Hayne strain is telling on dysfunctional Titans
Optimism seems like a relic of past
JARRYD Hayne’s arrival at the Titans was celebrated as the moment Gold Coast left its dysfunction behind.
Instead, it’s plunged the club into squalor and the great moments of last season, like the field goal to beat the Tigers and the return to the finals, seem like they happened decades ago.
The optimism that greeted Hayne on his return also seems like a relic of the past.
Despite being two years removed from his second Dally M season in 2014, there was an expectation that on return Hayne could still be that player, that he could still take a team on his shoulders and drag them to victory by himself. This expectation continued in his return to State of Origin earlier this year.
But to ever expect another 2014 or 2009 is to expect something Hayne cannot really provide.
No player can.
The twin peaks of his career are peaks for a reason. If he were to replicate that form every season he’d be the best player of a generation and it wouldn’t be particularly close.
Hayne can’t be the messiah every week and if any fans expected he could be they were only setting themselves up for disappointment.
What could have been expected, and what makes Hayne’s 2017 season so disappointing, is that for the first time in many years he had so much playmaking talent around him that he didn’t need to be 2009 Jarryd Hayne for the Titans to be successful.
The injuries and current struggles might disguise it somewhat, but the Titans still have more talent in key positions that complement Hayne’s own skillset than many of his Parramatta teams. Gold Coast did not need Hayne to score all the tries and make all the breaks and be all things for every situation.
Hayne was to be the icing on the cake, the cherry on top, the final piece for a team that was already on the rise.
But Hayne hasn’t been able to fill that role.
It seems that even these revised expectations were far in advance of what Hayne would be able to provide.
Part of that is on coach Neil Henry – it seems that Hayne is unable to impose himself on a match from fullback, yet Henry has kept him there for several weeks.
Fullback is one of the most physically demanding positions on the field and Hayne is not in the same condition he was when he left rugby league.
That’s to be expected – he spent two years crafting his body for the specifics and conditions of another sport and many players who have left league and returned have struggled to get back to their physical peak.
Given the discourse around Hayne, it might be tempting to label him as completely without upside, but that’s incorrect.
He can still throw a nice pass, he’s still got very good hands and every now and then there’s a flash of what he used to be.
But that raw speed and power, that ability to break a game open in a single carry, the dynamic running game that made him what he was, we’re yet to see anything like that in the 12 months he’s been back in rugby league.
Given how long it’s been out of sight, it’s reasonable to question if it can ever return.
It may take another off-season for Hayne to get back to something resembling his peak physical condition.
And given the developments of the last week, it appears to be increasingly unlikely that he’ll be at the Titans to attempt to make that transition.
The twin peaks of his career are peaks for a reason.
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