JARRYD Hayne’s manager, Wayne Beavis, says he spoke to the former league superstar on Thursday and that Hayne was adamant he would be having another crack at the NFL next year.
RLW asked Beavis to address reports that Hayne was likely to return to the NRL next season and that Sydney Roosters and Penrith were set to engage in a bidding war for him.
“I spoke to him this afternoon. The conversation about him coming home has never taken place,” Beavis says. “Every club is ringing me up saying ‘if he comes home, we’re interested’. That’s only natural. It doesn’t mean he’s coming back.
“Clubs say to me ‘listen, if anything happens, keep us in mind’, and that’s coming from plenty of clubs in the NRL. But that’s the extent of all the activity. He’s staying over there.”
After playing in the first six rounds for San Francisco 49ers, Hayne was cut from the 53-man roster and put on waivers by the club. But when no other club picked him up, the 49ers installed him on their practice squad.
It appears very unlikely he will make it back on the main roster this season, but the 49ers are presumably serious about improving Hayne’s skills to the point where he could compete for a spot on the roster for next season.
There are no official trial games for next season until August, but there are off-season workouts and training camps spread over several months before that which Hayne, as a fringe player, would need to be involved in if he hoped to get back in.
He couldn’t realistically aim to return to the NRL and then go back to the NFL in the same year.
Asked specifically whether Hayne intended to go again in the NFL regardless of how this season finishes for him, Beavis replies: “He told me this afternoon he’s definitely staying. That’s it, end of story. There isn’t a decision to make, that’s what he’s telling me.
“And let me say this, if Jarryd were to come home at any stage, then if and when he comes home it’ll be a decision he takes, not one that I recommend, not one that someone in the media makes. It will be one that he will take himself. But he told me he’s staying. Nothing’s changed.
“Honestly, we have never, ever had a discussion about a plan B.”
Asked if Hayne is bothered by the idea of not playing meaningful football for a long stretch of time while he tries to keep his NFL dream alive, Beavis says: “No, not really, I don’t think so. It’s something that he wanted to pursue and he’s going to do it, you know. I think he was always going to stick it out, he’s a proud person. He signed a three-year deal.”
Beavis says he believes the 49ers want to persevere with Hayne or they wouldn’t have bothered to bring him back on the practice squad.
“One hundred per cent,” Beavis says. “It happens every day over there. There’s thousands of them getting dropped out of squads. Even (Colin) Kaepernick (the 49ers quarterback) got dropped out of the main team and he’s on $126 million!”
The last round of the NFL regular season is not until the first week of January. Beavis said he expected to see Hayne back in Sydney for a break after that.
“When I spoke to him today he told me he’s staying and I said I’ll see you after Christmas,” Beavis says.
