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Hayne takes hits in his stride
By Josh Massoud
June 13, 2007
WHEN a story seems straightforward, it has a habit of writing itself. Until now, the tale of Jarryd Hayne has been that kind of story.
Hayne is another footballing prodigy, albeit better than most.
He won the 2006 Dally M Rookie of the Year after debuting halfway through last season.
This season he won a New South Wales jumper. While wearing it for the first time, he produced two of the most unforgettable plays in Origin history. He is only 19.
On that evidence alone, Hayne is a story that grows more compelling every time he takes the field. But the story gets better. He is also the son of former South Sydney star Manoa Thompson.
Dad, it turns out, is a big part of Hayne's rise and rise in rugby league. A footballer who never met his own potential, Thompson embodies a paternal warning about the pitfalls of not following your dad's advice.
Now that's a pretty good story, almost too good to be true. And it is. The fact is we don't know the whole story about Hayne, arguably the NRL's most intriguing player.
When he threw THAT wild pass in Origin I, everyone wondered what would happen next.
When he played out the final 20 minutes and answered endless questions as if nothing had gone horribly wrong, everyone wondered instead about something else: How come this kid is so goddam cool?
Nothing in Hayne's story to date reveals why this teenager can virtually shrug off an error that would torment the careers of most footballers.
The answer lies in the untold part of Hayne's life. An alter-ego to the feel-good tale of sons following in dad's footsteps, this is a story most kids don't emerge from wearing a sky blue jersey.
Hayne grew up between Minto and Airds, near Campbelltown. For the uninitiated, the three suburbs form urban poverty's version of the golden triangle.
Inside its ragged edges, Hayne's mother Jodie raised him on her own in housing commission.
"I'm glad I had mum," Hayne says. "She helped me through some hard times.
"I remember she had to ride a bike to the station at 5 o'clock in the morning to go to work in the city. She used to ride it back in the arvo.
"I can't remember exactly what she did - it was something with computers."
Like most kids from his neighbourhood, Hayne had no context. He and his mates blissfully played football every spare moment they had.
"It was always Airds. Everyone sort of loved it because that's all they knew," Hayne recalls. "Coming from housing commission there wasn't a lot to do. We'd just go over each other's houses and before you knew it there would be a game of 20 or 30 kids running around playing footy bare foot."
Appropriately, Hayne was introduced to a world outside Airds by the game he loves.
"I remember going to Terry Hills for footy, seeing all the grouse houses and how the other side had it," he says.
"It felt good, especially when we beat 'em. I mean, they are rich and we are poor. Coming from Campbelltown, everyone had that in them, I guess.
"There wasn't much going for you."
As his talents bore fruit, football offered an obvious release. But Hayne either didn't notice, or was simply too entrenched to care.
He continued eating steak - "always the cheapest cuts" -- and to this day rates a Mongoose bike as his most prized Christmas present. He didn't have a car, so he and Eels teammate Krisnan Inu travelled to training and matches by rail.
"That never fussed us," Hayne says. "We used to love catching the trains and getting home late because we knew no better. But now we've got cars, we can't imagine having to catch another train again."
And so we arrive at the familiar story. Hayne has now left Minto, but the suburb's roots are planted deep.
"I didn't know of luxuries until I started playing NRL," he says. "I thought everyone had the same things in life. My girlfriend comes from Cronulla and to see the way she was brought up as a kid ... it's two different worlds.
"I've tried to keep living like I did (despite having money now). If anything, I'm a bit too tight.
"I want to set myself up so I don't have to live in the circumstances I grew up in and mum doesn't have to either."
You can take the boy out of Minto, but you can't take Minto out of the boy. There's something to be said for that, especially in response to all those questions about his Origin debut.
Bred to be resilient, Hayne understands there are far more serious concerns in life than football.
"It's part of how I was brought up. You just get over things," Hayne explains. "Maybe if I was somebody else from somewhere else I'd have a whinge."
Inu, who grew up down the street from Hayne, echoes: "It's the way we've grown up. If we knew we did something really good we wouldn't brag about it. At the same time, if we knew we've done something bad we don't get down about it either.
"I know Jarryd is grateful for the way he's grown up. He's got no regrets about how he grew up."
When it comes to football, Hayne has no regrets either.
He leaves them where they belong and where they began - out on the field.
