Why no other NRL clubs out there want to buy up Jarryd Hayne Inc

THE Eels aren’t interested in brand Hayne and neither is any other NRL club out there. PAUL KENT looks at why the notorious code-hopper is on the nose.

Jarryd Hayne (centre) is on the nose almost everywhere. Picture: Nigel Hallett

ONLY 20 months ago Jarryd Hayne appeared one of the enlightened ones.

He registered a company and brought out apparel with his personal logo. It appeared he understood the importance of reputation, which those in the business call brand.

It was good business sense.

Every time news breaks around Jarryd Hayne it crashes like ice. You can’t help but look.

But since returning to the NRL last year, where he gives every indication the game is too small for him, Hayne has brick by brick began to dismantle that reputation.

It reached saturation point on Tuesday when news broke Hayne’s representatives had quietly nudged up alongside some Parramatta officials to gauge their interest in a return.

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Jarryd Hayne (centre) is on the nose almost everywhere. Picture: Nigel Hallett

It is within Hayne’s rights. He has an option in his favour at the Gold Coast next season and before he commits he must know what other options are there.

The Titans have given him a deadline until the end of May. And of all clubs the Eels know what Hayne can bring.

He was the difference for Gold Coast, 15th on the ladder, to beat premiers Cronulla last week.

The Eels’ faithful still sit back with glazed eyes when they recall his run in 2009 where, on the back of six-straight man of the match performances, he took the Eels all the way to the grand final.

Anywhere you cared to look you could not find a sustained performance such as Hayne’s that year. Maybe Thurston in 2015.

Yet the interest in Hayne at Parramatta is muted.

The Eels’ interest is so minimal they have not even bothered to look how much room is left in their salary cap where they have spent carefully.

Hayne was the Eels’ favourite son ... in 2009.

The wariness around Jarryd Hayne is at odds with his reputation as a franchise player.

And it raises the question, is the franchise over?

No other club has registered a blip of interest in Hayne, despite an overcooked player market and Hayne’s availability.

Parramatta people have a long memory of Hayne.

For all their memories of Hayne on a six-week stretch of man of the match awards, taking the Eels all the way to the 2009 grand final, insiders remember the dog day afternoons watching Hayne wander around the field, apparently disinterested.

Nobody could ever figure out a way to get him going.

Put a rocket under him, give him a cuddle, none seemed to consistently motivate him. What worked one Sunday failed to work the next.

Jarryd Hayne celebrates in his first match back from injury over the weekend.

Who could figure him out?

It built tremendous frustration at Parramatta. There were games where teammates, picking up that he was off, urged Hayne to get involved to no avail. They soon got deflated.

Maybe the worst thing to ever happen to Hayne’s career was Brian Smith getting sacked.

Smith was head coach when Hayne got into grade. Smith refused to play Hayne because he had an attitude problem.

He was young and dominating age group football and Smith knew he was good enough and would one day take Parramatta to grand heights but he also knew it had all come very easily and Hayne needed to learn the ways of top-flight football.

And that included learning to fight back and overcome disappointment.

A little more time in the lower grades would help, not hinder.

Hayne’s brand began to unravel with his decision to quit the NFL.

Smith got sacked, though, and Jason Taylor came in as interim coach and made the mistake of all short-term coaches, which is to coach for short-term success.

Taylor knew Hayne’s talent and how integral to Parramatta’s success it was even then. He picked him.

Hayne came, Taylor went, and then Michael Hagan, Daniel Anderson, Steve Kearney, Brad Arthur, Ricky Stuart all came through the Eels and all struggled with the enigma in No 1.

It is happening again on the Gold Coast now.

The importance of brand, which the rest of us call reputation, has been forgotten as rumour and whispers seep out of the Gold Coast about Hayne’s coachability.

Hayne has failed to care for his reputation. The Titans are in a test of patience.

Neil Henry is again proving himself a quality coach after stints at North Queensland and Canberra, able to get an injury-depleted team up week after week in the country’s toughest competition.

Hayne should be the star. Yet Henry’s problem is Hayne’s problem.

As Henry is discovering, coaching Hayne against the rest of the Titans is like the difference between cats and dogs.

Dogs can be trained as pets. Cats merely choose to live alongside you