Pay gap heaps pressure on Nicho; why Mal can’t be blinded by Teddy loyalty — Crawls

Let’s not kid ourselves, the pressure on Nicho Hynes won’t suddenly disappear on the back of the Sharks’ 26-18 win over the Cowboys.

If anything, it just takes it up a notch.

Not only does Hynes now have to go head-to-head with the NRL’s Ice Man, Nathan Cleary.

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But Hynes would now be feeling the heat from within more than ever before given Braydon Trindall’s breakout performance against the Cowboys.

The reality is Trindall now has the potential to cause an absolute feeding frenzy when November 1 arrives, and players off contract at the end of next season hit the open market.

And that is only going to put the blowtorch further on Hynes no matter how anyone, including everyone at the Sharks, wants to deny it.

I wrote last week and I’ll say it again, it’s astonishing to think Trindall is now the Sharks’ chief playmaker but is on considerably less than half of the $1 million-a-season salary Cronulla is paying Hynes.

Some reports suggest Trindall is currently on about $300,000.

If that is even close to the truth, Trindall’s management would have to view this as a serious pay discrepancy.

And while the under-fire Hynes was solid if not spectacular in the win over the Cowboys, Trindall’s performance was as close to a 10 out of 10 that you will ever witness from even the game’s elite playmakers.

If it was Cleary, Sam Walker, Daly Cherry-Evans, Jahrome Hughes, Mitchell Moses or Adam Reynolds, we’d be waxing lyrical about it all week.

So heading into Saturday’s blockbuster preliminary final showdown against the Panthers, it means Trindall has positioned himself perfectly in the NRL shop front window ahead of November 1.

Factor in even though he’s out injured young Walker is pushing for between $1.2m and $1.4m a season at the Roosters moving forward.

It certainly puts in context why Trindall’s price tag could go through the roof if the 25-year-old can reproduce his form going up against the dynamic duo of Cleary and Jarome Luai.

Whatever the result you can expect the Sharks are going to have to dig deep to retain Trindall beyond 2025.

Don’t forget Hynes is contracted until the end of 2029.

Can the Sharks afford to keep both players if Trindall is to be paid what he is worth, and if one has to go, who should it be?

Andrew Johns even said over the weekend Trindall “would be up around the $900,000 (a-season) for sure” given the lack of elite halves up for grabs.

With 70 NRL games now under his belt, Trindall is approaching that point in his career where traditionally the great playmakers go to the next level.

It would make him exactly the player you’d imagine a club like the Dragons would go hard for if it turns out Ben Hunt makes an early exit.

He’d also be a great fit for Joey’s Newcastle Knights who are desperate to find a playmaker to relieve some of the pressure off superstar fullback Kalyn Ponga.

Throw in any number of other clubs including the Broncos, Bulldogs and Titans.

In fairness to Craig Fitzgibbon, he’s been predicting for some time that Trindall was a player of immense talent.

But it’s safe to say the NRL’s best kept secret is now well and truly out.

WHY MAL CAN’T BE BLINDED BY LOYALTY ON TEDDY v PONGA CALL

As good as James Tedesco played against the Sea Eagles, Mal Meninga can’t afford to be blinded by loyalty when it comes to naming who wears the Kangaroos’ No 1 jumper this year.

And Meninga has one heck of a decision to make between the incumbent captain, Kalyn Ponga and Dylan Edwards in the coming weeks.

Even allowing for Tedesco’s phenomenal effort to turn back the clock in the Roosters’ thumping 40-16 win on the weekend, no one will convince me that Ponga is not clearly the best fullback in the game on his form this season, with Edwards second and Teddy third.

Some would even argue that Ponga is now the NRL’s best player even ahead of Nathan Cleary, such was his influence on the Knights towards the end of the season.

But when Meninga spoke post match on Fox League following Tedesco’s wonderful 250th match milestone performance, you could certainly tell his loyalty to Teddy hadn’t wavered.

“You can’t question his ability, honestly,” Meninga said.

“He is a super player and a great leader.

“250th game and to put in a performance like that, in a major game, to make the difference, was an extraordinary performance. That is what he is capable of.

“He does it most weeks, but people just don’t see that.”

The fact the Kangaroos were walloped 30-0 in the final of the Pacific Championships last year by the Kiwis means the Australians can’t afford another embarrassment this year or it could cost Mal his job.

Which means the pressure will be the coach to get his selections right, regardless of his loyalties.

I put my hand up, I was one of many writing off Tedesco last year saying it was time to hand over the Blues No 1 jumper to someone else.

In fairness, at the time Teddy was in nowhere near the form he is in now.

He just looked so tired and was playing like he’d lost a yard or two of pace.

But credit where credit is due.

The 31-year-old has certainly turned it around.

To finish Saturday night with 20 runs for 183m that included two tries, two try assists, two line breaks, four line break assists and nine tackle busts just shows what a champion he still is.

