Just like the sun rising and setting each day, the NRL rumour cycle barely gives us a day of respite. But Jarryd Hayne in a Dragons jersey?
The whispers are growing louder and louder by the day, and to be fair, why wouldn’t they be?
Hayne is off contract and without a club ahead of the 2019 NRL season. Pre-season is already underway, with clubs getting closer to finalising their 30-man rosters and moving into training. They’re planning for what promises to be one of the most open seasons in the history of the game.
The Dragons are looking for an x-factor – someone who can be a game breaker for them – and to be fair to Hayne, he has shown he has that talent throughout his glittering career.
With all that being said though, there is really no time for late arrivals of such a high nature and players who may not fit into the team and culture.
Whether Hayne would be compatible in the Dragons camp is a complete unknown. I’m not going to claim to know the Dragons players, coach Paul McGregor or the Hayne Plane himself, but there are plenty of worrying signs.
Jarryd Hayne during his time with the Eels (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
From Hayne’s recent history at the Gold Coast Titans and Parramatta Eels, to the way the Dragons are reportedly trying to bring him in, the whole situation should be making fans of the Red V very uneasy.
It sure is for me.
The first and most concerning factor is the talk of moving Matt Dufty on.
More worrying is the fact rumours have been following Dufty since the middle of last year. He has been linked with other clubs, namely the Warriors, and a move to England in the time period since.
Now, before we go any further, it has to be acknowledged that Dufty has his weaknesses.
When I conducted a top 50 players in the NRL series recently (despite Roarers having a laugh and saying I would need to find room for 13 Dragons players in my top ten), Dufty didn’t even come close to cracking the list.
He has pace and acceleration – in fact, he may be one of the quickest players in the game – and his footwork is lightning when he has the ball in hand.
Matthew Dufty of the Dragons runs with the ball (Image/Darren Pateman)
Some of his tries throughout 2018 were brilliant, and a testament to what he is able to do on the footy field. There was also the odd good sign in defence and some of his ball play at times was excellent, particularly when you compare to the man he replaced at the club, Josh Dugan.
Dugan’s time at the club saw the Dragons have the best ball-running fullback, or close to it, in the game. When it came to ball-playing though, there was none of that coming from the man in number one.
On the other foot, Dufty was burnt numerous times in defence and struggled at times under the high ball. While he read the game well at times, he also made some poor decisions, which could be expected of a youngster, but he will be the first to acknowledge there is a stack of work to be done before he can be considered amongst the games elite fullbacks.
Unfortunately, the flaws in his game seem to have the Red V rushing to find an alternative solution at the back, as if that were the club’s biggest problem last year.
Alas, it most certainly wasn’t. The problem lay in the way the team was managed across the year. Come the end of the season, they looked tired, fatigued, out of energy and like they needed a long holiday.
The fact they were able to get up and beat the Broncos in Brisbane (a game which Dufty played outstanding in, by the way), was something out of the ordinary. Completely unexpected.
And yet, the Dragons supposedly want to bring in someone like Hayne.
Hayne has a recent history which doesn’t read so well. While his first stint in the NRL – the one where he made a name for himself – at the Eels was fantastic, everything since has been on a downhill slope.
His stint at the San Francisco 49ers wasn’t anything special, and nor was it when he made a late bid to play Rugby Sevens at the Olympics for Fiji.
More worrying though is his time back in the NRL.
The Gold Coast experiment didn’t work. It’s as simple as that.
Before Hayne arrived on the Gold Coast, Neil Henry had his team firing at the back-end of 2016. They were building something quite special, based on a culture of work ethic and defence.
Hayne came in and all that went out the back window, and eventually, so did Henry.
2017 would be the last year Henry was on the Gold Coast, and as it turned out, so it was for Hayne. It was a miserable season, where the team culture clearly died as the Titans finished 15th.
