Why Gold Coast Titans should punt coach-killer Jarryd Hayne and keep Neil Henry

PAUL KENT: Jarryd Hayne has killed more coaches than that other old faithful, the full support of the board, so Neil Henry has every right to be very nervous.

JARRYD Hayne has killed more coaches than that other old faithful, the full support of the board.

You can say this with great confidence now Neil Henry, coach of the Little Team That Could, counts the days until the Gold Coast board meets to discuss the impasse between the Titans coach and star player. Only one is expected to survive — the short money is on Hayne.

If the conversation remains at surface value then Henry has as much chance of surviving as the nail against the hammer.

Dig down, though, and the legitimacy of the Titans’ board is under examination here.

Will they make the courageous, and correct, decision to stick with Henry over Hayne when it would be so easy to let the coach go?

He is the lowest-paid coach in the NRL and Hayne is among the highest-paid players.

They would save themselves a fortune right there.

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Jarryd Hayne leaves a trail of destruction

Hayne is recognised as a superstar in the game, a two-time Dally M Medal winner with enough talent to have a crack at the NFL or change the course of a State of Origin series.

What club would ever voluntarily let him go?

The answer should be the Gold Coast.

How the Gold Coast handle it will go a long way towards establishing their credentials.

Hayne’s record for sending coaches to the unemployment line is unprecedented. No coach has lasted more than two seasons with him.

Brian Smith refused to pick Hayne for the Eels in 2006, when he was 18. Smith was at Parramatta for almost 10 seasons and knew Hayne’s talent before anyone but he also knew the NRL was about more than talent and, until Hayne learned about commitment and consistency and effort, Smith would not pick him for the big side.

Smith got sacked in 2006 though and Jason Taylor, with head coaching ambition, got brought in as interim coach and immediately went about doing all he could to win.

Taylor was making the ­classic mistake.

Troubled waters: Jarryd Hayne with current Titans coach Neil Henry.

Given a short-term gig coaches often make short-term decisions and so Hayne was promoted.

Michael Hagan was brought in for 2007.

Hagan had expert experience in dealing with big talent and big personalities.

He coached Andrew Johns at Newcastle and harnessed Johns in a way he became the team’s true leader and led them all the way to the 2001 premiership.

After two seasons coaching Hayne wondering when he might fire and how he could get him going, Hagan left Parramatta to go knit in the corner.

The Eels replaced Hagan with Daniel Anderson.

Hayne finished Anderson’s season with a streak of form that was unprecedented in the history of the game. Six straight man of the match awards. He led the Eels from the lower rungs of the ladder into the finals and all the way to the grand final. Nobody has ever put together a sustained performance like this.

More, Parramatta officials finally believed Anderson had unlocked the secret that is Hayne and, after going down to Melbourne in the 2009 decider, could not wait until 2010. Riches awaited now Anderson had unlocked such talent.

It’s been a horrible year for Jarryd Hayne at the Titans.

Hayne played brilliantly some weeks and seemed preoccupied thinking about how to solve world famine the next and after finishing 12th Anderson did not survive the summer.

Stephen Kearney was hired.

Kearney came in with some momentum. He was Craig Bellamy’s assistant in Melbourne and head coach of New Zealand where Wayne Bennett worked alongside him and the word was strong he was the next great coach.

He took Parramatta from 12th to 14th. They needed to win the last game in the season just to avoid the wooden spoon.

Kearney coached another season just so Parramatta officials could be sure and the Eels dropped to last.

By then Kearney was already gone, sacked after 19 rounds, and he went off to join Hagan, knitting and quivering.

Ricky Stuart came in for 2013 and knew immediately what he was dealing with.

Stuart tried all the tricks. He named Hayne co-captain to give him responsibility.

At the same time he told the boss Ken Edwards to delay re-signing Hayne until after Origin to keep him hungry. Hayne’s best form seemed to coincide with him coming off contract. Edwards knew they would burn down the grandstand if he lost Hayne so he moved ahead and signed him before Christmas.

For Stuart, the end came the day he sent a bouncing Hayne to train with the injured squad after the fullback had withdrawn injured the weekend before, then watched him get up and apologise to his teammates while confessing he really was fit to play.

Stuart could see where this was going and got out.

In came Brad Arthur, next on the assembly line.

Arthur coached Hayne his first season and then got one of those great breaks that could only mean someone was looking out for him.

Hayne quit to play in the NFL.

It means Arthur is now in his fourth season at Parramatta, the longest serving Eels coach since Smith, the coach who refused to pick Hayne to play.

Hayne returned and became Henry’s problem on the Gold Coast.

Henry did not want him but the board overruled, mesmerised by his corporate following and reputation.

He arrived at the Gold Coast for round 22 last year where Henry had somehow coached the Titans, the popular pick from many to run last, into seventh place.

With Hayne they eventually finished eighth, winning two and losing three before exiting week one in the finals.

Nobody has said they got better with Hayne, despite his reputation.

Now Henry awaits what might be a short execution, the last in a long line of coaches who could not get Hayne to fire but who fall to this reputation wrapped in fool’s gold.

Henry knows how to get a team to play above itself, the perfect option for a club playing unders in the market for everyone except their marquee player called Hayne.

I cannot tell you whether the Titans board has the nerve or the nous to make the only call that is right for their club’s future.

They have until the end of the season to find it, though.