Neil Henry mere collateral as the Gold Coast Titans battle for their future

PAUL KENT: The assassination of Neil Henry begins and ends with false assumptions and has caused serious damage to a good man’s reputation.

The Titans have a problem

THE assassination of Neil Henry begins and ends with an unknowingly false assumption and ­Titans lawyers will have to wade through the coach’s blood to get themselves ready for whatever comes next.

A couple of Saturdays ago Jarryd Hayne walked out the dressing room door at UOW Jubilee Oval at Kogarah with a moonboot on his foot and a twitch in his mouth.

The Titans just got rolled 42-16 and Hayne turned towards a small posse of journalists waiting out the back.

“If someone doesn’t want you there and it’s clear as day I will move on,” Hayne said.

“He is the coach.”

SHORT SHOT: Blues had no choice but to dump Daley

It was a good, solid story, driven by action. Real news from a genuine star on a real issue.

It gave the Titans an enormous migraine.

Jarryd Hayne and Neil Henry following Hayne’s decision to join the Titans.

Like every small war nobody can be certain the exact point it began but you can be sure it escalated quickly.

After Hayne’s comment chief executive Graham Annesley knew he needed to have a conversation.

Hayne and Henry were called in separately the following Monday to speak to Annesley and chairwoman Rebecca Frizelle.

From this moment the whole version of events took on a parallel history. It made sense based on the limited facts available, but the truth was in what they did not know and did not care to learn.

Hayne said this week his comments were spurred by my column published the day before where I questioned his value at the Titans.

“When Paul Kent wrote that article,” Hayne said. “I thought if that comes out from Paul, if he (Henry) and Paul have that relationship, I’d rather that come from Neil rather than having a journalist write about it.

The Titans have a problem

“For that to come out in the media instead of (Henry) coming up to me and talking about it … it was a bit disappointing.”

So I spoke to Henry in March. Even then the story was nothing new.

Matthew Johns and the Triple M Grill team were already talking about it on morning radio.

“The worst-kept secret in rugby league,” Johns described it this week. You could not pick up a phone without hearing about it.

I called one of my contacts to check some of those stories — he confirmed some, was unaware of others — and also told my guy I was having trouble finding Henry and if he sees him, to tell him to call.

I finally got Henry. He was slightly panicked because Hayne was the big dog at the club and he asked me not to write it, then tried watering it down by saying other players had got fined, that Hayne’s training had improved since Christmas when a ball was produced.

But he was still the $1.2 million man aggravating teammates left on the training paddock to do the hard work. Nothing personal, just a good strong column.

Jarryd Hayne’s days at the Titans hae been anything but fruitful.

The next day my Titans contact called to see if I found Henry. I told him Henry was annoyed he could not call me off it and tried to water it down.

This same guy called me on Wednesday after Hayne’s press conference to remind me of our conversation after hearing Hayne’s press conference.

“There was an article at the start of the year,” Hayne said, “and I felt if someone had an issue they could come up and talk to me rather than going to a journalist about it. That ­really upset me.

“For that to happen again pretty much took me over the edge. If you’ve got an issue with someone you take it up with them man-to-man, not through a journalist.”

I called Henry several times about other leads in the months since but he never ­answered and never returned the message.

No big deal, it happens.

Like the first column, my piece a fortnight ago - the one Hayne mistakenly thought was based on comments from Henry - was waiting to be written as the Titans failed to capitalise on their marquee purchase. Twelve months on, the team had failed to get better with Hayne in the team.

The Titans have handled the Henry axing appallingly, says Paul Kent.

The Titans believed once Hayne made his comments at Kogarah they had little choice but to call them both in and resolve it. They soon found it was more difficult to do than they believed and the Titans clearly sided with Hayne and sacked Henry.

The club has since alluded to other issues but will not detail them.

I’m clearing the air because the allegation that Henry leaked to me was not only wrong and helped get him sacked and will likely cause other clubs to question, if it were true, whether Henry is any longer employable.

Henry would also surely have a strong wrongful dismissal case against the Titans, who handled it all poorly, given they clearly believe he breached his contract.

While I have no idea of their motive it has become wonderfully convenient for the Titans and their current owners, the NRL, who convened before sacking Henry.

The NRL must sell the ­Titans before October 31, the end of the NRL’s financial year, because it can no longer afford them. A tender process is about to go out.

Sacking Neil Henry was the easy option.

Hayne is on $1.2 million next season. Henry was on $400,000.

Already, Titans board member Darryl Kelly has an interest to buy them as have North Sydney Bears and a ­secret third party.

All are yet to do their due diligience on club finances and therefore the Titans’ true worth is unknown.

But there can be no question they will look healthier with Henry’s $400,000 as an extra debt to the club instead of Hayne’s $1.2 million.

With the Bears preparing to offer a reported $7 million and Kelly has already supposedly offered $4 million — for a club losing about $2.5 million annually — that $800,000 less in debt is significant.

Henry got slain in the ­process. Brought down by false assumptions, nothing but collateral.

Originally published as Neil Henry mere collateral as the Gold Coast Titans battle for their future