WILLIE Mason says Neil Henry needs to make some big changes to his coaching style if he’s ever going to succeed in the NRL, pointing him in the direction of a coach he says has the ego capable of taming Jarryd Hayne.

Mason played for five NRL clubs over the course of a 17-year career, crossing paths with Henry for a season in 2010, as player and coach at the Cowboys.

He saw enough to claim Henry has a fatal flaw in his coaching style that leads him straight to the hangman’s noose, saying he was light-years behind Wayne Bennett when it comes to managing egos.

Personalities don’t get much bigger than Mason’s but he said Henry was incapable of treating players differently, leading to dressing room mutinies at every club he goes to.

Round 20

It was for that reason he was destined to fail at the Titans, according to Mason, with his personality clash with Hayne just the tip of the iceberg.

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Jarryd Hayne has had an unhappy season at the Titans. Source: AAP

“I’ve been coached by him and he will end up losing the locker room eventually,” Mason said on the #unfiltered web show for SkipiTV.

“Because he starts off the best bloke in the world but then he gets to two and three years, four years and people start getting sick of him.

“I think Neil Henry’s a great coach. Smart as hell, but he just needs to change his ways if he wants to coach in the NRL.”

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Hayne has copped a large portion of blame for the axing of Henry, with the $1.2 million-a-season player having a sub-par 2017 that morphed into a feud with his coach.

Mason thinks that’s unfair, suggesting Bennett, who coached the retired forward at the Knights for three seasons, would have no problems keeping the enigma happy and performing at his best.

“I look at the best coach in the world as Wayne Bennett,” Mason said.

“I don’t know why people haven’t stolen his blueprint because he’s not all about the X’s and O’s, he tries to make you a better person and he doesn’t coach everyone the same.

Willie Mason had a season under Neil Henry at the Cowboys. Source: Supplied

“He manages people. He manages egos and characters and he doesn’t put everybody, and he doesn’t coach everyone the same.

“He could handle Jarryd Hayne. Wayne Bennett has probably got the biggest ego out of everyone.

“He’s won seven premierships, he’s done everything in the game, so he’s got every right to be cocky.

“I think he could handle Hayne easily. He got me easy. With Hayne I think he was a different kettle (of fish).

“I don’t think Henry could handle his, not his antics, but just his personality, his persona ...”

Speaking on the same show, Hayne’s former Eels teammate Reni Maitua admitted coaches found it easier to deal with the star when they gave him a longer leash.

He also criticised Henry for making Hayne uncomfortable with his place in the team by switching his position time and time again this season.

Reni Maitua (right) is a former teammate of Jarryd Hayne. Source: News Limited

“He got different treatment (at the Eels) because he had different skillsets to everyone,” Maitua said.

“He’s a freak. He’s by far the most talented athlete I have ever played alongside of. The thing about Jarryd is he does such freakish things that everyone expects him to do it every week, right?

“He hasn’t had a great year this year and I can openly say that as a friend. He has had some poor performances and he’ll admit that.

“But what do you expect him to do? Play 9, play 7, play fullback? If your team’s not going forward then you can’t do everything, you can’t do that.”

Mason took it a step further, saying Henry had missed an opportunity to get Hayne playing his best by deciding not to give him the captaincy.

Hayne dropped out of the leadership group at the Titans before he’d had a chance to make his mark on it as part of his punishment for missing a pre-season training session to seek treatment in Sydney.

Mason speculated that if Bennett was coaching Hayne he’d load him up with responsibility to make him accountable.

“I’ve been coached by the best, Wayne Bennett, easily. Hands down,” Mason said.

“Because he could control me, the difference between him, he gave me leadership. I was always a leader in teams but I was a bit loose here and there.

“He just went, ‘OK, I’m going to put you in the leadership group’ and just give me a free role to do whatever I want. And he trusted me.

“The thing about coaches and players is you need to trust each other and that’s a big thing with Hayne and Neil Henry, wouldn’t have trusted each other.

“Hayne would have been walking around training pissed off because he’s getting hammered in the paper again and Neil, he’s pretty stubborn as well.

“Neil Henry’s pretty much like a Folkesy. Very strict, very disciplined, he’s from the old school, he’ll treat me like he’ll treat (Mason’s former Bulldogs teammate) Jamie Feeney or something like that.

“At the end of the day you can’t treat me like that because I’m a different person, different ego, different character.”