As uncomfortable as it is, there’s a belief that Nicho Hynes blinks when the bright lights come on in big games.
Perhaps harshly, he’s lost his NSW State of Origin jumper after game one of the past two series. Hynes is also 0-4 in finals matches for Cronulla in the Craig Fitzgibbon era. On Friday night, the Sharks will be trying to end a seven-game losing run in finals stretching back to 2018 when they take on the Cowboys at Allianz Stadium.
Is it fair?
“Nicho has got thick skin,” teammate Braydon Trindall bristles. “With a name like his, it’s easy to target him in our side. But at the end of the day, it’s a team sport. If he’s getting targeted, we should all be targeted.”
But that’s not always how rugby league works, particularly in a news cycle as voracious as that of the NRL.
Just this week, the NRL announced he was one of four finalists for the Ken Stephen Medal, for players whose legacy is not confined just to the field, but stretches to the community when the cameras are turned off. It was accompanied by a photo of Hynes with a young boy in a wheelchair, smiling in his Sharks jersey.
But for most fans, there is another image of Hynes that has been impossible to shake this week: in the middle of AAMI Park, head bowed, hands on knees, looking like he didn’t want to be there.
It came moments after he shanked a penalty kick aimed for the sideline in last week’s qualifying final loss to the Storm. The task of sending the ball downfield and into the stands for territory ranks as one of the simplest in rugby league. Hynes fluffed it – badly.
Tellingly, as Ryan Papenhuyzen fielded the ball and play continued, five Sharks defenders ran downfield past Hynes to form a haphazard defensive line. Their halfback stood in disbelief on the same patch of grass for almost four seconds.
Nicho Hynes and the Sharks have a poor finals record.Credit: NRL Photos
“He took himself out of the game after that,” league legend Scott Sattler says. “It had nothing to do with fitness, nothing to do with injury, nothing to do with skill set, it had everything to do with what’s going on between the ears.”
It has led to all types of questions this week, just two years after Hynes stormed to a fairytale Dally M Medal as the game’s best player.
Now, is Hynes being paid too much at $1 million a season? Should the Sharks be worried about their long-term contract, which runs until 2029? Is he even playing in the right position at halfback? Greg Alexander went a step further, and argued he shouldn’t even be in the team this week.
“I’ve heard it, but I won’t be picking [the side] based on what anyone else says,” Fitzgibbon says. “It’s happened to a lot of high-profile players – or I should say price-tag players – in the past, and halves in particular. With that [salary] comes responsibility and scrutiny.
All eyes will be on Nicho Hynes again on Friday night.Credit: James Brickwood
“I think it’s confirmation bias. You see a couple of things that he hasn’t done, then it’s out there, it’s spoken about, but to prove yourself right, you constantly go to the things that he’s not doing well, and it just becomes like momentum.”
Breaking down Hynes’ first 27 minutes against the Storm before his failure to find touch gives some credibility to Fitzgibbon’s point.
Having ceded the majority of control to halves partner Trindall, Hynes was steady. He rifled a pass to Siosifa Talakai to help set up Cronulla’s first try, displayed quick hands to put Cameron McInnes in space and was blameless for being trapped in possession on a last tackle inside his own half (leading to a Melbourne try) after Trindall chanced his arm on the short side.
Perhaps his most telling error was early in the second half. With the Sharks trailing 14-10 and deep on the attack, Hynes ran the ball on the last tackle and was brought down in the corner. A pass to winger Ronaldo Mulitalo might have presented an opportunity. A kick could have forced a repeat set. Like so many teams these days, the Sharks were content to turn the ball over in the corner deep in Storm territory.
But you only get so many chances against Melbourne. For the final 34 minutes, they didn’t have the ball inside the Storm’s red zone again.
“He’s got to stop worrying about the big plays, because they’ll sort themselves out, and concentrate on his tackling and kicking,” Andrew Johns says.
Sattler says we should remember Hynes is only three games back from a serious injury, and acknowledged he was great in the thumping final-round win over Manly, but warned he can’t see the 28-year-old thriving as a long-term halfback.
“I know he won a Dally M as halfback, but when you’re a seven, a lot of the time you’re locked into steering the Ferrari around the course,” he says. “When you’re a six, you give yourself a bit more time. I think he’s a person who you give the ability to play like a second fullback.
“A guy like Nicho has to embrace the [James] Maloney mentality. The Maloney mentality is the goldfish mindset: not everything works out for us, but we’re still in the game.”
Those closest to him warn Hynes rides the rollercoaster of form peaks and troughs like few others.
It was kept a secret at the time, but Hynes reached out to Nathan Cleary after the Penrith champion’s grand final masterclass last year to understand how to work on his mindset. The pair shared a house visit last summer.
“He came over and we had a good yarn, and he spoke about how he dealt with things earlier in his career, especially with social media, and how he approached games and what meant more to him – statistics, winning games,” Hynes told this masthead in June. “He said, ‘Winning games is the best stat you can have’.”
It’s more than time for the Sharks to win one in September, and then Cleary’s Panthers await.
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