Jarryd Hayne will never win his fight with Paul Kent as the journalist fires back at the Titans star

JARRYD Hayne has made possibly the biggest mistake of his career in a move that could condemn him to years of misery.

There’s one war Jarryd Hayne will never win.

He won the feud between himself and Neil Henry but there’s one battle Jarryd Hayne will never win, says Penrith great Mark Geyer.

The Titans marquee man addressed the media yesterday for the first time since Gold Coast sacked coach Henry on Monday, saying stories about him being leaked to the media was what finally pushed him “over the edge” and prompted his threat to quit the club if he wasn’t wanted.

Hayne hit out at News Corp journalist Paul Kent during the press conference, accusing him of conspiring with Henry to undermine him. His concerns stemmed from articles that had been written about his alleged poor attitude at training and Henry not wanting to sign the representative fullback in the first place.

Geyer says picking a fight with the media was “one of the worst things I ever did” and if Hayne goes down that path, it will only end in tears.

“I can speak personally from this as a volatile player throughout my career, one of the worst things I ever did was take on the media,” Geyer told the Triple M Grill Team. “I never won, I never ever won a fight against the media.

“No matter how much I rebelled against them, no matter what I called them and no matter how much I tried to have it out with them, I never won.

“You can never beat the media. There’s too many of them.

“Especially if they’re writing the truth — which they were writing about me — I didn’t want to see the truth but they were writing the truth about me. I can’t win.”

Newcastle legend Matty Johns said Hayne was in the wrong to question Henry’s relationship with the media, saying nobody needed to leak the story about his poor training efforts because it was the “worst kept secret in rugby league”.

Gold Coast Titans players and Jarryd Hayne (Centre).

A fresh war of words between Hayne and Kent erupted when the 29-year-old said he was upset to hear things about himself in the media rather than from the source.

“When Paul Kent wrote that article (that was a tipping point),” Hayne said. “I thought if that comes out from Paul, if he (Henry) and Paul have that relationship, I’d rather that come from Neil rather than having a journalist write about it.

“For that to come out in the media instead of (Henry) coming up to me and talking about it … it was a bit disappointing.

“There was an article at the start of the year (about my attitude at training) and I felt if someone had an issue they could come up and talk to me rather than going to a journalist about it. That really upset me.

“For that to happen again pretty much took me over the edge. If you’ve got an issue with someone you take it up with them man-to-man, not through a journalist.”

Gold Coast Titans coach Neil Henry is seen at Titans Headquarters at Parkwood.

But Kent fired back at the Titans star, saying his relationship with the former Gold Coast boss was not as cosy as Hayne believes.

Kent revealed Henry rang the journalist to ask him to “water down” his column regarding Hayne’s attitude at Titans training in order to protect the two-time Dally M Medal winner.

“At the beginning of the year I was tipped off by a couple of people about Jarryd’s poor training efforts over the summer. I ran Neil when I was going to write the story and told him ... Neil pleaded with me not to write the story,” Kent said on Fox Sports program NRL 360.

“He essentially tried to water it down. I wrote the article. He rang me after the article and said can I ask who told you?

“At that point he said well I need to figure out whether it’s coming from inside the club, where I’ve got a problem, or from outside the club. I said it’s coming from everywhere.

“I haven’t spoken to Neil since that conversation, until today.

“He was trying to get me not to write the column because he knew the problems it would cause with the problem child. But that’s not my job.

“To say I’m a friend of Neil Henry’s as Jarryd has alleged there, that’s not right.”

Jarryd Hayne at Gold Coast Titans training. Picture Mike Batterham

Kent also said he was prepared to open up his phone records to prove Henry was not the source of his articles. Kent also revealed the 56-year-old refused to take his phone calls after the article regarding Hayne’s training form was printed.

“I said two weeks ago on the show that Neil’s not talking to me,” Kent said.

“I’ve tried to ring Neil since that column in March this year, he won’t answer my call or return my call, because he’s got the s***s about what I wrote that week.

“As for the story I wrote two Saturdays ago, I haven’t spoken to Neil, but Jarryd’s got it in his head that Neil is feeding me all this stuff for some reason to unsettle Jarryd.

“Jarryd has accused the media of trying to make stuff up to sell papers ... he made that up, because I didn’t speak to Neil.

“I am quite prepared to put my phone records out there ... I’ve tried to ring him twice this year when he wouldn’t call me back and I gave up after that because I knew he was upset.”

Originally published as Jarryd Hayne will never win his fight with Paul Kent as the journalist fires back at the Titans star