Nicho Hynes’ State of Origin hopes have taken another hit with the halfback below his best as the Sharks suffered an upset loss to the Dolphins at PointsBet Stadium on Thursday night.

The Dolphins blew the Sharks out of the water with a four-try blitz to start the match before the home side surged back into the contest to hit the front early in the second half.

But the match was ultimately decided by a moment of magic from Dolphins fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, who raced the length of the field through and around several defenders to register a strong contender for the solo try of the year. 

Hynes had a chance to send the match into extra time with a sideline conversion after the final siren after winger Sione Katoa dived over in the corner but the attempt went wide and the Dolphins hung on for a 30-28 triumph.

“You can’t afford to turn your TV off when the Dolphins are playing,” was coach Wayne Bennett’s zinger to open the post-match media conference. “It was remarkable how they can hang in there, get in front, come back, all the things they did tonight. It was pretty special.”

Their eighth win for this season means they are just one away from matching last year’s tally with 11 fixtures still left on their schedule.

Question marks over Sharks

Cronulla did not look like a team that was equal first on the ladder in the opening stages of Thursday’s match, but the Dolphins did.

Max Plath started the carnage with a soft try in the 10th minute, Herbie Farnworth added another a couple of sets later and when Jack Bostock touched down for the 11th time this season, alarm bells were ringing at the Sharks.

Jake Averillo pounced on a Kodi Nikorima grubber in the 24th minute and it was 22-0 to the visitors in one of the hottest starts from any team this year.

Cronulla regrouped and for the second week in a row, Royce Hunt, made a huge impact off the bench, scoring a try in the 28th minute and swinging the momentum back to his team with fellow forward Briton Nikora crossing before the break to make it a 10-point deficit.

Ronaldo Mulitalo finished a left-side raid to continue Cronulla’s fightback early in the second half and when Will Kennedy backed up a long-range burst from Nikora and fended away “the Hammer”, they hit the lead 24-22 with nearly half an hour left on the clock.

But Tabuai-Fidow got his revenge by collecting a bomb on his own 10-metre line, running backwards to just about his goal line to evade a first defender and then beat five more on a scintillating sprint to the stripe.

“It’s in the top two or three,” Bennett responded when asked where it sat among the great tries he’s seen. “Steve Renouf scored one I’ll never forget and I’ll never forget this one either. Him and Hammer would be the two players in my time that I’ve coached that had that absolute magic to get to the try line and create that moment.

“We’re very fortunate to have him.”

A penalty goal edged the Dolphins out by six, which proved effective, because Katoa looked like he would be sending the match into a golden-point finale when he sped onto a Nikora pass in the dying seconds but Hynes hung his conversion attempt out to the right to bring a smile even to Wayne Bennett’s craggly dial.

Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said they looked “numb in defence” to start the game and “then did something about it”.

“We just had one moment with Hammer and game over. We paid the price for that kick to the middle, broken line chase and opened up,” he said.

“Off the back of the bye they jumped us with energy and we were a bit flat. Pretty pleased we did something about it but not pleased we didn’t get it done.”

Cronulla’s title credentials will now be questioned yet again – they have just come through a tough six-week stretch against premiership heavyweights and unpredictable playoff contenders in the Dolphins and Parramatta. 

Fitzgibbon said prior to their clashes with the Storm, Roosters and Panthers that the narrative of their season would not be defined by those results. 

Now that they have emerged out the other side of the toughest stretch of their season, going 3-3 to maintain a spot in the top four, their reputation is probably unchanged. 

After being pummelled by Penrith, failing to match a Mitchell Moses-fuelled Eels outfit and losing at home to the Dolphins, they can not lay a claim to being the team most likely to end the Panthers’ three-year dynasty.  

Their mission now in the closing three months of the season is to rebound from losing three of their past four outings to lock up a top-two spot to give themselves the best possible chance of finals success. 

That scenario can be tricky for a high-effort team like the Sharks if they slip ever so slightly from the all-out effort which has lifted them to the upper echelons of the standings. 

Souths were in a similar position midway though last year and not only slackened off to the point where they slid down the ladder, they missed the finals altogether. 

These Sharks, unlike those in the wild, cannot afford to cruise to conserve energy while waiting for the right time to go in for the kill when there are bigger fish in sight. 

Hynes’ Origin hopes take a hit

Hynes’ performance against the Dolphins probably shouldn’t become the be-all and end-all for Blues coach Michael Maguire. 

He wasn’t terrible but he wasn’t at his best.

If he had put in an absolute shocker then that would have been a red flag for the coach that his confidence had plummeted after his starting debut for NSW in the Origin I loss at Accor Stadium. 

Last year after he was dropped after a tough debut playing out of position off the bench, it did affect Hynes’ form at club level. 

If Maguire dumps Hynes for game two in Melbourne when he announces his squad on Sunday night it will be rough treatment considering the reason the Blues lost first up was not due to their halfback’s performance but Joseph Suaalii’s seventh-minute send-off. 

Former Blues coach Ricky Stuart has often stated his theory that the halfback owns the result for each team at Origin level but it would be unfair to make Hynes the scapegoat. 

Hynes has clearly shown he can be an excellent playmaker at club level but the jury is well and truly out on whether he can translate that form to the Origin arena. 

Dolphins flipping the 2023 script

Split Enz may be right and history won’t repeat for the NRL’s newest team. 

The Dolphins were the surprise packets in the first half of 2023 in their inaugural campaign before quickly fading as the weekly NRL grind of injuries and fatigue set in. 

This year they have been hovering around the top four for much of the season and were in danger of rapidly sinking without a trace after losses to the Raiders and Warriors but their Sharks triumph is a major shot in the arm. 

Bennett laughed when asked if he thought they deserved more respect, before adding they wouldn’t be losing any sleep over anyone not thinking they are the real deal.

Injuries have again depleted their already skinny depth with Tom Gilbert’s season-ending ACL, Tom Flegler’s long-term nerve problem and other key players like Herbie Farnworth also missing several games. It has made a difficult task even harder for Bennett but the veteran coaching master has never been afraid of a challenge. 

They are in great shape with an 8-5 record and well and truly in the top-eight mix with a fair hope of duplicating the Warriors’ golden run last year to finish in the top four. 

The key now will be keeping their roster littered with veterans, young prospects and journeymen to remain up for the contest each week as the playoff race gets tighter as the stakes rise each week. 

It would be an enormous achievement if they can outlast deeper squads like Brisbane, the Warriors and Roosters who are also part of the mid-table logjam in the race for the playoffs. 

But if they keep producing wins like this one, who is to say they can’t shock the NRL world by making the playoffs in just their second season.