ANZAC Test (CH9 coverage)

The ridiculous fan-driven agenda against Hayne is an absolute joke. I hate the Eels as much as the next guy (in fact probably more) and I think Hayne is quite possibly the biggest dickhead in the history of professional sport, but you have to respect high quality rugby league when you see it and quality thy name is Jarryd. The ultimate absurdity of this new trending Hayne hatred is in that none of criticisms are in any way analytical; they're just negative buzzwords that demonstrate how little football people actually watch before shooting off their mouths. Common criticisms of Hayne include "soft", "inconsistent", "uncommitted" and "drifts in and out of games", none of which actually demonstrate any rugby league analysis or are even remotely true or valid. These are just words that people throw around to talk down players they dislike for whatever reason - usually either club or state bias - and while there are players in the game who exhibit these negative qualities, they are rarely the players they are levelled at. These lazy buzzworders that call themselves fans know these claims can't really be proven or disproven; they are merely lazy, throwaway criticisms that deserve nothing but contempt.

I for one can't fathom how he was rated higher in 2009 than he is now, and to me that quite sums up just how out of touch the media and most of the fans are with the game. Hayne is so much better as a player now than he was then that it isn't even funny. Yes, Parramatta are performing a lot worse now than they were then but if you think that has anything to do with a supposed drop in Hayne's performances then you need to get your head out of your arse and start actually watching him play. The bloke has gone from being an admittedly very dangerous broken field runner but vastly over-hyped player in general to someone whose combination of vision, agility, power and ball skills before and through the line make him the toughest proposition in the game to defend - consistently too, regardless of what any of the buzzworders might want to say about that. His core ball skills are probably only level or even a little bit below a player like Thurston, but it's the ever-present threat of his powerful and elusive running game that makes the long and short passing games he's developed over the last two years so more dangerous than that of any other player. If you over-commit as a defensive line to him because you fear his dangerous running game then he'll burn you with the perfect pass and if you hold off him to cover his support then he'll run the ball, isolate a man one-on-one and use his strength, his speed, his power or his agility to beat him more times than not. His decision-making and general reading of the game has improved so much in the last year or so that he'll pick the right time to run and the right time to pass to clinical efficiency these days, and that too with woeful support options at Parramatta and at roughly 60% fitness so far this season. That the media - both mainstream and on sites like this - were far more impressed with his ability to run off the back of others' forward momentum and offloads in 2009 because Parramatta were winning speaks volumes about their inability to do anything other than read scorecards and watch highlights packages of tries.

Hayne is by far the best back in the NRL; only Paul Gallen and Cameron Smith rival what he brings to a football team. I say "in the NRL" and not "in the game" because he's yet to prove himself at rep level which brings Thurston and Inglis ahead of him overall, but this has more to do with lack of opportunity than lack of ability. I have little doubt he'll conquer that too when he gets the chance as long as he doesn't end up wasted on the wing.