Jarryd Hayne was an Australian sports superstar but few truly know who he is

Nobody can really explain Jarryd Hayne. Not even his closest friends. But these stories go some way to understanding the Hayne enigma.

Who is Jarryd Hayne?

Despite the throng of supporters who surrounded him outside Newcastle District Court on Thursday before he was jailed for at least three years and eight months for raping a woman inside her Newcastle home, if you ask the people closest to him and you’re most likely to be met with a decline to comment.

It’s not in an attempt to be rude or uncooperative. It’s simply that they just don’t know what to say.

Few, if any of Hayne’s former coaches or teammates, have been capable of characterising the man – not the player – that rumbled through rugby league as the “Hayne Train”.

One of the most gifted athletes to play rugby league, yes. But aside from the on-field brilliance, the skill level that few could boast and the speed and power to win matches on his own, few can articulate the at-times aloof and detached make-up of Hayne.

Jarryd Hayne with his wife Amellia Bonnici.

A ‘g’day mate, how are things?’ as he passed you in a corridor at training on Wednesday, could be matched with the most vacant “have we met before” stare that seared straight through you, on Thursday.

“That’s just Jarryd,’’ his coaches would explain.

The stories ex-coaches and teammates can tell, is how Hayne walked to the beat of his own drum.

It wasn’t all Hayne’s doing. On his rise to superstardom in 2009, the Parramatta staff members nicknamed Hayne, ‘The Champ’.

Around the footy club, it provided Hayne with the platform to roll through seasons largely as he pleased. Hayne quickly made everyone around him understand that Jarryd would perform, on Jarryd’s time.

Parramatta Eels NRL player Jarryd Hayne and his mother Jodie arrive at Sheraton On The Park Hotel for drinks before heading off to the State Theatre for 2009 Dally M Awards ceremony in Sydney.

Training sessions at 10am, meant Hayne would arrive – on a good day – at 10.01am. If Jarryd wanted to show for media interviews in his underwear – as he did before a Sunday Telegraph photo shoot during his halcyon days at the Eels – he did.

He was often described as a ‘lazy’ trainer even by his closest of teammates and illustrated his dislike for heavy workout sessions by often turning-up in the wrong training gear.

At the Titans in 2017, he was fined by the senior playing group for his attitude towards training.

At best he was frustratingly laid-back and carefree for the many who coached him, immortalised by Hayne famously turning up to the 2009 grand final with two left boots.

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But in those early years at the Eels, instead of pulling him into line, some staffers would smile begrudgingly, knowing that ultimately ‘The Plane’ would deliver on the weekend. Hayne’s tendencies towards rigorous training was why when he dropped the bombshell of his plan to quit the Eels for the NFL, the most shocked of all were the people closest to him.

Hayne’s mission to earn a contract within a sport renowned for its unforgiving training requirements and demanding schedule only added to the fairytale.

It’s the reason why many of his closest confidantes will claim that Hayne’s fleeting stint in the NFL was an epic success, largely due to the odds stacked against him.

Off the field, Hayne rarely let his fans into his personal life, hardly ever spotted with a trophy girlfriend on his arm, at nightclubs or in the social pages.

The picture of his loyal mother Jodie beside him when collecting the 2009 Dally M medal was viewed as a son’s heartwarming tribute and gift to his number one supporter.

He has been vocal of his spiritual path as a member of Hillsong and in 2016 he met his wife Amellia Bonnici after he had returned from his with the San Francisco 49ers to join the NRL again with the Titans.

Hayne has two children with Bonnici and they were married in a private ceremony on Australia Day in January. The location remained a mystery for invited guests with a bus ferrying them from a certain location to the venue.

In the hours after Hayne’s guilty verdict, his confidantes have contacted the former NRL star. With jail time hanging over his head, the conversations have been tough.

And once again, they don’t know what to say.