Match Details
Match Date	26th Aug, 2017
Opponent	Gold Coast Titans
Result	Win 26-14
Coach	Des Hasler
Captain	James Graham
Venue	Gold Coast (CBUS Super Stadium)
Crowd	10,887
Referee	Gavin Reynolds Chris James

There would be no answering of critics for Jarryd Hayne, nor the Gold Coast Titans. With little to play for, they played like a team with very little. Maybe Neil Henry wasn’t the perfect coach. Or maybe the Titans of 2017 just aren’t a particularly good team.

You know how rebound clubs can get when a coach gets fired and they go through a week of upheaval? Yeah, nah. At Cbus Super Stadium on Saturday afternoon, with the time-honoured Crisis Cup on the line, it was the Bulldogs who wanted it that little bit more, winning a predictably mediocre affair 26-14. It was 20-0 to the visitors by half-time, the first occasion all season the Dogs had put on more than a dozen points in the opening 40 minutes of a match. They did most of that without halfback Moses Mbye, who was hit late and high by Jarrod Wallace after 17 minutes and failed his HIA.

After the match, Hayne spoke like the ultimate team player, saying he felt in a good head space going into the match despite his central role in the drama that had engulfed the club. ‘‘I felt all right. The biggest thing is just playing footy. That’s what helps the most,’’ he said, not long after stand-in coach Terry Matterson had described the team as a ‘‘shattered group’’.

‘‘It disappointing how we started but through that first 10 minutes of the second half, we kicked into gear for a bit. It’s disappointing we couldn’t go on with it and those things help you get your confidence back.’’

When asked about his form, which has been the subject of as much scrutiny as his role in the team dynamic, Hayne was on the right script, saying they needed to lift as a group. ‘‘It’s a team effort and as a whole squad we probably haven’t achieved what we wanted to achieve at the start of the year,’’ Hayne said.

The 10,887 fans were waiting for Hayne to do something. Anything. After seeing off Henry, this was the chance to justify his exorbitant price tag and show fans and his employers that he was emotionally invested.

Wait... wait... and there it was. With 16 minutes to go, Hayne took the ball, wound up for a long kick and sprayed it off the side of the boot. It wobbled over the sideline on the full and he was greeted with one of the biggest cheers of the day.

That it seemed to be both sets of supporters giving him some stick should probably be of some concern for the Titans board and the new coach, who they hope will be in place by the pre-season start in November.

Hayne looked totally disengaged at stages. When the Dogs were running out of their 20 on early tackles, he would have already retreated 60 metres behind his defensive line.

He did have some decent enough moments, making good tackles that stopped promising Bulldogs raids. But this was a match where he was supposed to be bursting with energy and ambition to hush the critics. It simply didn’t happen.

Source: The Sun Herald

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