Brutal truth behind Hynes decline; Ryles vindicated over ruthless Gutho call — Crawls

It’s the harsh reality of Nicho Hynes’ plummet down the NSW halfback pecking order that despite the injury cloud hanging over Nathan Cleary, the Sharks’ million-dollar playmaker doesn’t even rate a mention among possible replacements.

As experts discuss the merits of Dolphins young gun Isaiya Katoa and in-form Warrior Luke Metcalf, it seems like a lifetime ago that Hynes started last year’s series wearing the Blues’ No 7 jumper before he was dropped for game two.

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At the time many thought it was a tough call from Michael Maguire given the Blues played almost the entire opening game a man down after Joseph Suaalii’s send-off for his high shot on Reece Walsh.

But you only had to watch the Sharks’ second half collapse against the Broncos to know why Hynes is now completely out of the conversation.

A great start turned to mud at Suncorp when the Sharks butchered a 16-point lead and the former Dally M Medal winner came up with a series of clangers in the 34-28 loss.

After a stunning first half where Hynes scored a try and looked in a dominant mood, he fell in a giant hole in the second half that he just couldn’t dig himself out of.

A poor defensive read led to one try (where Hynes’ was rightly taken to task for taking a dive in an obvious attempt to milk an obstruction call), while Hynes’ game management also came under fire when he kicked dead to hand over one seven tackle set.

He capped off a forgettable second half when a loose carry turned over vital possession when the Sharks were fighting to save the game at the death.

As each mistake mounted you could almost see the confidence sap from his body, and Hynes teammates rallied around him.

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But there is just no ignoring it leads to more questions if the Sharks can be a genuine title contender with Hynes wearing the No 7 jumper.

There’s no question Hynes had plenty of mates who came up with some costly errors, including halves partner Braydon Trindall who kick out on the full at one point.

Yet the Sharks need to do something because if they are not careful their season could come implode in the next few weeks when they take on the Storm followed by the Dolphins and Roosters.

The Sharks have now lost three of their past four games and look anything but a finals certainty.

That loss sees them drop to sixth on the ladder but on equal competition points (18) with the fifth placed Broncos and seventh placed Roosters.

The Panthers are a point back in eighth, just ahead of three more teams on 16 points including the Dolphins, Sea Eagles and Dragons.

Meanwhile, with Cleary battling a groin injury that limited him in the Origin II defeat in Perth, the Blues’ halves stocks are desperately thin (with Mitchell Moses already ruled out for the series).

The expectation is Cleary will be fit to return to take on the Bulldogs in Thursday night’s blockbuster.

But the issue will be if he doesn’t play the injury might be worse than anyone is letting on.

The obvious replacement if Cleary is ruled out would be to promote Matt Burton from 18th man to five-eighth and switch Jarome Luai to halfback.

The worry with that is both Burton and Luai play their best footy at five-eighth, and are both left foot kickers.

But such is the lack of genuine chief playmaking options for the Blues that young Katoa seems the next best pick.

Good judges including Andrew Johns reckon it would be almost unfair throwing a 21-year-old into a decider, while Metcalf was battling a leg injury in the Warriors’ loss to the Panthers.

That gave Hynes the perfect opportunity to put his hand up against the Broncos.

Sadly, it’s safe to say Origin would be the furthest thing from Hynes’ mind right now.

WALSH THE MAN NSW WOULD FEAR MOST

Billy Slater will be doing NSW a favour if he doesn’t hand Reece Walsh the Queensland No 1 jumper for the decider.

While Kalyn Ponga improved vastly on his underwhelming Origin II effort in the Knights’ shock win over the Dolphins, Walsh again showed why he would be the player NSW would fear most as he led the charge in the Broncos’ comeback victory over the Sharks.

Even though Walsh appeared to have reinjured his knee in warm up, he sparked to life after a dodgy start to finish with 17 runs for 151m that included two try assists, three linebreak assists and a linebreak.

Ponga was also impressive for the Knights when he went toe-to-toe with Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow.

Ponga had 14 runs for 121m that included two try assists and seven tackle busts, while in a beaten team Hammer had18 runs for 221m that included a try.

Given Hammer handled playing on the wing in Origin II, that’s probably where he stays.

But if Walsh can back up what he’s showed in his two games back from injury when the Broncos take on the fourth-placed Warriors this Saturday, it would make it almost impossible for Slater to leave him out knowing the Maroons are going to have to score plenty of points to beat the Blues.

