Down Under Perspective: Is Jarryd Hayne's NRL Status Being Overhyped in USA?

Much has been made of Jarryd Hayne's move to the NFL over the past few months. The former Parramatta Eels fullback gave away rugby league at the conclusion of a magical 2014 season to pursue his dream of playing in the NFL. He was soon signed by the San Francisco 49ers.

It has been interesting, as a sports fan from Down Under, to experience the reaction from the United States. Indeed, a lot of us have often wondered what Americans would make of our sporting culture.

We now have some insight.

While he has not attracted mass attention, a Google search of his name and a scan through some articles and message boards reveals that he seems to be receiving plenty of hype.

He has been labelled a superstar of "rugby" by many, been described as his former sport's version of LeBron James and had his decision to change codes compared with Michael Jordan's switch to baseball.

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That is a lot of hype. You have to ask if he ever really gained superstar status—on a consistent basis at least. Likewise, his impact on rugby league was nowhere near that which James has made on basketball. Multiple high-profile NRL players have left the game to play different sports, primarily ones coming under the football banner.

Most importantly, the man played rugby league not rugby union, which is generally what is being referred to when people say "rugby" alone, simply because union is played far more widely around the world. Indeed, for many years there was, to put it nicely, bad blood between the two codes.

There seems to be a lot of excitement around Hayne's highlight reels; for many people, this is all they have ever seen of the man. 

They certainly are impressive and show what he is capable of.

When he wanted to be, he was brilliant. 

For two glorious seasons, he was right up there with the best players in the game. However, it seems to have been forgotten that they were separated by four years in which he did very little.

Can you really call someone a genuine superstar when, even a year ago, they seemed to be something of a flash-in-the-pan talent having an above-average career? 

Injuries didn't help, but aside from his Dally M Player of the Year seasons in 2009 and 2014, he was hardly a superstar of the game; at times, he was not even a top-five fullback. Since 2009, fullbacks Todd Carney and Ben Barba have won Dally M Medals, and neither has convinced since his one-off outstanding season. It is not unheard of to have one good year.

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There was a feeling that Hayne could be lumped into that same category until he proved 2009 wasn't a fluke. For the entirety of last year, he ran hard, got himself involved, looked threatening every time he touched the ball and was, quite simply, a match-winner.

It was this form that saw NRL.com's staff writers rate him as the second-best player in the Premiership last year. But even they conceded that the best Eels fans were able to do for four years was recall his form in 2009, when he was outstanding in leading an average team all the way to the Grand Final.

During those lean years, there were games in which he would go completely missing. Rugby league is a sport in which you need to go looking for the ball. You need to run good lines and get yourself into position to be involved and make an impact on the game. You cannot wait for the game to come to you; in most cases it will not.

Hayne did not do this well, particularly considering he was on a team that lacked firepower. Can you really call someone who was so often so anonymous a superstar? He was no doubt a big-name player, but was he really one of the Premiership's best?

Even in 2010, the year after his first dream season, he was voted as the most overrated player in the game in a poll run by Fox Sports.

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It was not until last year that Hayne really nailed down the No. 1 jersey for his state team, New South Wales. Prior to that, Brett Stewart, Kurt Gidley, Anthony Minichiello and Josh Dugan had all been preferred at various stages.

He has, of course, still found his way into the team for the most part but not in his preferred position at the back.

That is put into even greater perspective when one considers that Billy Slater and Greg Inglis, the two best and most consistent fullbacks of the era by a country mile, play for Queensland. Because of those two men, Hayne has never had a look in at the back for the Australia team, although he did make his way into the squad in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2013 as a winger and centre.

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At his best, Hayne was as good as any of those aforementioned players. But he has never matched the consistency displayed by Slater and Inglis, who have been the best in their position in an era of great fullbacks.

Looking beyond the No. 1 jersey, there are even more names that spring to mind as being more prolific than Hayne. Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Paul Gallen and Sam Burgess have all been, along with Slater and Inglis, among the game's elite of the past five years—the superstars of the game on a annual basis.

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What you cannot question through any of this time, though, is Hayne's ability and athleticism. Even while he was being bothered by injury, he was still arguably the Premiership's best athlete, and it was this that made him so threatening. 

Given that it is his ability as an athlete rather than as a league player that is important to his transition to the NFL, that has be music to the ears of 49ers fans. He is strong, fast, agile and skilful. His best attribute in rugby league was his ability to sidestep defenders and break tackles, but he was equally good at timing his run into the line and offering deft touches to put players away outside him.

The man says it is his dream to play in the NFL, and there would be few people who would not want to see him succeed in doing this. It is probably not the conventional Australian dream but one which will be followed with interest. He has the ability and the drive, and at the time of leaving the NRL, he was in the form of his life. 

What he is attempting his ambitious. But at 27 years of age and after looking back on his career in the NRL, it seems pretty obvious that he chose as good a time as possible to give it a go.