HOW TOUGH IS THIS OLD VICTOR?

Most of us wouldn’t roll out the old Victor from the garage to mow the lawn with a busted shoulder.

But Victor Radley not only went out and played in an NRL elimination semi-final, he looked as though all his Christmases had come at once as he charged over for that opening try.

You wouldn’t have even known he had a fractured scapular as he hit the turf, and the smile on his face was just priceless.

I loved Trent Robinson’s comment after the game when he said: “I don’t think anybody thought he was going to play at the start of the week except for him and he kept telling people he was going to play and then he convinced everybody around him.”

It just summed up the obvious passion Radley has to play the game of rugby league.

JWH DELIVERS FINALS FLASHBACK

Speaking of tough, I wished someone from Manly would have shown young Tolu Koula the video of Danny Buderus’ attempted tackle on Jared Waerea-Hargreaves in the early exchanges of the 2013 preliminary final between the Roosters and the Knights.

Poor Koula didn’t stand a chance as big JWH came off the back fence and the Manly centre got his head in exactly the wrong position.

How often have we seen opposition players knock themselves out on Waerea-Hargreaves’ bumper bars over the years?

Not that there was anything illegal in what happened here.

But it reminded me straight away of Buderus’s attempted shot all those years ago.

To see Jake Trbojevic then leave the field for a head injury assessment the very next tackle after a collision with Lindsay Collins pretty much summed up Manly’s luck, or lack of it, on the night.

If the Roosters can take that fire and brimstone in against the Storm you just never know.

I still think a fully fit Storm coming off a week’s rest is going to be a completely different proposition to a battle-wearied Sea Eagles.

The Chooks of course won’t need reminding they have lost 10 of their last 11 against the Storm.

But we saw on Saturday what it means for the Roosters to have their No 1 enforcer back.

I can’t wait to see JWH go head-to-head with big Nelson Asofa-Solomona.

At least Asofa-Solomona is tall enough to get out of the way of those bloody big bumpers, although that often exposes another problem for the Storm’s enforcer, if you get the drift.

ROOSTERS’ YOUNG GUN RESPONDS TO PRESSURE

It was great to see young Sandon Smith respond from his shocker against the Panthers with a performance that really showed what a talent this 21-year-old is.

And it was a credit to Trent Robinson as well for showing faith in Smith amid the calls last week to move Joey Manu to five-eighth and Luke Keary to halfback.

The way Smith smoked Daly Cherry-Evans to score that try showed what a running threat he is.

You could also see by his reaction what a relief it must have been after his struggles the previous week.

DRINKWATER REFLECTS COWS’ LACK OF CONSISTENCY

We’ve all seen plenty of blow ups between teammates on the field.

But wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall at Todd Payten’s post season player reviews after the run-in between Scott Drinkwater and Reuben Cotter.

Taking exception to Cotter coming in to offer Drinkwater some advice following a wayward pass, Drinkwater could clearly be seen saying: “Get off me”, as he pulled away.

But Payten hit the nail on the head with his post match comment the Cowboys need to evolve or stay a “middle of the road team”.

We’ve known ever since the Cowboys crashed and burned last year after finishing 2022 in the preliminary final that talent is not the issue holding this team back.

But they just can’t continue to pick and choose when they want to turn up and play to their true potential and expect to ever get any real respect.

They’ve got two outstanding leaders in Cotter and Todd Dearden who of course turn up every week.

But they need the entire team to start following that lead, and no one is more important than Drinkwater to that.

On his day Drinkwater is up with the best fullbacks in the game.

But if we are being completely honest it didn’t really surprise anyone how Drinkwater’s performance on Friday night reflected the Cowboys’ season.

The fact they got so close highlights how once again they blew a great opportunity this year.

NRL ‘GOAT’ DISAGREES WITH PENALTY TRY

Forget what Graham Annesley has to say at his Monday review about the Sharks’ penalty try.

I’m taking the advice of the NRL’s greatest referee (and player) of all time, who was adamant on Friday night it was a sin bin, and not a penalty try.

Cameron Smith said after the Bunker backed Ashley Klein’s onfield call following Reuben Cotter’s interference on Braydon Trindall: “That’s wrong.

“I’m sorry, that’s wrong.

“You can’t say Trindall would get there before Tom Dearden. How can they say that?”

No question, Cotter should have been binned.

But it doesn’t matter that Cooper Cronk said on Fox the Cowboys probably got lucky because losing Cotter for 10 minutes would have been a bigger blow than giving up six points.

I’m not saying it cost the Cowboys the game because the Sharks were clearly the better team.

But for 100 years there is no way that would have been awarded a penalty try given the degree of doubt, so why is it now?

No wonder fans continue to be so confused by modern day rule interpretations when someone as switched on as the GOAT is equally puzzled.