There were two big question marks hanging over Nicho Hynes’ move to the Sharks to play halfback this season.
The first was whether he could be the premier playmaker Cronulla were looking for.
The second was how Hynes — with just 36 NRL games under his belt at the time — could handle the expectations that come with being a marquee signing.
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With the Sharks sitting second and many dubbing him the buy of the year, Hynes has answered those questions. But not without the help of his mindset coach — a mate he grew up playing footy with — and Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon.
Hynes talks to his mindset coach, Jarred Brown, two-to-three times a week.
The pair played footy together at Terrigal Sharks before going their separate ways. They bumped into each other after Hynes’ NRL debut for the Storm at Central Coast Stadium but didn’t start working together until day one of the 26-year-old’s journey as a Shark.
Hynes knew what he was getting himself into when he signed that three-year deal. A utility leaving an AFL-obsessed city to wear the No.7 jersey for club in a league-mad town was never going to be easy.
He walked straight into a pressure cooker… But he arrived prepared.
“The old me wouldn’t have taken it in my stride,” Hynes told foxsports.com.au when asked about the expectations that come with his role at the Sharks.
“The old me would have been thinking about decisions and pressure and that’s why I did it (got a mindset coach).
“In Melbourne no one knows you, I wasn’t the main player of the team so to speak. I was in a key role for the majority of last year but everyone looks to Jahrome Hughes and Cameron Munster, those sorts of players when they think of the Storm.
“I knew coming to the Sharks that everyone would be looking at me and the media would be putting external pressure on me so I thought I’m just going to get my mate, who is a mindset coach and work with him on how to deal with the media, the pressure of social media and all the outside noise.
“I’m really glad I did. I’ve been able to play so freely because I haven’t had to worry about that.
“I’ve had someone there to talk about it with weekly. It’s been unreal. I don’t reckon I’d be able to go as well as I have this year if I didn’t have him.”
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Hynes sits equal fourth in the competition for try assists and equal third in total try contributions. It’s an impressive feat for a guy that had played minimal footy in the halves at NRL level until this year.
He puts his form down to unwavering support of Fitzgibbon.
The rookie coach, who also had his own big questions to answer this season, sat Hynes down in one of their first conversations last November to set the bar high.
“Day one here he said to me ‘why can’t you be as good as this player and that player’ and I thought ‘wow I didn’t think this was going to be our first conversation’,” Hynes said.
“He said ‘I back you to the hills and I want you to become the best player in the competition and I want you to be the best version of yourself’. He said ‘I believe in you, you can do it.’
“I remember walking out of that meeting thinking ‘far out, this guy has got so much confidence in me’ and whether I was to ever become the best in the competition or not he’s still going to believe in me.
“That’s done the world of good for me. He talks about me playing to my strengths and leading this team around the best I can, he’s instilled so much confidence in me and I can’t thank him enough.”
With a spot in the top two on the line, Hynes will play his most important game for the Sharks to date when they take on the Knights on Sunday.
Then from next week the heat will be turned up another notch as the Sharks kick off their finals campaign.
“Right now I’m pretty relaxed but I reckon come later this week and next week I’ll be a bit nervous,” Hynes said.
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He’s been there before. Heck, his first real season in the NRL finished with sitting on the bench for a grand final.
But this time Hynes won’t have the likes of Munster or Hughes to turn to.
“The last couple of years I’ve played that bench role where I didn’t get as nervous or didn’t feel the pressure. I could take it in more and I could enjoy it,” he said.
“But this time, there’s going to be a lot of talk about myself leading this team to the finals.
“I’ve got to do my best to deal with that situation, talk to my mindset coach about it and do whatever I can to make sure that there’s no weight on my shoulders so I can go into the finals series like I go into every other game.”
