Gamers do not win the Dally M as a lot as tales do and Nicho Hynes had one in 2022.
After becoming a member of from Melbourne — the place he’d impressed as a back-up — the halfback was a flashy new participant on a flashy new workforce in Cronulla, who had been the flavour of the winter months with their rise below new coach Craig Fitzgibbon.
It is the sort of easy, repeatable narrative that sticks within the thoughts of voters.
When Cronulla have a powerful workforce efficiency — simply as they did on many events as they gained 11 of their final 12 matches of the common season — and given Hynes is in the course of virtually the whole lot they do, nicely it is easy for him to hoover up the votes.
In the long run, his victory was not a shock, and it’s deserved. Hynes is a wonderful participant and a very good ambassador for the game.
His journey from reserve grade battler to NRL stardom, and the courageous method he is been open and trustworthy about his battles with psychological well being, are inspiring.
His victory speech was endearing, touching and a much-needed spotlight in what was a poorly executed awards present.
The sport ought to really feel good that this sort of participant and this sort of man can succeed on this sport.
Nevertheless, the opposite aspect of the coin is coming as certain because the solar will rise tomorrow. There’s just one factor rugby league loves greater than increase any individual new — and that is tearing them proper again down once more.
And, in a traditional case of rugby league myth-making consuming it is personal tail — the rod was created for Hynes’ again at the same time as his medal glinted below the lights at Randwick Racecourse.
Hynes had a wonderful season, with out query, however this was not a scenario like Tom Trbojevic final 12 months, nor Johnathan Thurston in 2015, nor Ben Barba in 2012.
You see, Hynes polled extra votes than any of these gamers of their respective virtuoso seasons: He completed with 38, essentially the most of any participant within the medal’s historical past.
Hynes profitable wasn’t a slam-dunk going into Wednesday night time. You might make the case for St George Illawarra’s Ben Hunt as a one-man-army, or for the Roosters’ James Tedesco as the sport’s greatest general participant, or for Penrith’s Isaah Yeo as its greatest ahead and even the redoubtable Panther Dylan Edwards had a shot when you actually wished to speak your self into it.
Every man had his personal case and every of these instances had benefit.
Nevertheless, as a substitute of getting a decent end, it was an absolute romp for Hynes. He was 5 votes away from Tedesco in second, the identical margin Trbojevic had on final 12 months’s runner-up Nathan Cleary.
That is the road that will probably be connected to this Dally M victory all the time: Nicho Hynes polled extra votes in a single season than some other participant in historical past.
That is a easy, repeatable narrative that sticks in individuals’s minds and — when you’re carrying that sort of historical past and also you’re younger, hungry and on footy aspect — you are anticipated to stay as much as it sooner or later and, when you do not, the knives will come out.
So, subsequent 12 months Hynes has a fair larger job in entrance of him. The identical factor occurred to Trbojevic and Thurston and Barba and loads of different Dally M winners once they had been backing up their profitable seasons.
Hynes will virtually definitely have one other wonderful season subsequent 12 months. He appears too dedicated to his craft and, with Fitzgibbon on the helm, the Sharks are too nicely coached for anything to occur.
He may even be a little bit bit higher. This was his first season as a full-time starter within the NRL in any case. It solely stands to purpose he turns into a little bit extra succesful with extra time below his belt.
Nevertheless, in 2023, we will probably be used to him as a Shark and used to him being probably the greatest halfbacks within the sport.
Watching a participant go from good to nice is a narrative everybody loves, however individuals tire of seeing nice gamers keep nice.
There will probably be no novelty to him enjoying nicely within the new colors, no contemporary sensation that compares to watching Cronulla change into his workforce as all of us did this season.
The most effective he can hope for is extra of the identical and even that will probably be handled with indifference as a result of we have already seen all of it by way of this season.
Rugby league creates heroes, then it tires of them and begins creating others and, as a lot as so many individuals benefit from the rise, much more will come in the event that they assume they will see a fall.
It is a onerous fact Latrell Mitchell, Kalyn Ponga and Nathan Cleary have needed to be taught and one Hynes should now face.
There’s now a excessive bar for Hynes to achieve, one he performed no position in creating aside from enjoying nicely for his new membership and, if he does so once more, it will not be handled as particular or new, it will likely be what we have come to anticipate.
The discourse machine will ramble on searching for new blood and another story will seize the creativeness of the game and we’ll inform it to one another over and over, and there will probably be a brand new hero that rises up, similar to Hynes did this 12 months.
And the second Hynes falls wanting the expectations all people else created, even for a single sport, the story that cast his victory will probably be turned in opposition to him as a result of, now, for a few years to come back — and maybe all the time — he polled extra Dally M votes in a single season than anyone else.
