There has been a great deal of discussion around the Titans this year. There has been a steady flow of talk about their underachieving status and how their 2016 culture has been eroded.
There have been rumblings of how Jarryd Hayne has not been a team player, not showing the determination, motivation and leadership expected of a $1.2-million man.
This discussion has grown in intensity since the Broncos gave their Gold Coast neighbours a 54-0 pasting recently. After the Titans faired marginally better against the Dragons last weekend, it has culminated in a brouhaha of epic proportions.
A lot of the current talk in the media has centred on the two main players in this saga – Hayne and coach Neil Henry.
The knives are out for Hayne and the stories of his attitude, selfishness and laziness have been cast from seasoned reporters, to ex-teammate s and other footballing media identities.
As the ‘whack – a – Hayne’ quota is already allotted there is a different perspective about this whole unsavoury saga that I would like to share with you here and it concerns the Titans board.
There have been suggestions that the performance of the Titan’s board has been one of stability and of strong leadership in working with the NRL to steer the club back into private hands. And as that may be the case, there really must be a growing question mark over the process and negotiations in finalising the contract for Hayne.
Anyone who went through the due diligence of vetting Jarryd Hayne by speaking with previous colleagues and appointed references, or even just reading over previous print and online media articles would have seen that the situation they find themselves in now was a real possibility.
Jarryd Hayne can’t be blamed for being Jarryd Hayne. He is simply playing his football the way he always has and been allowed to while being paid handsomely to do so. His perceived laziness, selfishness and flippancy that media commentators and ex-players are now openly discussing must have been well known throughout the inner sanctum of the elite rugby league community.
Even the fans had suspicion that Jarryd only turned up ready to play occasionally and they knew he was fickle. He left his team behind to go chase a career in the US of A mid-contract, yet people waved him off with well wishes instead of taking him to task for looking to break a contract and letting down his team and his fans.
Neil Henry has a reputation for being a hard-nosed disciplinarian who believes in solid work ethic and attitude. It is hard to believe that if Hayne had been vetted at all the potential for conflict with the coach must have been raised.
Yet he was signed anyway. Signed to a princely sum with options in his favour to take up at elite player status with no performance clause.
People can and will continue to place Hayne as the key antagonist along with his detractor Neil Henry in this sad melodrama and they may both find themselves unemployed soon enough.
Yet the people in the back office negotiating and signing off on Hayne’s contract will slip under the radar as the fall out, if it includes payouts of the player or coach, or both, may well bring this fledgling club to its knees.
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All the team list information for Round 8.
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