The dominant Magpies midfielder (and former AFL footballer) was a class above during Euroa’s 94-point demolition of an undermanned Tatura.
Hayes has been one of the best players in the Goulburn Valley League for some time and, while the star midfielder has produced countless impressive performances in the black and white, Saturday’s effort would have to be one of his best.
We could use all the possible football idioms to describe Hayes’ performance — he had the ball on a string, suffered from leather poisoning, brought his own footy, etc.
However, those expressions can be overdone in football, so instead, let’s just put it simply: Hayes had 53 disposals against the Bulldogs.
Fifty-three.
It was 18 more possessions than the next best — Tatura’s Mitch Elliot on 35 — and incredibly, it was 30 more disposals than Euroa’s next leading disposal getters, Jett Trotter, Lachlan Hill and Jacob Gleeson, who all had 23.
Hayes was busy inside and out, collecting 25 contested and 28 uncontested possessions on the day.
While he did go at only 68 per cent disposal efficiency, that means he still had 36 effective touches.
Will Hayes’ big day out against Tatura
Ranking points: 225
Disposals: 53
Clearances: 9
Tackles: 10
Contested possessions: 25
Effective disposals: 36
Score involvements: 16
Efficiency when delivering the ball inside 50: 75%
Intercept possessions: 8
The star midfielder also impacted the match in attack, with 16 score involvements, while Hayes could have had an even bigger day had he kicked straight, instead finishing the game with one goal and three behinds.
His work rate didn’t drop when the ball wasn’t in his hands either, with the midfield bull having a team-high 19 pressure moments.
These were made up of nine pressure acts and 10 tackles (nine of which were effective).
At stoppages, Hayes was unsurprisingly busy, winning nine clearances.
When you throw in the additional facts that he had eight inside 50s, eight goal involvements, 19 ground ball gets and 225 ranking points, the case for this being the best performance in the Goulburn Valley League this year becomes pretty convincing.
The next most disposals in a game this season was by Mansfield’s Brett Mahoney in round 11 when the Eagles’ veteran midfielder collected 45 touches against Seymour.
Whether it was the best single-player performance of the year, Echuca’s Kane Morris (10 goals on Saturday) or Mooroopna’s Keelin Betson (38 touches and 21 clearances in round 10) might have something to say about that.
While Shepparton mid-forward Luke Smith’s round four eight-goal and 40 disposal effort against Seymour should also not be forgotten.
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