"He was polite and accommodating despite what was probably a stressful day," the father wrote. "Please pass on our appreciation to this gentleman, he is all class." Jarryd Hayne reporting to Castle Hill police station on Thursday. Credit:Jessica Hromas But, within just seven days, things would go from bad to worse for the man once lauded as "the best player in any code of football in Australia". Last week, police revealed they were investigating sexual assault allegations levelled against the rugby league superstar and an all-too-familiar tale made headlines.

Loading Soon a well-known cast of characters would roll out as the media tried to dissect what really went on after the final whistle had blown in this year's NRL grand final: the footy player, the grog, the police investigators and the alleged female victim at the centre of it all. It marks a cataclysmic end to the decade-long rise and fall of the triple-code Hayne; from the $1.2 million man courting one of the biggest contracts in league history to one with no contract to his name and only a future court date on his books. 'Plane' leaves the hangar Every now and then you hear about a player before you see him.

Teenage prodigy. The son of a footy star. The next big thing. Hayne was one of those. Then-Parramatta coach Brian Smith could see it. It was midway through the 2006 season, Smith's Eels were struggling and the clipboard holder was under pressure to give the teenaged tyro a go. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Smith, a wily veteran who had seen it all before, held him back. He had seen countless youngsters get ahead of themselves after being thrown in before their time and Hayne wouldn't be one of them. But, when Smith was sacked mid-season, the first act by his replacement, Jason Taylor, was to hand the 18-year-old his NRL debut on the wing against Penrith.

The kid was up to the challenge. By the end of his first season, Hayne scored 17 tries in just 16 games and helped the Eels make the finals from a seemingly impossible position. Hayne took out Dally M rookie of the year honours. A star was born. "The Plane" had left the hangar. The crash landing was to come. Sexual assault charge

It was just after 4pm on Monday when the former fullback, accompanied by his manager Wayne Beavis, arrived at Ryde police station in Sydney's north-west to hand himself in. Loading It would be 2am on Tuesday before Hayne emerged from the suburban police station on bail, charged with the aggravated sexual assault of a 26-year-old young woman in the Hunter region on September 30. A police source said that, in the 10-hour period, Hayne did not have a lawyer present and gave no statement to police, declining to be interviewed. Rather, it was lengthy bail determination by an independent officer that took all night, leading to Hayne posting a $20,000 surety, surrendering his passport and agreeing to report to police three times a week.

If convicted, Hayne faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail. Inquiries into the alleged incident began when the matter was referred to police in early November by the NRL Integrity Unit, which had received a complaint about the alleged encounter in September. It triggered an investigation by detectives from the NSW State Crime Command's Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad, who interviewed the woman by November 5. Until Thursday last week, the specialist squad had successfully kept the investigation under wraps, before a person close to the victim approached the media. Details have since been revealed that paint a clearer picture of Hayne's movements in the time leading up to, during and after the alleged assault.

The final whistle had blown in the grand final, with the Sydney Roosters 21-6 victors over the Melbourne Storm. After a horror season in which the Eels plummeted from the top four to wooden spoon, Hayne was off duty, drinking with friends in the Central Coast region, just one month away from being officially unemployed. Allegedly intoxicated, Hayne then travelled in a taxi to a house north of Newcastle to meet the woman, with whom he had allegedly been communicating on a messaging app. On arrival, Hayne is said to have told the taxi driver to wait for 20 minutes while he went inside the house to meet the woman, whose mother was also at home. Police allege he then sexually assaulted the woman, ripping off her clothes and biting her genitals so severely she suffered heavy bleeding and had to seek medical treatment.

The woman reportedly has photographic evidence of her injuries. It is understood Hayne then travelled in the same taxi back to Sydney. Loading By 3am on the Monday, he was allegedly drinking again with former Parramatta teammates Brad Takairangi and Kaysa Pritchard. This week, the Herald revealed the trio had been captured on CCTV footage at Club Merrylands Bowling in western Sydney. The footage has been seized by police who plan to interview the two players as part of their inquiries. There is no suggestion that either was involved in, or had any knowledge of, the alleged incident.

A Parramatta spokesman declined to comment on the "police matter". "The club and the players will not be making any public comment," he said. Trod a colourful track Jarryd Lee Hayne was born in 1988 and grew up in a red-brick housing commission home in Minto, in Sydney's south-west, one of three children raised by his single mother Jodie Hayne. He is the son of former Fijian professional rugby league player Manoa Thompson, whose rugby league career also included stints at the Rabbitohs, Magpies and Warriors.

