NRL: No ifs or butts, Billy is 'best'

Jarryd Hayne. Photo / Getty Images

Crack Parramatta fullback Jarryd Hayne has admitted Billy Slater is a better player.

Hayne and Slater face off for the first time today in an Eels-Storm clash since they were involved in an ugly head-butting incident last year.

While much of the attention will centre on Eels and Kiwis coach Steven Kearney returning to take on his former boss Craig Bellamy, the real focus will be on the fullback foes.

Slater was almost unstoppable against the Bulldogs this week and Hayne told Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper: "I rate Billy the best fullback in the game. It's good to go up against him and get a measure of where I'm at.

"Obviously it's good playing against him. He's the No 1 fullback in the game, and with me being a fullback as well, I want to put my best foot forward and show [the Australian selectors] I'm still there. He was in everything on Monday night. He made some quality breaks and looked threatening every time he touched the ball.

"At the end of the day, we're two different players. I'm 100-plus kilos, he's bordering 90kg, he's nippy while I'm more of a powerful and explosive player."

Kearney, Bellamy's assistant until winning the Parramatta coaching position, said there was no use trying to work out how to nullify Slater, Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith.

"If I spent energy [wondering] how to stop those guys, I wouldn't be getting much sleep," Kearney told the Daily Telegraph. "Billy is such a wonderful player and gives the team so much. Our focus will be on what we need to do well and our strengths and what works for us."

Meanwhile, the Storm have settled the futures of two more of its swag of out-of-contract players with the club's 2010 player of the year, Ryan Hinchcliffe, and boom young forward Kevin Proctor agreeing new deals.

The Storm still have another 10 of its 31-man first-grade squad off contract at the end of this season, including Kiwi forward Adam Blair, Kiwi-born winger Matt Duffie and five-eighth Gareth Widdop.

With the club almost resigned to losing Blair, attention will turn to retaining Duffie, who was given a tour of Parramatta's facilities last week and is apparently weighing up a big offer from the Eels.

Proctor, 22, has started in the back-row in every match this season, played 22 games last year and has been one of Melbourne's best forwards, scoring a try in last Monday's win over the Canterbury Bulldogs.

"Kevin has been with the club since he was a teenager and is really now starting to hit his straps so it would have been really disappointing to lose him," Melbourne Storm football manager Frank Ponissi said.

"To get him for three years at just 22 and with his best football to come, is a real win."

Hinchcliffe, 26, has missed only one game, through suspension, since arriving as a back-up to Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith in 2009. He could join an exclusive list of 100-game players at the club.

Meanwhile in the other great NRL transfer drama, St George Illawarra Dragons coach Wayne Bennett has rejected an offer to rejoin the Brisbane Broncos next season, telling his former club he wanted to "explore other options".

Bennett is the subject of a tug-of-war between South Sydney Rabbitohs boss Russell Crowe and the new billionaire boss of the Newcastle Knights, Nathan Tinkler.