Living his best life: Hynes kicks naysayers into touch

You can say what you want about Nicho Hynes and his form right now but unless you are part of Cronulla's inner sanctum, he isn’t listening to any of it.

Since claiming the Dally M Medal in his first season as Cronulla's halfback in 2022, Hynes has been a lightning rod for commentary, but after deciding to take a break from social media, he is tuning out the outside noise.

There was plenty of that after Cronulla’s Round 8 loss to Wests Tigers where in his own words he couldn’t ‘ice’ the golden point game, but he bounced back against the Eels with three try assists as the Sharks got home 28-18.

“I’ve put things in place where I don't need to be around negativity. I don't need naysayers in my life," Hynes said. “I don't go on social media anymore.

“I just put myself around the people who love me and I love and surround myself with people who believe in me.

“Living at home with my girlfriend, my mum and my best mate, so there's plenty going on at home all the time and those three people have done so much for me and I'm so grateful for them all.

"They put a smile on my face every day and my little puppy as well, I get to go home every day, he doesn't give a stuff if I win or lose, so life couldn't be better.

“At the end of the day, it's a game of footy that I love playing and win, lose or draw, I still got to go home and smile and live a good life."

Having found a happy balance in his life on and off the field, the 28-year-old was able to put the Wests Tigers loss into perspective and move on quickly.

“Sometimes just luck isn't on your side ... some weeks it won't be," he said.

“There's going to be a time in this year where we're going to need a field goal and I'm going to be putting myself in position to try and nail it and I'll keep continuing to do that and I'm not going to shy away from any tough stuff.

“I'm going to keep fighting hard and putting our team into position to win games of footy.

“I'm feeling good, I'm not worried about my game, I'm playing really good footy, I feel.

“My coaching staff are happy, all my players are happy with me.

“That's all that matters, inside my four walls.

“I love rocking up every day and working hard with my mates and I love seeing Willie K (Kennedy) killing it at the moment too, so I'm just trying to make people shine around me and I'm glad that we're doing that.”

When it comes to steering a team around the paddock and stepping up in the big moments, Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon is adamant Hynes is the right man for the job.

“I haven't heard about him for about four or five weeks, which means he's playing well, so off the back of last week, we get some traffic, but I think he's been at it all year,” Fitzgibbon said at the post-match press conference.

“I feel like last week, there's some criticism there from not icing the game, that's all good, it's fair and reasonable, I think.

“I don't think he has an issue with it, we don't, but he stepped up.

"He smashes one from 50 metres out, one lick of paint away from having his moment in the sun, doesn't get it, and he's still stepped back up time after time after time when the game was on the line."