Again, some of this is speculation, but there was plenty that came out about Hayne on the Gold Coast. Whether it was the issues with senior players at the club, his attitude to training or other things, there are enough black marks there which should encourage a club with another alternative to not pursue the option.
After the coaching debacle, Hayne moved onto the Eels and it took him a long time to find his feet there as well. For a club who were supposed to be strong in 2018 – a potential top four hope – they floundered, faltered, and eventually picked up the wooden spoon.
Now, Hayne had good moments at Parramatta, but there just weren’t enough of them.
Injuries haven’t helped Hayne over that time period, but the simple fact is that there is a clear problem wherever he has gone since his first run in the NRL ended, and maybe, just maybe, even before that at the Eels.
Jarryd Hayne of the Eels walks from the field injured (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Everyone was blinded by his incredible exploits of 2009 (trust me, as a Dragons fan, I know them all too well) and seemed to forget about everything that has happened since.
Sure, there is a risk in looking to the future and selecting it over the present, but Hayne is hardly the present.
While the signs were there he was ready to turn things around at the back-end of last year, they just weren’t consistent enough across 25 rounds to suggest he would be an upgrade on Dufty.
And at the end of the day, isn’t that what wheeling and deeling in the player market is all about? Upgrading?
This is risk versus reward, and the risk is far greater than the reward when a solid, improving fullback is already stationed in the famous Red V jumper.
If Dufty isn’t in the number one jersey at the start of 2019, let me tell you, the Dragons have made a terrible decision.
Sam Sparrow
Guest
Dufty is a flawed Fullback but Hayne hasnt had a good attitude to his performance for two years and the Dragons dont need his bad boy influence or his bad attitude to the job. Yes McGregor stuffed up badly. He would have been better off, in hind site to do what he said he would do and should have actually spelled all Origin players AND the Denver test players for TWO weeks and written off those 4 points in advance, thus allowing him to win the rest of the seasons games and would have finished as minor premiers. and gone into the finals with less busted players. Love ya Mary, but you can be a big drongo and a bit slow to learn. Keep away from Hayne he will poison your great team moral. You can win with Dufty especially when you have go-forward up front like you had until injury caught up with your pack. AND you do have some good young forwards coming through. Use them and dont let DeBelin play busted again EVER, he is TOO valuable.
terrykidd
Roar Pro
A few years ago another club let a bloke go because they believed he was too small ..... Jonathon Thurston ..... so how well did that go for the Dogs? Dragons need to hold onto Dufty, work on his weaknesses and have faith. Walk away from Hayne, he might well be playing 2019 in prison greens anyway.
Up the Wahs
Roar Guru
Not sure if you can equate your unnamed local club footy awards with the dally m, you know the award they give to the best in the game that season. I think you’ve genuinely got to be pretty good to win one. I’m not saying Hayne has much to offer the dragons my point is, is it really worth letting one player ceasing you from watching your team. If it were me I would probably still watch them while still being critical of Hayne.
ben dover
Guest
the hayne plane must land in Wollongong or Kogarah for the dragons to take out 2019 title dufty or mann need to move on
Dodgy Dragons
Roar Rookie
Scott, I agree that I don’t want to see Dufty replaced by Hayne, but I’d love to see the pair of them playing together. Can we fit Hayne in the cap without losing Dufty? After today’s allegations, the dragons should ramp up their efforts as his price will have taken a nose dive, especially if everyone else doesn’t want to touch him with a barge pole. He would help fill the hole of nightingale and Nene’s departures on the wing and be able to cover injuries from 1-7 throughout the season. Make his contract heavily performance and behavior weighted and it’s a win/win. An experienced player, with X factor and if he plays up, put him to pasture. Saints have calmed a few dheads down over the past few seasons (Packer and Dugan) so someone behind the scenes obviously can get in their heads and help them. I don’t want to lose Dufty for him, but I think it wouldn’t be a bad gamble - he is the type of player that might get us that step higher in 2019.
