Australian sport’s most dramatic fall from grace climaxed with four corrective services officers descending on a man who once captured a sporting nation’s undivided attention.
Jarryd Hayne was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison on Thursday on sexual assault charges and must serve at least three years and eight months, a judge deeming he was fully aware his victim was not consenting to his advances but he continued anyway.
Even as he was being led away, the rumblings were still being felt throughout the NRL. Remarkably, St George Illawarra were dragged into the Hayne saga on Thursday as the former NSW and Test star repeated claims that he had already lost out financially due to the allegations made against him.
He had a contract on the table from the Dragons when police swooped. He stood to earn $500,000 a season as part of the deal. St George Illawarra were frightened away and Hayne has been out of the NRL since, his sole focus on avoiding a prison term.
The Dragons didn’t sign Hayne but they had reason to be frustrated regardless after five-eighth Corey Norman posted a picture on social media of himself with Hayne in the days leading up to his sentencing. It is understood Dragons officials spoke to Norman on Thursday about his choices.
Their issue wasn’t necessarily that he was with Hayne, but rather that he chose to post an image of himself standing beside a man who is now heading to jail for at least three years, pending his appeal. The image was captioned “catch-up”.
Norman had blocked comments, a sign that he was cognisant of the reaction that may have followed. Hayne, meanwhile, has lost so much already, most notably his freedom, but there may be more taken from him.
The ARL Commission at some point will sit down to determine whether he should be stripped of his rugby league honours given the heinous nature of his crimes, including the game’s most prestigious individual honour — the Dally M Medal.
They will wait until he has exhausted his appeal and should he fail to be exonerated, there will be a discussion about whether he should be scrubbed to a large extent from rugby league’s record books.
The decision will divide opinion once again, something Hayne has done for much of his career. Some will argue rugby league should put as much space as it can between the code and Hayne given the horrendous and graphic allegations that have been made against him.
If it means replacing his name with an asterisk, so be it. Others will no doubt subscribe to the view taken by French President Emmanuel Macron when some demanded the country pull down statues in response to anti-racism activity.
Macron insisted the republic would erase no trace or names of its history, nor would it forget its works or tear down its statues.
Instead, he said the country needed to lucidly look together at their history. Hayne’s history is now set to become a subject of fevered debate given the alarming way his sporting career has come to an end.
It may become an issue for his former club Parramatta as well. Hayne won the Ken Thornett Medal on two occasions at the Eels, including the 2009 season when he led the club to the NRL grand final almost single-handedly.
His name is on their honour boards. Like the ARL Commission, the Eels will await the outcome of any appeal before making a call on whether to remove his name from their records.
Rugby league once embraced Hayne, dining out on his brilliance. He was one of the faces of the game. He was used to celebrate the sport.
Even when he made a stunning pitch of codes and headed to America to try his hand at the NFL, there was a sense of pride that he was referred to as a former rugby league star.
When he returned to the game, it was front and back page news. On Thursday, he was on the front and back page again. This time, no one in rugby league was celebrating.
Only wondering how they could put some distance between themselves and a disgraced star.
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