On the outer: Jarryd Hayne hasn't covered himself in glory at the Titans so far. Credit:Getty Images

The exemplar was Hayne's play in the Titan's opening match of the season, last Sunday, against the Roosters. For most of the match he was simply invisible, and never moreso than when the Roosters ran in four tries in the first half alone. The Hayne of 2009, and even 2014, would have unleashed scything tackles to stop the Eastern Suburbs men in their tracks. Instead he appeared to use the "drift defence" – sorta drifting here and sorta drifting there – but not doing anything constructive to stop the rot. And then, after the tries were scored, instead of being one of the team leaders, you'd expect a player of his calibre to be, thundering behind the goal-line, laying down the law, sorting out the positioning, holding other players to account, he was off-centre, more off-piste than pissed-off.

He didn't look engaged, didn't look as if he particularly cared. He looked, yes, bored. And then to the moment ... Twelve minutes into the second half, the Titans halfback put the ball up in a bomb and who should suddenly appear, effortlessly soaring half-a-metre higher than the Roosters' defence and his own teammates, but – is it a bird, is it plane? No, it's the Hayne-plane! – Jarryd Hayne himself, for a superbly athletic try. And then he just as quickly disappeared again.

And, of course, we've all seen the stories since, and read the comments of his own coach. The guts of it is that while we the people are underwhelmed by his performance, it is nothing compared to how the Titans players themselves, and likely even the coach, feel. The reports that have come back have it that he returned from the summer break as big as a heffalump at 106 kilograms, and showed such little interest in training that he was removed from the senior players' group and fined $10K for his trouble. Great story! It is one confirmed by carefully crafted comments from the coach, noting they are dealing with Jarryd as they go along, and narky tweets from Hayne himself raging at whoever leaked the yarn.

Where to from here?