Former Penrith Panthers star and New South Wales State of Origin advisor Greg Alexander has sensationally called for the Cronulla Sharks to drop Nicho Hynes ahead of this weekend's sudden death semi-final against the North Queensland Cowboys.
The move would be unprecedented, with Hynes being a walk up starter every game he has been fit for since his arrival in the Shire.
He won the 2022 Dally M Medal before again being well ranked in the race for the medal during 2023, and has taken the Sharks to the finals in each season he has been at the club.
But he is yet to guide the Sharks to a finals win in his time at the club. That record extended on Saturday afternoon when Hynes and the Sharks came up well short against the Melbourne Storm.
It wasn't a good performance from Hynes. At all.
He wasn't helped by his teammates dropping the ball and making silly, costly errors time and time again, but Hynes at times was more of a passenger than a producer, with his kicking game going missing.
In fact, during the second half, you could easily have claimed Braydon Trindall - the five-eighth - had taken over the running of the side when they did have rare attacking opportunities against the Melbourne Storm behemoth, who ran away with what ultimately wound up a convincing 37 points to 10 victory.
Alexander, speaking on SEN Radio, suggested Hynes should be dropped for the semi-final against the Cowboys on the back of the performance.
โHe's their marquee man and their $1 million player,โ Alexander said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.
โHe must be under pressure to keep his spot in the side. The performance against the Storm over the weekend (was poor).
โBraydon Trindall and Daniel Atkinson had been doing a good job as the halves pairing and then Nicho Hynes came back into the side.
โThere now has to be serious questions about whether Hynes gets a start. I would personally go with Trindall and Atkinson.
โIf Craig Fitzgibbon says to Hynes that he isn't their man for this game then that's saying he has no faith in him being the man for next year or the year after that.
โHynes can play footy but he's lacking something and that's confidence. He is hesitant at the moment.
โHe needs to go back to 2022 and last year to watch how he used to play.โ
It's impossible to shy away from the fact Hynes was absent during Cronulla's Round 10 win over the Storm earlier in the season, out injured, and his form between injuries this season was objectively poor by his own standards.
His return was supposed to bring something extra for the Sharks, but once pitted in a big game against a big club, it didn't.
The week before, Hynes' actual return against the Manly Sea Eagles saw the Sharks run on 40 points and play a confident, attacking brand of footy.
But it's more than that. In Hynes' last four games - and yes that dates back to Round 18 - he has not kicked for more than 200 metres. Over the first 11 rounds of the season, when Cronulla were on top of the ladder and beating everyone in their path, only once did he kick for under 300 metres.
There is a clear confidence issue for Hynes as he looks to pilot the side around the park, and his performances are suffering.
As was the case with a second half of the year fadeaway last season, you can trace Hynes' lack of confidence back to his Origin appearance.
Some will argue he was unfairly dropped after the series opener this year, given he only had the opportunity to pilot the Blues with 12 men, but the issue was he still looked like a dear trapped in the headlights.
Some of his last tackle options were nothing short of abysmal, and it's form that carried into Saturday's big game.
That in itself, brings the bigger issue for Hynes and the Sharks. It's hard to remember a time he played well in a big game, and so it's easy to understand where Alexander's point of view is - that Trindall and Atkinson are the actual duo who should be playing halves for the Sharks this weekend and moving forward.
What that actually means long-term for the one-million-dollar man is anyone's guess.
Him being dropped seems at very, very long odds of happening, but it's not difficult to understand where Alexander is coming from once the facts are looked at in the cold light of day.
If Hynes can't find a way to get his team over the line this weekend against the Cowboys in Sydney, the drums will be beating loudly.
