So when that pedestal disappeared and Hayne went searching for his next dream — Aussie sports fans went searching for their next Jarryd Hayne joke.
The former running back handed it to them when he announced his new dream to play in the Olympics with the Fiji Rugby 7's team — which went on to famously win the gold medal in Rio.
From that moment on, almost all of Australia knew Jarryd Hayne as the guy who had a dream.
It was the joke of the month.
Well, almost three years later, the jokes are still coming for Hayne — and he might just about be over them.
Hayne told one jester on social media he was "pathetic" after being chipped with a pretty stock-standard Jarryd Hayne dream-joke.
The former Titans fullback had been having a perfectly civil exchange with fans on social media surrounding Billy Slater's judiciary verdict — but it ended pretty quickly after one fan dropped his one-liner.
"It's always been a dream of mine to be on the judiciary panel," the Twitter user posted in response to Hayne's declaration that the judiciary panel was right to clear Slater to play in Sunday's NRL grand final.
Hayne's response showed
"My next dream would be for w***ers like you to grow tf up," Hayne wrote on his Twitter account.
"And to think you got 3 kids that one day will dare to dream makes your tweet even more pathetic."