Steve Franklin
Roar Rookie
To me a special player is one who plays hard and consistant for 80 mins a game like Andrew Johns, Ray Price those type of player's and not do it for 10 mins a game every 3 or 4 week. Johns and Price just to name a couple 80 minute footballers every week not every 3 or 4 weeks.
Steve Franklin
Roar Rookie
Yeah Inglis looks real good when he run's at the little guy's like he did with Soward and co,and sideways runner Marshall lost the dragon's many games cause of sideways running then throwing to fresh air over the side line yep they were all special players but as i said before they only had to do 1 decent thing in a game yes an 80 minute game not a 10 minute game and everybody made them the best players in the world pleaseeeeeeee.
Steve Franklin
Roar Rookie
Yeah maybe he did win 2 Dally M's, 35 years ago when i played football i won numerous awards in my career to but i was only an ordinary footballer also,they have to give awards to somebody and these days they only see these once a game flash players do something and they make them the best in the world instead of watching the toiler's who get no recognison in a game looking after these flash in pan's.
jookie
Roar Rookie
You make a good point Scott. I can't imagine why they'd want to trade in Dufty, a fast and exciting player with low ks on the clock, for the Hayne plane who is not far off retirement and chiefly in a ball running type role. It reminds me of the bad call to move Pearce on to make way for Cronk By the way: "a game which Dufty played outstanding in" - Dufty played "outstandingly" not "outstanding".
Sludge McFlurrey
Guest
It will be an amazing interesting scenario if the Dragons do sign Hayne. A lot of people believe he has a massive ego and as a result he destabilises anywhere he plays . There really is no way to gauge that , but you would have to think , that if the Dragons go ahead and sign him and he either spits the dummy mid season or the Dragons capitulate, that he is a pretty consistent common denominator. So if the Dragons have a hummer of a year , he is the “ X factor”, if they fizz , he is the “C factor”.
Big Daddy
Guest
I think he has run out of options. For all the media hype I don't think anyone will touch him.
Birdy
Roar Rookie
I don't think it's about the advice he gets its more about him being the priority in his thinking
Big Daddy
Guest
If we go back in time when hayne left parramatta to go to NFL it wasn't about money it was about pursuing his dream. Circa 2018 parramatta can't fit him in because he wants more than they can offer and now he has to shop himself around. After yesterdays breaking news his price may have dropped. Don't know who his manager is but maybe the advice he has been getting is pretty bad.
Birdy
Roar Rookie
Yeh, I just read that this morning . Odviously Parra knew. I boarded the Hayne plane myself but have to admit now that he needs a big season with whoever to win back his credibility as a player and a person. Hindmarsh's words keep haunting me, "which Hayne will turn up ?"
Paul
Roar Guru
Hayne involved in yet another alleged incident in the past few days with a woman. He could be the most talented player in the game and I wouldn't go near him for the trouble he seems to get into.
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
Geez, i thought I didn't like Hayne but you have trumped me.
The Barry
Roar Guru
He’s managed to bag Hayne, Inglis and Marshall in the space of two posts...
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
It's an interesting challenge for clubs to decide whether a player like Dufty is worth keeping. Get it wrong and the window to win a title might vanish. The Chooks are a good example of releasing players quickly who might not be leading them to a title. Not that long ago they were backing their future on a Hastings / Pearce combination but took decisive action when they made the decision on both. Someone at the Broncos has a similar call to make on their halves combination soon. The way the Plane performed in the last 6 weeks or so of 2018 has made him a tempting prospect and gamble.
Up the Wahs
Roar Guru
The dragons are lucky to have you on board, I salute you. Two time dally m medal winner Hayne is indeed a never was. Say theoretically they sign Hayne and then have a good year make the grand final will you watch then or stick to your principles?
The Barry
Roar Guru
Brilliant...I thought it was pretty clear that my comment was a joke (here’s the hint - I didn’t really have Reimis Smith on hold wanting to speak to Scott) but well done to you...great pick up.