Set for takeoff: Jarryd Hayne joins sprint challenge with NRL stars
SPORT CONFIDENTIAL: Jarryd Hayne has been out of professional sport for a couple of years but he’ll soon be testing himself against some of Australia’s biggest names.
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Former rugby league star Jarryd Hayne will line up against some of the fastest men in Australia as he returns to the sporting arena for the first time since leaving the Eels in 2018.
Hayne has agreed to compete against the likes of Josh Addo-Carr, Bronson Xerri, Damien Cook and Joey Manu in a cross-code challenge hosted by sprint king Roger Fabri.
Fabri said he was excited to see how Hayne would go after a few years away from professional sport.
“I want to see what I can do with Hayne again after three weeks,” Fabri said.
“He is always up for it … I want to give him a chance to work his way back (to full fitness).”
Hayne’s rape trial has been delayed because he wants a jury to decide his fate. It was due to start next month and would have proceeded if it was judge-only. Hayne has pleaded not guilty.
Other NRL players who have committed to Fabri’s three-week challenge include Kyle Flanagan and Zac Lomax.
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Brumbies player Tom Wright and Sydney FC speedster Jordi Swibel will also compete. They will be joined by some Australian rugby sevens players while Fabri is hopeful cricketer David Warner will compete.
The group will receive one-on-one coaching from Tuesday with the first race between Addo-Carr and Xerri to occur 10 days later. The outside backs have already spent the past few weeks training with Fabri.
“This race will be an appetiser,” Fabri said. “It will be interesting. On the back of a one-off effort, I think Addo-Carr will win but it’s no certainty. When it comes to repeated efforts, Xerri could have him.”
Fabri’s plan is to have the group compete in head-to-head elimination races as pairs after three weeks of training. The winner of each race will go on before the final pair race to crown a winner.
“I am going to try to look for even match-ups,” Fabri said. “After three weeks, I’ll know who to put against each other.
“I’m more excited because the public is so excited.”
Possible initial match-ups include Cook against Manu with Flanagan and Hayne taking on each other.
Fabri will consider an all-women’s line-up after this race and wants to make it a regular event while people’s movements are restricted because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m going to drive people crazy to get this going until restrictions get lifted,” Fabri said.
“I feel so strongly about this being the most specific training the athletes can do.”
DCE WARMS TO NEW ROLE
Daly Cherry-Evans has finally found his voice and now the Queensland skipper wants to keep it.
Cherry-Evans emerged as a central figure in the RLPA’s discussions with the players. It was the first time the Manly captain and Australia’s vice-captain (pictured) felt the need to step up and protect the players. He said it was a role he was now comfortable with.
“This is the first time I felt a bit of an obligation to the game to give back and not in regards helping my teammates worry about their preparation for a game or give them an insight to make them a better player,” Cherry-Evans said.
“I’m no expert in running a football club let alone a game. I learnt a lot around what it takes to keep clubs and the game alive.
“It was insightful to learn so much. I guess ultimately when you have so many people working together to benefit the game, we were always going to come to an arrangement sooner rather than later. I learnt a hell of a lot. That’s the silver lining to it that I got to understand the game a bit better.
“In terms of who wins, it wasn’t a win-or-lose situation. As a board member for the RLPA, I will 100 per cent be there to lead the playing group (in the future).”
Despite being in his 10th season, Cherry-Evans said he had very little understanding about what it took to run an NRL club.
LEAGUE STARS TAKING STOCK
The coronavirus pandemic has not been all doom and gloom for a couple of retired NRL stars.
One former player saw the virus spreading in China in February as a message to sell his stocks and has since watched the market crash, saving him a fortune as he played his own version of The Big Short.
Another former player, whose name is in the record books, also saw the crash coming and bought US dollars and recently sold them for a tidy $30,000 profit.
He celebrated with a nice cup of coffee.
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Recently retired NSW cricket star Steve O’Keefe will certainly have to brush up on his skills if he is keen on a media career. The loveable larrikin dropped the F-bomb twice during a live radio interview with a breakfast show during the week.
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Rugby star Quade Cooper created a stir in the US this week when his flick pass with an NFL ball travelled about 30m. Cooper posted the video on social media and it was picked up by American highlights giant Bleacher Report where it has racked up more than one million views.
LIFTING THE LID ON THE BIG O
AN autobiography of former cult hero Olsen Filipaina hits stores next week. The Big O, co-written by Patrick Skene, traces the rise of Filipaina from working-class South Auckland to Kiwi Test star.
BLAST FROM THE PAST: ALAN TONGUE
220 top-grade games all for Canberra from 2000-2011
Alan Tongue is lime-green through and through. So, it is hard to imagine this one-club man owing his career to the Brisbane Broncos.
As a teenage prodigy, Tongue was on a Broncos scholarship while at school at Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School.
It was his interaction with Brisbane, the introduction to a professional set-up, which stopped him from walking away from his football dream to return as a third-generation farmer.
“I was a league-mad kid,” Tongue said.
“Everywhere I went, I had a footy in my hand. But between Year 9 and 10, I wanted to come back home to the land. My brother had left school in Year 10 to return home and I wanted to follow in my family’s footsteps.
“I had an approach from Parramatta before Brisbane but I told my parents ‘no’ and I wanted to come back on the land. They were fine with that. Then the Broncos scholarship came about. There was no signing or anything but just an opportunity. So, I did that. The more I got involved with the high performance — seeing and training alongside the NRL players — it reinvigorated the dream for me.
“Even though I never ended up there, Brisbane played a crucial part in me continuing to play rugby league.”
Eventually, Tongue signed with the Raiders because of the club’s country feel. His debut was against the Broncos and the then first-year apprentice mechanic left his boss filthy when he requested time off to play.
“I had this thing where, before I went into the dressing rooms before we ran out after warm-up, I had to whack someone with tackling pads,” Tongue said.
“I was a nervous and shy kid so I didn’t ask any of my teammates. I grabbed the assistant coach and asked if he could hold the pad. I tried whacking him as hard as I could but he didn’t budge. The assistant was Glenn Lazarus.”