Jarryd Hayne coup sets Titans on path to success

THE Hayne Plane has landed — and rugby league’s most marketable talent is set to propel the Gold Coast Titans towards becoming a high-flying success story. Here’s how the momentous signing unfolded and what it means for the club.

THE Hayne Plane has landed — and rugby league’s most marketable talent is set to propel the Gold Coast Titans towards becoming a high-flying success story.

The Titans shocked the sporting world yesterday, snatching former NSW State of Origin and NFL star Jarryd Hayne from under the noses of his former club Parramatta in a $2.4 million, two-year deal.

The two-time Dally M Medallist was yesterday unveiled in a lavish press conference surrounded by private jets at Mick Doohan’s hangar on the Gold Coast.

So swiftly was the deal done, Hayne had to hit local stores on the Gold Coast for a new set of clothes after flying up to seal his Titans contract without a suitcase.

The mega-deal was brokered over four hours of complex talks on Tuesday night. Hayne formally signed an NRL contract in his room at the QT hotel on the Gold Coast at 9.45pm in the presence of Titans boss Graham Annesley and a club lawyer.

By midnight, Annesley was still in his office at Titans headquarters processing Hayne’s registration with the National Rugby League.

Annesley and the Titans are now celebrating a contractual coup that will deliver millions of dollars to the club in merchandise, sponsorship and gate receipts.

Hayne’s signing had an immediate effect on the club’s financial fortunes.

In the hours after his deal was announced, the Titans sold more than $40,000 worth of tickets for this Sunday’s game against the Warriors. Before the announcement, they had sold just $10,000.

Hayne dropped a bombshell when he suddenly quit Parramatta in 2014 to announce plans to chase his dream of playing in the NFL.

The former NSW Origin star defied enormous odds to clinch a deal with the San Francisco 49ers and make his NFL debut, franking him as one of Australia’s greatest athletes.

Gold Coast powerbrokers sounded out Hayne just weeks after he walked out on his NFL career with the 49ers in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to represent Fiji in rugby sevens at the Rio Olympics.

Talks slowly progressed over six weeks before reaching fever pitch on Tuesday.

The deal was also sweetened by Hayne’s former teammate and former Titan Luke O’Dwyer, who was part of Tuesday night’s negotiations.

O’Dwyer, who now works in the corporate sector, was able to broker an estimated $300,000 to Hayne’s $1.2 million-a-season deal as part of the NRL’s marquee player allowance.

Hayne’s signing, Gold Coast rugby league’s biggest player deal in 25 years after Wally Lewis left the Broncos to join the Seagulls in 1991, will have a ripple effect for the Titans.

On the field, they have a genuine matchwinner who can turn the Titans into a premiership force. Off it, he will make the club attractive to free-to-air television bosses, boost crowd figures and help the Titans’ recruitment and development plans.

Annesley lauded the impact Hayne will have on the Gold Coast football team and wider community.

“There’s no doubt this is an enormous boost for the club commercially,” he said.

“The club is generating a lot of additional interest by the way the team’s been playing this year and the fact we’re in contention for the finals.

“It’s definitely going to hopefully generate more membership interest, corporate support.

“Jarryd is a household name throughout the country, regardless of which sport you follow. Jarryd is a proven turnstile-clicker, people come to the games to watch Jarryd play.

“Of course that’s part of the reason we were interested in a player like Jarryd, apart from the fact he’s an outstanding footballer.”

While many expected him to return to his spiritual home at Parramatta, Hayne had multiple offers to join other clubs but said the Titans’ professionalism attracted him to the Gold Coast.

“The board’s strength, you can come to a club and just worry about your footy. That’s a huge thing,” he said.

“They’ve been there from the start with the offers.

“I saw a good opportunity. I felt like things lined up.”