Posting this photo was a big mistake for a club trying to re-establish itself as an NRL giant

August 23, 2026 — 5:00am

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Parramatta have resisted calls to take down social media photos of controversial former Eels superstar Jarryd Hayne posing with Mitchell Moses and Josh Addo-Carr.

That’s despite receiving such a backlash they had to turn off comments 24 hours after an Instagram photo gallery displayed images of Hayne sparked criticism of the club and the former player.

Hayne was embraced by the club when he attended a reunion of the 2009 grand final team at the Eels-Cowboys match at CommBank Stadium last Saturday night.

Hayne was the star of that team. But his life and reputation have never been the same since he was charged with two counts of sexual intercourse without consent following an incident involving a 26-year-old woman in her Newcastle home on the night of the 2018 NRL grand final.

Hayne was found guilty twice following two trials, only for his convictions to be overturned on appeal. Hayne, who always maintained his innocence, was freed from prison in June 2024.

But the damage to his life and that of the young lady and her family can’t be undone.

It’s hard to know why Hayne was featured in two of the five photos posted by the Eels. I’ve seen the comments that were made before they were removed, and they were damning of both him and the club. At best, it was naive from the Eels. It felt tone-deaf.

The words of a supporter who wrote to me summed it up well:

“I just got really annoyed when half the comments on the Eels post were fans saying how it wasn’t a good look and the club’s response was to just turn off commenting. The other half were men arguing with anyone who disagreed and claiming he was found innocent, which he wasn’t. If that was my club, I would be harassing the CEO for an explanation. What is the point of the Eels having a women in league round when they publicise Hayne and then turn off the comments from fans expressing their disgust.

“But it’s so tricky now that it’s been overturned. If we stopped platforming men who clearly demonstrate a lack of respect for women, perhaps we could start addressing the misogyny that is so prevalent in the NRL and our country.

“If I were the victim. Watching the way victims are torn apart during trials, and then seeing the public pile-on online. You can’t go online without seeing people dying to defend their favourite sports star. And even when someone is found guilty, there are still people determined to defend them.”

The celebration of Hayne and his teammates could easily have been kept off social media. Those who were impacted by the events of that 2018 night are dismayed that he was lauded so publicly by the club.

It’s a significant mistake by an organisation that is struggling to reestablish its reputation as a big club in the NRL.

An Eels spokesperson said: “Last Saturday night’s post was an acknowledgment of members of the 2009 grand final team who had gathered together at our home game against the Cowboys.”

To give people on this side of the country an indication of the way AFL stars are treated in Western Australia: Ben Cousins reads the sports news for Channel 7 in Perth.

In 2010, Cousins released a documentary on his life, Such is Life, and published his autobiography, Ben Cousins: My Life Story. Both provided a candid insight into his personal life, drug addiction and recovery.

It’s hard to think of anyone........

© The Age