Sharks star Nicho Hynes has admitted that the club has been using what they deem a lack of respect from the media as fuel to spark their unbeaten finals run.

Hynes has shown a little bit of his fiery side in recent press conferences. Last week, ahead of the semi-final against the Raiders, the Cronulla halfback said: “No one speaks about us”.

Having won both finals this year to book their ticket into a second straight preliminary final, they’re now definitely being spoken about.

Hence, the belief around the Sharks has increased, with some smart judges giving them a good chance to beat Melbourne on Friday night.

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‘Sharks are my family’ Hynes protective | 02:04

Facing the media at Sydney airport on Wednesday, a fired up Hynes doubled down, saying he considers criticism levelled against the Sharks as personal.

“We deserve to be here. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t,” he said.

“The respect, well that’s all other people’s opinions. Obviously we used that a bit as motivation for that first final but at the moment I just want to get the job done for the team.

“If someone disses your family, I think anyone would go out of their way to speak up about it and the Sharks are my family. I take things personally when people try and diss my family and maybe I’ve had enough of people disrespecting the Sharks over the last couple of years.

“I’ll fight for the Sharks until I stop wearing this jersey.”

It’s clear that whatever is spurring on this group is working.

The Sharks’ defensive resolve especially has spiked. Even with less possession than the Roosters and Raiders, they managed to win both games, allowing two potent attacking sides to just 22 points combined.

NRL360 host Braith Anasta labelled Hynes’ comments as “interesting” but agreed with the team’s mindset during their finals run.

“I’m finding his press conferences very entertaining lately,” Anasta said.

“I’m still a bit perplexed by it but what I liked about it was that they did use the disrespect for the finals because the majority of people haven’t shown them much respect and I love that they used it as motivation.

“I didn’t think they would use it this week because everyone is respecting them now. They’re not the favourites but they have a damn good hope of winning the comp.

“Again, you listen to Nicho and he still holds things from the past. It’s clear. How do we take this?”

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NRL great Gorden Tallis believes it’s the “theme” of the Sharks’ finals run.

“Don’t we just respect the theme? We see the Panthers reading about the Samurai. Sharks have the chip on their shoulder. Whatever it is, if that’s their theme for the finals series,” Tallis said.

“They don’t want to be Mr Nice Guy anymore and they got to get a bit of mongrel about them.”

”You’re right. The storyline, every team has one which drives them through a finals campaign and this is what is pushing them,” The Daily Telegraph’s David Riccio responded.

“It’s working for them and you can see it in the way they’re playing. They fight for each other and are super resilient.

“I think they are genuinely using the chip on the shoulder in relation to lack of respect.”