Public standoff a bad look for club
FORMER Australian captain Brad Fittler says Jarryd Hayne will have to stick it out at the Titans out of a million-dollar necessity despite his stand-off with Gold Coast coach Neil Henry.
Hayne claimed on Saturday he is willing to walk away from the Titans if Henry does not want him and complained that the coach did not talk to him all week before the fourthstraight loss.
Fittler said Hayne will not be able to duplicate his 2018 earnings of about $1.2 million at any other club this late in the recruiting cycle and advised him to avoid whingeing publicly.
“He stays at the Titans. Is there any other way?,’’ Fittler said on Channel 9.
“The one thing he has to do is stop the sort of crap he tossed up then, speaking publicly like he needs to respond to (media reports) about whether he should be at the Titans.
“Neil Henry is within his rights to say, ‘$1.2 million hurts your salary cap and at the moment he’s not living up to that’.
“It’s not Jarryd’s fault he’s been given that money. He’s not going to walk away from $1.2 million and say he doesn’t want the money.
“The Titans are run by the league. They are not going to say, ‘Here’s $500,000’ (as a severance arrangement).’’
Hayne’s former NSW teammate Michael Ennis said Titans bosses needed to work out what they wanted their team to be and decide if they wanted either Hayne or Henry to continue.
“It hasn’t worked since he arrived. Someone needs to make a brave decision one way or another,’’ Ennis told Fox Sports.
“For the club to move forward this cannot escalate any further.”
Hayne’s former Australian teammate Justin Hodges said if the 29-year-old could not help improve younger teammates there was “no point having him”.