Nicho Hynes says he’s playing better than his Dally M year. This stat explains why

Nicho Hynes says Sharks fans have been stopping him in the street to wish him good luck as he closes in on a slice of goalkicking history.

But the Cronulla halfback insists it is the improvements in the elements of his game that go largely unnoticed that have him playing better than in his Dally M medal-winning campaign of 2022.

Hynes and playmaking partner Braydon Trindall have been pivotal in Cronulla’s rise to the top four, with Hynes having booted 32 consecutive goals across the past month.

Only Bulldogs sharpshooter Hazem El Masri’s run of 35 straight goals trumps Hynes’s current hot streak in Australian rugby league history, and that record could easily fall in Sunday’s local derby against the last-placed Dragons.

Hynes and coach Craig Fitzgibbon are putting far more stock in the little things – “like my defence, effort areas and saving tries” – than pointscoring plays, with both coach and player rating his current form better than in his award-winning 2022 season.

“I know I’m probably playing better than the Dally M year, but people only looked at me back then for the try assists and the highlight reels and whatnot,” Hynes said after another starring role in Sunday’s 32-16 win over South Sydney.

“[In] 2022, I had a lot of highlight reels. I’d come to the club and had some big moments and everyone just looked at me as if I needed to set up three tries or score a couple or do these things to play the Dally M style of footy I was playing.

“I’ve grown, and I’m more than a highlight reel [player]. All I want to do is do the hard things – make my tackles, run the ball, kick when I have to and just build my game off that by staying patient. Maybe I didn’t have that sort of mindset back in 2022, but I do now.

“And I can trust and believe in Tricky [Trindall] that he’s going to get us around the park just as well as I can, and even better sometimes. So I just play off the back of that and play my natural game”.

Trindall’s emergence as a top-shelf playmaker has freed up Hynes, who averages 45 touches of the ball this season compared to 61.7 when he was Cronulla’s dominant half in 2022.

Trindall himself is leading the NRL for try-assists (29), though again, Hynes stressed there was little internal focus on the eye-catching plays and statistics highlighted most often in rugby league.

Instead, defensive efforts – like Hynes’ early run-down of South Sydney’s Matt Dufty, and stopping Cody Walker when he was tryline-bound – are prized highest.

The 30-year-old is well aware he could knock off El Masri’s record, given the regular reminders from fans around the Shire.

His teammates revelled in Hynes going past Fitzgibbon’s own impressive run of 26 consecutive goals for the Roosters in 2004 on Sunday, before Luke Covell’s Cronulla record (28 straight goals in 2006) also fell by the wayside.

Hynes has worked with legendary Kiwi winger Daryl Halligan on both his technique off the tee and mental approach to goalkicking, with the latter flowing into his overall game.

“It gives me a world of confidence and I love working with Chook [Halligan],” he said. “It’s just about sticking to the same [kicking] routine, trusting it, getting good contact on the ball and watching it go over. I reckon there’s been times where I’ve missed a couple of easy ones, and it gets in your head a bit.

“But you’ve just got to trust your routines and back yourself. I’ve worked really hard on my mindset in all aspects of rugby league and life and that does give me confidence.”

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