Opinion: How Jarryd Hayne Can Still Be An Immortal

By DAVID HAYWARD

IT IS not too late for Jarryd Hayne to become an Immortal of rugby league.

While his achievements and on-field performances in the past year aren’t close to those of an Immortal, his resume ticks many boxes already.  He has two Dally Ms, an Origin player of the series award for the winning team, one World Cup title and has lead his club to a NRL grand final on his back.

At 29 years of age, his 11-year career includes 197 games.  Ignoring injuries, there is somewhere between three and five years left in his career, there is still time to add to his already impressive resume.  It is just a question if he has the motivation and desire.

Since the professionalism and globalisation of sport in the early 1990s, rugby league has battled to provide the heights players of Hayne’s status desire to reach.  Many great players reach the pinnacle of rugby league mid-career and often search for new challenges, bigger audiences and more money.  In the early 2000s even Immortal Andrew Johns flirted with the idea of conquering the world rugby union stage (and more money) while Andrew Walker, Wendell Sailor, Lote Tuquiri, Matthew Rogers fled before him. Then followed Sonny Bill Williams and Sam Burgess.

Hayne took perhaps the most noble and toughest challenge of all rugby league code hoppers, attempting to make the starting side of an NFL team within 12 months of trying.  Achieving what he did was an incredible feat, perhaps one of the greatest accomplishments of a player in rugby league history.  His statistics in the pre-season for the San Fransisco 49ers matched the usual output of the greatest punt returner of all time, Devin Hester, which is no mean feat and proved he had what it took to make it on the big stage.

 However, a couple of fumbles from the early regular season matches combined with a poor performing team and a coach under pressure meant that Hayne was given limited opportunity to redeem himself and show case his pre-season form. It would be extremely tough mentally coming from hugely filled stadiums of the NFL to play NRL on the Gold Coast. 

But if it is motivation Hayne is struggling for to get the most out of his talent for the remainder of his NRL career, perhaps he can look to Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors from the NBA.  Based on his Twitter feed, it seems from Hayne’s time in the NFL and San Fransisco, he became supporter of the local professional basketball team and understandably so. 

In Hayne’s first year in San Fransisco, Curry lead the Warriors from relative obscurity to a drought breaking NBA title.  Curry’s style of play transformed the way basketball will be played for years to come, it was exhilarating to watch and he became the most popular athlete in the second biggest sport on the planet.

There are parallels from this that Hayne can draw inspiration.

Curry is the son of Dell Curry, a highly talented NBA player from the 1990s and Hayne the son of Manoa Thompson, also a highly talented rugby league player from the 1990s.

The Golden State Warriors had a tumultuous two decades ever since one of the most talented rosters of the 1990s was broken apart in 1994.  This resulted in them becoming the little brother of California basketball to big brother Los Angeles Lakers. Gold Coast have always been the little brother of Queensland rugby league to the Brisbane Broncos. 

Now Curry has made the Warriors the most popular Californian basketball team by some margin, with tech millionaires and celebrities falling over themselves to get to a Warriors game and completely avoid Lakers games.  This was unthinkable just five years ago. 

With the same approach who says the same couldn’t happen on the Gold Coast? There are three ways for Hayne to transform himself and the Gold Coast Titans into a NRL force.

1. Change position to become a full time five-eighth
2. Trade for another representative standard backline talent.
3. And re-ignite the 2009 Parramatta Eels style of play into the Titans next year.

Firstly, shifting to five-eighth would be very similar to potential Immortal Darren Lockyer’s in 2004, coincidently at a similar point of his career.  Hayne partnering Ashley Taylor in the halves could form the most talented halves pairing in the NRL in 2018.

Lockyer had no such luxury in his transition, cycling through a few halfback combinations and taking effectively three years before achieving the ultimate success.

While this position switch may create a roster gap at fullback, clubs are adjusting to the new confirmed salary cap which is resulting in key player movement opportunities that the Titans can seize on during the post-season.  Two realistic and major moves could be as follows:

Player Transfer option one – Canterbury (more likely) One would be to trade Kane Elgey to Canterbury for either Albert Hopoate or one of the Morris brothers. Elgey could form a strong halves pairing at the Bulldogs with Kieran Foran’s arrival next year should Moses Mbye shift to hooker as a result of the looming departure of Michael Lichaa.

Player Transfer option two – South Sydney (preferred) Alternatively, Gold Coast could go for the jugular much like the Golden State Warriors with Kevin Durant last season and trade Elgey (and other player / cash considerations) for Greg Inglis.  Inglis has strong connections to southeast Queensland and northern NSW and could be enticed to move to the Titans following the departure of Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire. 

Perhaps if Maguire takes on the Titans head coaching role in 2018, he can entice Inglis to the strip. One thing is for sure, the prospect of a Taylor and Hayne halves pairing, combined with cult heroes Anthony Don and Konrad Hurrell in the backline with Inglis chiming in from fullback is tantalising.

It would be the most exciting and dynamic backlines in the NRL and go a long way to taking the mantle of the most exciting team in Queensland. – much like how the Warriors took that mantle from the Lakers in recent years.

In terms of the style of play, the Titans have the talent that matches what the 2009 Parramatta Eels had which set the NRL alight in the second half of the season.  As a neutral observer, that second half of the season was the greatest achievement in NSW rugby league since 2005.

Sadly it was very short lived, but there is no reason why it can’t be repeated.  People talk about the NRL struggling with crowds and TV ratings, and blaming referees and weather and traffic.  At the end of the day it is the product that gets people through the gates.

The 2009 Eels were largely responsible for a boom in Sydney NRL attendances, starting with a 34,000 crowd for a Friday night at the SFS against the similarly electrifying Benji Marshall and the Wests Tigers and culminating in the highest ever rugby league preliminary final crowd of 74,000 against Canterbury.

Those attendances were also unthinkable just five years earlier but Jarryd Hayne’s talent and the teams style of play alone made it happen. If the Titans embrace the spirit of play of the 2009 Eels, crowds could double on the Gold Coast back to an average of plus 20,000.  Maybe this is also an assignment for the Walker brothers coaching regime, or a Maguire tropical coaching renaissance?

Immortality still beckons While it may be a bit of a reach at this point of his career but Hayne can also draw much inspiration from the careers of immortal Johns and potential immortal Lockyer.

At a similar point of his career, Johns had played 206 games spanning an 11 year career, won two premierships (one in a split competition), a Clive Churchill medal (related story: Ben Kennedy reported a robbery to police that night), collected three of his four State of Origin man of the match awards, won two World Cups and four State of Origin series (one Super League affected).

At the same point of his career, Lockyer had played 235 games spanning an 11 year career, one three premierships (one in a split competition), a Clive Churchill medal, one-time World Cup winner and collected one of his three State of Origin man of the match awards.

There was still much work to do in the final years of their respective careers to stake their claims for immortality.  Hayne already has fulfilled many of these achievements, so who is to say he can’t add much more to his resume?

If Hayne can take his talents to five eight and master the position over the next 3-5 years, he can realistically take the Titans and NSW to the promised land.  Then he can stake his own claim as an Immortal of the game, not just one of the most talented.