KEEP IT SIMPLE, SAYS JARRYD’S FORMER TEAMMATE

JARRYD Hayne has been urged to strip his game raw and streamline his responsibilities in 2018 in a bid to empower the mercurial talent.

In case eyes weren’t already glued to the one-man roadshow, Hayne’s spotlight at the Titans will shine even brighter in 2018 following the appointment of rookie coach Garth Brennan.

Amid the suggestions to aid Hayne in 2017 was Mal Meninga’s insistence that the fullback could become more accountable should he be promoted to captain.

Premiership winner and Gold Coast junior Ben Hannant played four Tests alongside Hayne but said a promotion would be useless.

“Why would you need to put a title next to him?,” he said recently.

“Why would you think a ‘C’ next to your name would make you more accountable?

“Does Cameron Smith play any better because of it? No, he’d still be doing his job.

“The question is ‘how do we get Hayne accountable?’.”

Describing Hayne as a “really nice guy”, Hannant instead called for a restricting of his powers in order to better cash in on one of the NRL’s most explosive players.

“Just get him to do his role; say ‘I need you to do this many carries coming out of trouble’,” Hannant said.

“Don’t worry about the tries or line breaks – they will come off the back of that.

“Imagine with his skills and power the quick play the balls coming out of trouble.

“(If he did that) he could be a great asset to this club.”

Hannant says the Titans’ immediate task is simple: new coach Brennan must get them to play smarter footy.

“As a former player a lot of the stuff they did just didn’t make sense,” said Hannant, now a radio personality on Sea FM.