5 Thoughts on the Jarryd Hayne and Neil Henry saga at the Titans

1. Bottom line is Jarryd Hayne is in decline as a player as he hasn't evolved his game with age. A bit like Benji Marshall, he relied a lot on individual brilliance through his magical speed and agility when young at Parramatta. When you get close to 30, you can't replicate those fast feet, and getting through those half gaps gets much harder. He needed to evolve and change his game since coming back to the NRL, and he hasn't been able to either recognise or do this, and that's the reason he has been pretty ordinary on the Gold Coast. What made him so great (speed, power, pace) is in decline and, as you get older, you have to train harder and work harder than ever to either try and maintain that fitness, or adapt your game. 

2. A lot of people have sympathy for Neil Henry and, perhaps rightly so, given he did a magnificent job last season in guiding a side who were favourites for the wooden spoon, to the finals. Part of being a First Grade NRL Coach is to deal with superstar players. Now, Jarryd Hayne might be a real individual, however the great coaches in the game find a way of getting the best out of different personalities. Sometimes in teams, what makes players tick is very different, and I think Henry might have been a fit inflexible and hasn't been able to get the best out of Hayne. 

3. The Titans' other senior players have been hiding behind this story and getting away with letting Hayne cop all the flak. Plenty of those guys like Kane Elgey, Ryan James, Konrad Hurrell and Co have been disappointing this season, apart from the incident with Kevin Proctor, their other major signing this year. Hayne is copping all the heat, but I think they have bigger problems than just Hayne, and need to look at themselves. 

4. Neil Henry, over time, has been a good development coach in the NRL at Clubs like the Raiders, Cowboys and Titans. However, he has yet to prove he can get a Club to the next level with a career win rate of 43%. You can argue strongly Henry has done a strong job in building some Clubs up from closer to the bottom. However is he the  coach that can take the Titans to the next level? I'm not convinced. The Cowboys and Raiders both had success when Henry left, even though he did leave them both in a reasonable position. 

5. In the end there is no way both these guys can be at the Titans next season. In the ideal world, you probably move Hayne on and try and build that Titans' side in the image that Henry carved out last season. However, with Hayne on over $1million for next season,  and Henry on less than half of that, it isn't exactly logical for a Club that is cash strapped. Ideally, the Titans need to find a coach who can work with Ash Taylor who is their future halfback and a player they can't afford to lose. They need to find out if Henry is that man. Maybe they can try and find a Rugby Club overseas that can pick up Hayne's contract, as the door looks closed from other NRL Clubs. If they can't, they need to find a Coach who they think can work with Hayne whilst he is there.