<A class=image href="http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/?from=ni_story"">
<A href="http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,21894198-23214,00.html">http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,21894198-23214,00.html
By Josh Massoud
June 13, 2007
WHEN a story seems straightforward, it has a habit of writing itself. Until now, the tale of Jarryd Hayne has been that kind of story.
Hayne is another footballing prodigy, albeit better than most.
He won the 2006 Dally M Rookie of the Year after debuting halfway through last season.
This season he won a New South Wales jumper. While wearing it for the first time, he produced two of the most unforgettable plays in Origin history. He is only 19.
On that evidence alone, Hayne is a story that grows more compelling every time he takes the field. But the story gets better. He is also the son of former South Sydney star Manoa Thompson.
Dad, it turns out, is a big part of Hayne's rise and rise in rugby league. A footballer who never met his own potential, Thompson embodies a paternal warning about the pitfalls of not following your dad's advice.
Now that's a pretty good story, almost too good to be true. And it is. The fact is we don't know the whole story about Hayne, arguably the NRL's most intriguing player.
When he threw THAT wild pass in Origin I, everyone wondered what would happen next.
When he played out the final 20 minutes and answered endless questions as if nothing had gone horribly wrong, everyone wondered instead about something else: How come this kid is so goddam cool?
Nothing in Hayne's story to date reveals why this teenager can virtually shrug off an error that would torment the careers of most footballers.
The answer lies in the untold part of Hayne's life. An alter-ego to the feel-good tale of sons following in dad's footsteps, this is a story most kids don't emerge from wearing a sky blue jersey.
Hayne grew up between Minto and Airds, near Campbelltown. For the uninitiated, the three suburbs form urban poverty's version of the golden triangle.
Inside its ragged edges, Hayne's mother Jodie raised him on her own in housing commission.
"I'm glad I had mum," Hayne says. "She helped me through some hard times.
"I remember she had to ride a bike to the station at 5 o'clock in the morning to go to work in the city. She used to ride it back in the arvo.
"I can't remember exactly what she did - it was something with computers."
Like most kids from his neighbourhood, Hayne had no context. He and his mates blissfully played football every spare moment they had.
"It was always Airds. Everyone sort of loved it because that's all they knew," Hayne recalls. "Coming from housing commission there wasn't a lot to do. We'd just go over each other's houses and before you knew it there would be a game of 20 or 30 kids running around playing footy bare foot."
Appropriately, Hayne was introduced to a world outside Airds by the game he loves.
"I remember going to Terry Hills for footy, seeing all the grouse houses and how the other side had it," he says.
"It felt good, especially when we beat 'em. I mean, they are rich and we are poor. Coming from Campbelltown, everyone had that in them, I guess.
"There wasn't much going for you."
As his talents bore fruit, football offered an obvious release. But Hayne either didn't notice, or was simply too entrenched to care.
He continued eating steak - "always the cheapest cuts" -- and to this day rates a Mongoose bike as his most prized Christmas present. He didn't have a car, so he and Eels teammate Krisnan Inu travelled to training and matches by rail.
"That never fussed us," Hayne says. "We used to love catching the trains and getting home late because we knew no better. But now we've got cars, we can't imagine having to catch another train again."
And so we arrive at the familiar story. Hayne has now left Minto, but the suburb's roots are planted deep.
"I didn't know of luxuries until I started playing NRL," he says. "I thought everyone had the same things in life. My girlfriend comes from Cronulla and to see the way she was brought up as a kid ... it's two different worlds.
"I've tried to keep living like I did (despite having money now). If anything, I'm a bit too tight.
"I want to set myself up so I don't have to live in the circumstances I grew up in and mum doesn't have to either."
You can take the boy out of Minto, but you can't take Minto out of the boy. There's something to be said for that, especially in response to all those questions about his Origin debut.
Bred to be resilient, Hayne understands there are far more serious concerns in life than football.
"It's part of how I was brought up. You just get over things," Hayne explains. "Maybe if I was somebody else from somewhere else I'd have a whinge."
Inu, who grew up down the street from Hayne, echoes: "It's the way we've grown up. If we knew we did something really good we wouldn't brag about it. At the same time, if we knew we've done something bad we don't get down about it either.
"I know Jarryd is grateful for the way he's grown up. He's got no regrets about how he grew up."
When it comes to football, Hayne has no regrets either.
He leaves them where they belong and where they began - out on the field.
<A class=image href="http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/?from=ni_story"">
<A href="http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,21894198-23214,00.html">http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,21894198-23214,00.html
