Greg Alexander calls for $1m Sharks star's axing as Phil Gould explains 'Warne effect'

Rugby league legend Greg Alexander says he would drop million-dollar halfback Nicho Hynes from the Cronulla team for this week's must-win semi final.

And former coach Phil Gould says the embattled playmaker must channel Shane Warne in order to shake a horror finals hoodoo that has plagued the Shire folk in recent years.

The team is on the brink of losing an eighth straight finals game. It still hasn't won one since Hynes inherited the No.7 jumper - losing two in 2022 and one last year, before Saturday's 37-10 defeat in Melbourne.

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The 2022 Dally M Medal winner is feeling the heat more than any other player and Alexander says Hynes isn't even in Cronulla's best line-up at the moment.

"He's their marquee man and their $1 million player... the performance against the Storm over the weekend (was not good)," Alexander said on SEN radio.

"Braydon Trindall and Daniel Atkinson had been doing a good job as the halves pairing and then Nicho Hynes came back into the side... There now has to be serious questions about whether Hynes gets a start. I would personally go with Trindall and Atkinson.

"If (coach) Craig Fitzgibbon says to Hynes that he isn't their man for this game then that's saying he has no faith in him being the man for next year or the year after that. Hynes can play footy but he's lacking something and that's confidence.

"He is hesitant at the moment. He needs to go back to 2022 and last year to watch how he used to play."

Hynes was one of the best halfbacks in the NRL over an 18-month period after joining Cronulla from Melbourne on a lucrative deal.

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He then endured a nightmare Origin debut for the Blues mid-2023 and his form fell off a cliff.

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His call-up to the NSW No.7 for game one of the 2024 series was also a disaster and now his Origin and finals record has critics doubting his ability to handle big games.

Gould says if he was mentoring Hynes he would advise him to channel Australia's legendary leg-spin bowler.

"I talk about the Shane Warne effect. Shane Warne was our greatest ever spin bowler," Gould told Nine's 100% Footy on Monday.

"Shane Warne had probably 15 different varieties of balls that he could bowl... but when the conditions weren't right he had a stock standard ball that he could bowl hour after hour, day after day, on a pitch that wasn't turning to tie the batsmen down to let them frustrate themselves into getting into trouble.

"Nicho Hynes doesn't have that in his repertoire. Nicho Hynes has got all the flippers and the wrong-uns and the trick shots and all that, but what he doesn't have is a stock standard part to his game which gives his team direction and delivery, and a kicking game which takes up field position.

"It's like he is trying to bowl his trick shots most of the time even if they're not on, and that's what gets him into trouble.

"When I say that, who do you think of? (Panthers halfback) Nathan Cleary.

"What they learn to do is what we call grind, they learn to grind teams down, and give their team the confidence and field position and everything they need.

"Everyone wants the tricky sidestep and the long pass and the cutout ball... that's the stuff we glamorize in commentary, that's the thing we drool over and replay over and over is the trick shots, and it gives young playmakers the wrong perspective on what their job is."

Sharks legend Paul Gallen agreed with Gould but believes Hynes is being judged too harshly by some people.

In his Wide World of Sports column on Monday, Gallen said Saturday's loss to Melbourne was due largely to the forwards being badly beaten by the Storm middles.

"The thing with Nicho Hynes we've got to remember is he's been in this position (of halfback), this role for only three or four years," Gallen said.

"Nicho didn't start as a playmaker in first grade, he started as a utility player. He's probably still learning that process.

"We judge him so highly probably because he's on so much money... and we've got Andrew Johns, Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk commenting on what he does, it's not fair. They are elite, they are special players.

"Nicho is a great player but maybe he's not quite at that level."

The Sharks meet North Queensland at Allianz Stadium on Friday.