Grounded for almost seven years, rugby league's Hayne Plane is back
It's a long haul from Maroubra to Wentworthville, and it's not a trip Sydney Roosters fan Jed Necco makes regularly.
But on Sunday, he made an exception, specifically to cheer on 'one of the best players I've ever seen'. That player was Jarryd Hayne, who returned to rugby league after 2444 days on the sidelines.
'I've been a fan since I was five years old,' Necco said.
'I actually go for the Roosters, but my dad was a Parramatta fan and used to take me to their games, and he [Hayne] was probably my favourite player of my childhood.'
The now 36-year-old Hayne - a one-time NRL superstar who famously switched codes and played for San Francisco 49ers in America's NFL - launched his comeback in front of a few hundred fans, playing for Wentworthville Magpies against Canterbury in the lower-tier Ron Massey Cup competition at Ringrose Park.
He last appeared in the NRL for Parramatta on September 1, 2018, a few weeks before the incident that changed his life and effectively ended his elite-level football career.
On NRL grand final night, 2018, Hayne made a visit to a woman's house in Newcastle that led to him being tried three times for sexual assault and subsequently jailed.
His first trial ended in a hung jury; he was convicted after the second but successfully appealed, and the third trial resulted in his conviction being quashed. He was released from jail, as a free man, last June.
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