The Australian media coverage of Jarryd Hayne’s quest to win a place in America’s National Football League has, mostly, displayed an alarming lack of knowledge of the American game.

AussieRulesBlog isn’t suggesting that all Australian sports writers have to become experts in the NFL. Rather, we contend that only those who have a more than passing knowledge of the game be tasked with writing on Hayne’s quest.

When Hayne’s quest began, it seemed like anyone with an Australian media platform was happy to step up and declare Hayne misguided and deluded. Of course, it’s ‘Australian’ to cut down tall poppies. By choosing to pursue his quest before he’d burned himself out in the NRL, Hayne elevated himself into the sights of the poppy cutters.

When, during the first six games of the NFL season, Hayne played roles as running back and punt returner, the poppy cutters damned his efforts for, according to them, not gaining many yards for his team. In fact his average gains compared favourably with the majority of running backs in the competition.

Finally, when Hayne was ‘waived’ at the end of October, the poppy cutters celebrated the end of his quest — failing to understand the almost constant movement of players off and onto active player rosters in the NFL. That the San Francisco 49ers retained Hayne on their practice squad emphasised their belief in Hayne’s potential.

It’s worth comparing Hayne with some other code-hoppers.

• Darren Bennett and Saverio Rocca carved out successful NFL careers — as punters. Not to belittle their efforts, but they were using their AFL-based skills and not getting involved in the tough stuff at the NFL line of scrimmage.
• Jim Stynes, Sean Wight, Tadgh Kenelly, Zach Tuohy, Marty Clark and Pearce Hanley have all made more-or-less successful transitions from Gaelic football. As evidenced by the International Rules series, there’s not a gaping chasm between Gaelic and Australian football.
• Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau attempted the transition from the rugby codes to Australian Rules. Hunt genuinely won his place in a young Suns team and clearly enjoyed the game. Folau looked like a fish out of water for his entire stint with the Giants.

Let’s remember that Hayne’s National Rugby League background gives him experience in a physical, straight-ahead sport. But we must also acknowledge that NFL is an incredibly technical sport — not always obvious to the casual [media] observer.

For more-seasoned Australian observers of NFL, there were some indications in Hayne’s first six games that he wasn’t completely on top of the technical aspects of playing as a running back. For the 49ers to throw him in as a punt returner was either inspired or lunatic.

Hayne’s ten weeks in the 49ers’ practice squad playing a variety of roles will have advanced his understanding of the techniques and strategies required in playing as running back.

It’s enormously encouraging for Hayne to be recalled to the active roster for the penultimate game of the season, and his performance against the Detroit Lions seems to have confirmed his improvement. Perhaps Australian sports editors can find someone on their staffs who knows a little about NFL before rushing to dance on Hayne’s sporting grave.