Since making his NRL debut with the Parramatta Eels in 2006, Hayne has trod a colourful track. In 2016, he found himself in hot water with the NRL Integrity Unit, when he was captured in a Snapchat video partying with an alleged Hells Angels gang member, who claimed Hayne gave him a $5000 wad of cash. "Cash money fam, cash money. Give me a f---ing cigarette," he said in the recording. Hayne later claimed he had no idea he was hanging out with an accused bikie enforcer. Even when he had the best intentions, things went awry. Invited to a Queensland high school for a lecture on cyber safety, pornographic images flashed on screen in front of stunned students.

Organisers were adamant Hayne's phone, used was part of the presentation, was not the source. And then there was the Kings Cross nightclub shooting in 2008, when he and then-St George Illawarra's Mark Gasnier allegedly found themselves on the receiving end of gunfire after a fight broke out at the now-closed Sapphire Lounge nightclub. It was perhaps incidents like this that Hayne was referring to in an interview he gave at a 2015 conference for the Pentecostal Hillsong megachurch, of which he has been a well-known member since he "found God" in 2008. "We're gonna make mistakes ... as a Christian you go on these highs sometimes and you go on these lows," he said. "Am I perfect? No ... Don't look at me as the perfect one, because I'm not." 'Strain on everyone'

Throughout his football career the challenge for every coach was attempting to extract something resembling Hayne's best on a consistent basis. The task has proven beyond Neil Henry, Ricky Stuart, Stephen Kearney, Daniel Anderson, Michael Hagan, even San Francisco 49ers NFL coach Jim Tomsula. Laurie Daley may still be coaching the Blues if Hayne had passed to unmarked NSW teammate Josh Morris during his last State of Origin series. His failure to do so killed both their interstate careers. "Some of his senior teammates were frustrated with the fact he never seemed to buy in," one of his former coaches lamented. "It put a strain on everyone." When Hayne jetted off to the US to live out his American football fantasy, no one could say his motivations were financial. In pursuing his NFL ambition, he sacrificed the certainty of a seven-figure payday at Parramatta.

But the American dream was over not long before it began, with 49ers merchandise sporting his name hitting the discount tables of San Jose sports shops within weeks. Coach Tomsula took a chance on the untested Australian but, when he was sacked, Hayne's fate was effectively sealed. "We got sideswiped at the Niners because of the coaching change," Hayne's US agent, Jack Bechta, told the Herald this week. "Jarryd was very wise to pull the plug and to move on because he didn't want to start all over again and learn a whole new language in year two." After Hayne returned to Parramatta, taking a $700,000 pay cut to do so, Parramatta coach Brad Arthur was convinced no other player in the history of the game would ever make a bigger salary sacrifice.

"It won't happen again ever," Arthur said late last year. "This is a one off. It hasn't happened and won't happen ever," Arthur told the Herald. Not that Hayne could quibble about money. When the Eels were busted for systematically rorting the salary cap in 2016, Hayne was the biggest beneficiary. The fullback pocketed almost $500,000 in off-the-books payments, some of it coming straight from the personal bank account of friend and former Eels footy manager Jason Irvine. The additional income appeared to come as a surprise to Hayne. Quizzed about the issue in May 2016, he said: "Half a million, wow, must have been the wrong bank account - I haven't seen it. "Us players have no idea what goes on behind closed doors."

After his short-lived time in San Francisco, there was another "dream" to pursue: Olympic glory. Having already represented Fiji in rugby league, the two-time Dally M medallist attempted to represent the Pacific nation in rugby sevens. However, this transition was harder still. The bulk he added to his frame for gridiron weighed him down in a Sevens, an endeavour all about anaerobic fitness. This is one dream that remains unfulfilled. But it was during Hayne's shift to the Gold Coast in 2016 that his shine really started to fade.

The disastrous move was a reluctant one. It was made merely because Parramatta - still reeling from the salary cap dramas - didn't have the money to accommodate him immediately when he unexpectedly became available midway through the 2016 season. There were glimpses of his best form for the Titans, but they were few and far between. His work ethic, or lack thereof, was the talk of the town. His teammates grew tired of his diva behaviour, the leadership group fining him during pre-season training. Soon afterwards, the Herald revealed a rift with frustrated coach Neil Henry and it became apparent the glitter strip wasn't big enough for both of them. Choosing between the coach and star player, the club sided with the latter and sacked Henry. Having won the power struggle, Hayne then decided the Gold Coast wasn't for him and sought a release. After the calamitous stint on the Gold Coast, stocks in the "Hayne Plane" had fallen so far he took a $700,000 pay cut to find himself a spot back with the Eels.