{"id":880268,"date":"2026-09-04T23:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/880268\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T23:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:44:18","slug":"nrl-news-2026-andrew-johns-grills-nicho-hynes-as-cronulla-sharks-struggle-without-braydon-trindall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/880268\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026, Andrew Johns grills Nicho Hynes as Cronulla Sharks struggle without Braydon Trindall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Johns<\/a> has put the blowtorch squarely on Nicho Hynes<\/a> and told the halfback to stand up in the absence of superstar Cronulla<\/a> teammate Braydon Trindall.<\/p>\n

The eighth Immortal says the Sharks can\u2019t win the premiership without Trindall, who injured his shoulder a fortnight ago<\/a> and is racing the clock to make it back this season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nicho Hynes.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

The wily five-eighth has been one of the best players in the NRL<\/a> this season and is a big reason the Shire side is once again in title contention.<\/p>\n

But his absence has shone a spotlight on Hynes, the million-dollar star who has struggled to live up to the price tag in recent years.<\/p>\n

Hynes moved to the Shire in 2022 and won the Dally M Medal<\/a> that year, justifying his monstrous salary.<\/p>\n

But while he is contracted to the club until the end of 2029, and reportedly still being paid $1m for every season, it is Trindall who has effectively steered the team to success in recent times.<\/p>\n

With Trindall missing against lowly Parramatta last week, Hynes failed to register a single try assist as his Sharks lost 38-18 to the cellar dwellers.<\/p>\n

Johns says that game proved Hynes is struggling to run the show, despite the pay cheque and the number on his back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weekend showed, I really don\u2019t know\u00a0what\u2019s wrong with them,\u201d Johns said on Wide World of Sports\u2019 Immortal Behaviour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need more from Nicho, simple as that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour marquee player, highest-paid player… I know all the talk about money, but when you\u2019re the highest-paid player you own the result, especially if you wear the seven on your back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that money comes responsibility, especially in big\u00a0games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need more off Nicho, he was really poor last weekend against Parramatta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlighting the Hynes concern was the fact rookie halves partner Niwhai Puru basically took the reins against the Eels.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the weekend Puru was the dominant half, he did a lot of the kicking. That is worrying for me,\u201d Johns said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t see them making a run (in the finals).\u201d<\/p>\n

Hynes has been rested from Saturday night\u2019s clash with his former club Melbourne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Sharks are then facing an elimination final against either the Cowboys or Rabbitohs the following week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Johns has put the blowtorch squarely on Nicho Hynes and told the halfback to stand up in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-880268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}