Nicho Hynes is well on his way to becoming one of the buys of the NRL season, but there is still one thing the Cronulla Sharks recruit hasn't mastered: goalkicking at PointsBet Stadium.
His conversion of the Sharks' final try in Sunday's game against the Wests Tigers drew Bronx cheers of Shire faithful and took his record at the ground to five from 14 at 35.7% in three games this year.
In contrast, in his two away games he has landed nine from 10 including a near-perfect night with the boot in wet and windy conditions in Wollongong in round three.
And despite boasting a match-winning conversion after the siren against Parramatta at the ground in round two, he was at loss to explain his struggles kicking at home.
"It's just not clicking for me at the moment," Hynes said.
"Both away games I've kicked nearly 100 per cent but when I kick at home I just [don't] get them."
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Hynes wouldn't blame the often blustery conditions at the ground for his poor kicking record but conceded every point will be vital this week when the Sharks face his former team Melbourne at AAMI Park.
Oddly, despite kicking 62 goals across 36 games for the Storm, he has never had an attempt at AAMI Park where he has only played four games because of COVID-19 shuffling of games.
Hynes is down on his kicking percentage from last year when he kicked 58 from 77 at 75% as the first-choice kicker for much of the year. His current success rate of 58% places him only in front of only Newcastle's Jake Clifford and Canterbury's Matt Burton among regular kickers.
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While Hynes's goal-kicking remains a work in progress, his halves combination with five-eighth Matt Moylan is developing impressively.
The pair again played both sides of the ruck against Wests Tigers and created numerous opportunities for their back five.
"They are both free spirits the way they play," Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon said of the two former fullbacks.
"Both are running players, so it just made sense to let them go wherever they want to go.
"We also have Braydon Trindall and Luke Metcalf who are really strong young halves who play a slightly different style if we played them but we landed on the cohesion on Moyza and Nicho which was pretty impressive in preseason."