Ponga could easily revert to the bench given he could fill any spot in the backline, including the halves.

RAMPAGING RABBITOH BASHES DOWN DALEY’S DOOR

Keaon Koloamatangi is another who could not have done more to push for a NSW start when he went head-to-head with under fire Blues prop Stefano Utoikamanu.

The rampaging front-rower was again in the thick of it as the injury ravaged Rabbitohs pushed the Storm to the wire, going down 25-24 in golden point.

Koloamatangi was easily the most dominant forward on the field up against Utoikamanu and Nelson Asofa-Solomona, finishing with 25 runs for 207m and 30 tackles.

While Koloamatangi’s effort was somewhat overshadowed by Latrell Mitchell’s best game of the year and Alex Johnston’s four try haul to close in on Ken Irvine’s all-time record, from a Blues perspective Koloamatangi has just about knocked down Laurie Daley’s door.

It wouldn’t surprise to see Koloamatangi start game three with Max King dropping back to the bench.

It was a courageous effort by the Rabbitohs who were without eight players who had been a part of the top squad this year, including three of their five highest paid in Campbell Graham and Cody Walker and Cam Murray.

As for the Storm, I’m yet to be convinced they are the team to beat given their propensity to switch off during games, although they again received the rub of the green from the match officials in this one with Rabbitohs fans entitled to feel short-changed in the 50/50 calls.

Ryles proud of Eels despite stars out | 04:11

RYLES VINDICATED FOR DECISION TO LET GUTHO GO

Can’t wait to see Clint Gutherson and Isaiah Iongi go head-to-head when the Dragons host the Eels on Saturday.

While Gutherson has been a standout for the Dragons this year, Iongi just gets better by the week and was absolutely outstanding in the Eels’ 36-20 win over the Titans.

Without Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown, Iongi took the game by the scruff of the neck and was instrumental in three of the Eels’ six tries.

Earlier in the year it looked as though Gutherson was going to be a huge loss for Parramatta when they kicked off with four straight defeats before they beat the Dragons by a point back in round five.

But right now it’s looking like Jason Ryles probably pulled the right rein moving forward with the 21-year-old former Panther who is such an attacking threat.

FOOTBALL GODS DELIVER YOUNG DOLPHIN DOSE OF REALITY

The rugby league gods can be cruel at times.

Poor Jack Bostock went from scoring four tries in the Dolphins’ last round win over the Cowboys to suffering a suspected season-ending ACL knee injury in the loss to the Knights.

He’ll be massive loss to the Dolphins going forward.

Panthers shock Warriors in NZ | 04:06

PANTHERS ON THE PROWL

It hard to believe the Panthers were dead last on the ladder after their loss to the Knights back in round 12.

Now they’re sitting 8th after beating the Warriors without all their Origin stars to make it three straight wins.

They now take on the table-topping Bulldogs in a blockbuster this Thursday night that will tell us exactly where the Panthers stand in the race for this year’s premiership.

From the kick off you could see the Panthers were up for this when Moses Leota made a beeline for his great mate James Fisher-Harris.

And what about the performance from Tom Jenkins who was the standout on the wing.

SEA EAGLES WILL REGRET LETTING FAINU GO

With Daly Cherry-Evans’ career coming to an end at Manly, you can only wonder what Sea Eagles fans would be thinking after watching Latu Fainu tear it up for the Tigers against the Raiders.

Fainu came through the grades at Manly and was actually rated a better player than Lachlan Galvin when they both played at Westfields Sports High.

But with Galvin now gone to the Bulldogs, Fainu showed in the loss to the Raiders exactly why he will be Jarome Luai’s halves partner moving forward.

Coincidentally Fainu will be back at Brookvale Oval this Friday night going head-to-head with the man he always seemed destined to replace, with DCE under the pump to help turn around the Sea Eagles’ nose-dive in form.

BIG PAPPA TURNS BACK THE CLOCK

It’s not too late for Billy Slater to put in a call to Josh Papalii and see if he can’t make the veteran Raider come out of representative retirement for the decider.

The game after Papalii broke the Raiders’ all-time record for most games, the big fella continued to turn back the clock when he finished with most metres for his team (116m) and second most tackles (32) in the win over the Tigers, while laying on a try for his best mate Joey Tapine.

You can imagine the charge of emotion big Pappa would give the Maroons if he was to get his own Alfie Langer-style Origin call up.

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