach would fail if forced to pit any old rabble against those same elite players in the game's most elite competition.

One of the things that bugs me is when people use Osborne's complete ineptness to suggest it was a mistake to punt Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald had to go, they needed fresh, untainted blood. They just made the wrong choice in Osborne.

I think Matt that the signing of Hopoate was a package deal. It meant they also got Jamil Hopoate, who some say is potentially better than his famed brother and has apparently been going gang busters in the lower grades. Two Hopoates in the Parramatta team in 2014 along with Hayne and Sandow (if he gets his head together and stops wasting his time increasing his betting debts) and of course Burt if he stays is a pretty formidable backline.