Jarryd Hayne to quit Titans: Sorry saga a warning to NRL clubs in age of millionaire players

ROBERT CRADDOCK: What does it say about a footballer who earns $1 million a year from his club but they are better off without him?

WHAT does it say about a footballer who earns $1 million a year from his club but they are better off without him?

In it’s simplest form, this is the story of Jarryd Hayne and the Gold Coast Titans.

We could write a book detailing the he said, she said’ drama of Thursday’s story and the ensuing denials of Hayne wanting out of the club but the bottom line stays the same – it’s been a loveless marriage from start to finish and the sooner they part the better.

The line “what about the profile he brings to the club?’’ does not stack up any more because almost every bit of that profile is now evidence of a deal gone wrong.

Hayne’s time with the Titans was a disappointment. Picture: Shae Beplate.

The Titans should end the agony now, salvage something from the wreck and let Hayne see if he can strike a (Titans friendly) deal with Parramatta.

Then hopefully they could return to being what they were before he arrived, a group of hard-nosed scrappers who played above their weight because they played for each other.

Hayne never wanted to leave the Eels in the first place – in a sense he never did.

His very first press conference at the Titans was full of lament at the Eels inability to lure him home rather than the excitement at joining a new club.

“A part of me is sad because I’m not going to go back to the club I grew up with and loved as a kid … (but) at the end of the day I wanted to play footy this year,’’ Hayne said.

The Titans were not a vibrant new challenge. They were the Last Chance Saloon.

Was Hayne the worst big-money signing modern rugby league has ever seen?

If this is the end of the story it has to be close.

Kieran Foran is in the discussion after leaving of Parramatta because of personal reasons.

Ben Barba and Martin Kennedy came to the Broncos on big money but never really got going and Adam Blair never went close to living up to his $550,000 a year during his time at the Wests Tigers.

But the Hayne story has been a bigger car crash than all of them because of the elephantine size of his pay packet and the lack of extenuating circumstances.

Not only was there no obvious excuse for lack of performance but the associated dramas like coach Neil Henry being sacked after falling out with Hayne now seem even more cringe-worthy than it was at the time.

The Hayne saga is a cautionary tale to clubs in the new age of the millionaire player where players are rewarded for potential as much as performance. He may be the first million-dollar disappointment. He won’t be the last.