Eels Blogs

Jarryd Hayne has been shafted.

Hang on, I hear you say. What on earth are you talking about, 1Eyed, Hayne’s the one doing the shafting. Well, yes, but I believe Hayne has been well and truly done over as well.

The surprising thing about the Titans deal that nobody has really commented on, was how swiftly it took place. As of yesterday, the Eels had tabled an offer with Hayne. There was a fair amount of confidence it would be good enough to bring Hayne back to the game without stuffing our ongoing cap.

And then almost instantaneously he was gone.

This is highly unusual in terms of the way NRL contracts are negotiated. Usually, these negotiations essentially amount to an auction, with bids going back and forth until one party is left. The first the Eels knew about their offer being turned down, was when media reports emerged this morning that he’d signed with the Titans. Hayne didn’t come back to the club to say their money was no good and could they do better. He simply took the Titans offer.

There was a fair chance the club might have been able to do better. For example, I understand the club was still awaiting information from the NRL on matters like whether Hayne would still qualify for the long-serving player allowance. They weren’t afforded the opportunity of a final bid.

Which begs the question as to why? Maybe, the Titans put a sharp deadline on their offer to push a decision, but still surely the Eels would have been given a last and final offer opportunity. What was the hurry?

There is plenty of talk that, having wrapped up the Parramatta side of the salary cap drama, the NRL will now turn their attention to players and managers. Hayne and his manager Wayne Beavis have been implicated over payments made after he left the club. It’s unlikely that Hayne will be caught in the fall-out, but Beavis faces a real risk of de-registration. One can’t help but ask was this deal rushed through before the NRL takes any action against player managers?

Whoever Hayne took advice from, I hope the issue of the collective bargaining agreement was explained to him. The reason that most deals taking place at the moment are two-year agreements is because there is a fair chance that the upcoming CBA negotiations will move the goalposts for player earnings substantially, particularly in terms of third party agreements.

The most likely change will be that MPA agreements will be increased, and TPAs limited or even removed. This will stand Parramatta in very good stead with its ability to fund MPAs from its Leagues Club activities, and will bring the non-NSW based clubs back to parity. However, there is also the possibility that genuine marquee players are afforded unlimited earnings. With that structure.

With that in mind, I don’t feel Jarryd has factored in the brand-damage he was always going to be hit with, and what that does for his future endorsement earnings. Returning home to Parramatta as the prodigal son, Hayne would have been the most marketable player in Australian sport. He is probably one of only half a dozen players who can earn serious money through endorsements and nobody else is the NRL is in his league. Well-managed, Hayne should have been to more than double his salary with genuine TPAs, not to mention the initiatives he has already undertaken through the development of his own apparel line and the like. Had he led Parramatta to a Premiership, the sky would have been the limit in terms of his marketing potential.

That’s shot now. Hayne has managed his image well to this point. He has repeatedly doubled down on the “follow your dream” positioning, and that’s something that many, many brands would have been excited about attaching their brand too.

He can’t play that card, anymore. He took the money. He turned his back on his club, his former team mates and most importantly his supporters. He walked out on the club with the biggest active supporter-base in the NRL to join a club that struggles for any kind of meaningful relevance. He is a New South Wales hero who now plays for a Queensland club.

He gets off a path that would have seen him join a proud list of Blue and Gold all-time-greats. No doubt he was headed towards a seat in the Eels Hall of Fame. He would have been remembered as one of the legends of the clubs and as such, his post-career earning were considerable. One-club players are always held in much higher esteem and do much better post-career than those who jump from club-to-club. Especially, if you’re a one-club player at one of the more popular NRL clubs, where your following sticks with you.

I can’t imagine how any advisor weighs up all of these factors, and doesn’t at least come up with the decision that you go back to Parramatta, play out two years and continue to build up your brand, wait to see how the Collective Bargaining Agreement pans out and then come up with a plan to maximise your thirty-something career earnings.

Well, unless you really need to make a quick decision that maximises your very short-term earnings.

I’m sorry Jarryd, but you’ve been duped.