Hayne's won a Dally M medal for playing at fullback. He underwent one of the most incredible runs of form we have ever witnessed from a single player - at fullback. His coach and peers agree with himself that his best position - at least for now - is at fullback. And quite frankly, there is nobody else at the club that could do the things Hayne does for this side week in, week out - from fullback.
I don't understand why you seem to think he is arrogant by saying he's staying at fullback, when clearly his coach and peers (bar Stuart) claim that he is there to play at fullback.
It would have smacked of arrogance if Hayne had have said that he was pissed that he missed out on an Origin jersey, or that the mere notion of playing 5/8 insulted him because he's a fullback. But he hasn't said anything like that - at least not in public. No, he has come out in public and said fullback is his position for now (which his coach agrees with) and that a move is not out of the question down the line. He also publicly declared that Parramatta is a priority for him (as it should be, but looking at his statistics this year does not paint a picture of Hayne being inept or in poor form at all, but rather a picture of Hayne actually adapting his play and still doing a remarkable job).
Did he do a stupid thing by head-butting Payne? Of course. Was it unprovoked? Hmm....My retort would be a simple, "Hell no!" But does this necessarily equate to him being arrogant? Is it really fair to claim that because he doesn't jog the ball back at 100% speed, or he has slower play-the-balls than a lot of other players, that he is therefore selfish and arrogant? Personally, I don't think so - this bloke has been carrying this team for years now. I think labelling him arrogant or selfish because of those things is akin to calling Hindmarsh lazy because his hit-ups are completely ineffective, or calling Cayless a lousy captain because he wasn't from the Andrew Johns School of Dummy Spits.
I consider that it takes a substantial amount of character for a kid like him to come out and say he's [rightfully] disappointed and confused, but that he will move on and focus on his club. Everyone [rightfully] expected Hayne to feature somewhere in NSW's top 17. When it didn't happen, it was a little bit of a shock. He could have held his tongue and said nothing, but to be frank, he is well within his right to voice his confusion, as Stuart's decision , dare I say, baffled the entire state.
And if we're being honest, Jarryd Hayne is not just one cog in this machine that is the Parramatta Eels. He is the central piece of the puzzle - maybe one of two, alongside Nathan Hindmarsh. I don't think it is arrogant for him to not attempt to say he's a part of a team, etc. - he is not publicly saying that the Eels are nothing without him, but that comment, in all honesty, is not far from the truth. Being publicly humble and saying things like, "It's all about the team," etc. will not accomplish all that much, especially when you consider:
(i) the form he has displayed for Parramatta over the years; and
(ii) the so-called "argument" he has had with his teammates on the field.
Factor in his accomplishments with the way he sometimes lashes out at teammates or officials and you have a recipe for what everyone seemingly wants - a man who is about his team. If he wasn't about the team, surely he'd be doing things in a half-arsed manner whilst making himself look good. A player who single-handedly sets up 7 line-breaks in one game and saves a few tries whilst scoring one himself is not the type of bloke I would call as selfish.
This argument could now head down the path of making the assumption that he is not really about the team - that he does those things to improve his odds of playing representative football. But, really - which player in any sport that has a representative level is not guilty of this? Rugby (either code) players, cricket players, soccer players...Every athlete that participates in a sport at a professional level hopes to one day represent their country (or state, if you include Origin), both for pride and bank account reasons. It is just the way things are, and with a sport like rugby league, where you are lucky if you play in the top grade for 15 years, I cannot fault this way of thinking. Maximise every opportunity to make big cash you have to set yourself up.
There is an opinion that Jarryd Hayne is arrogant and selfish. Every sport that has freakish superstars has arrogant among its ranks - soccer has Cristiano Ronaldo, basketball has LeBron James, NFL has ever so many blokes that it that bill. These men get paid to entertain people with their athletic abilities and to occasionally make public appearances helping out charities and whatnot. Arrogance is part and parcel of sport - why, one of boxing's most beloved athletes, Cassius Clay, was arrogant enough as to come up with disses of his opponents and to play mind games (hell, he even claimed he was the greatest), and yet Ali is universally loved and praised as one of boxing's greatest ever pugilists.
So, to summarise, Jarryd Hayne is no different to any other superstar of any other sport - with the exception he is not publicly declaring how incredible he is (a la Ali), he is not disrespecting his sport or opposition and he does not need to pander to people by spouting tired sporting cliches such as, "There's no 'i' in 'team'," because, frankly, Jarryd Hayne is practically the team anyway, and people know it.
