Nicho Hynes plans on silencing the doubters after admitting he was left broken and somewhat bewildered by his stunning State of Origin snubbing from Brad Fittler.
Speaking for the first time since Fittler dropped him from the NSW side for Origin II against Queensland despite halfback Nathan Cleary being ruled out injured and Hynes being next in line, the 2022 Dally M Player of the Year confessed to being shattered at the time.
"To be honest, it was a really challenging time. I never lost faith in my ability (but my) confidence was probably a bit shot," Hynes said.
"I felt like I let a lot of people down, I let myself down.
"I said I was ready for (Origin) and I thought I was - and I still think I am. It's just one little moment in a big game can bring you back down to earth a little bit."
While Hynes insists he bears no ill will towards Fittler, the selection snub inflicted psychological scars on him.
"Did I deal with that (missing Origin) to the best of my ability? Probably not," he said.
"It's the first time I've probably been challenged on field in my career.
"I barely lost a game at the (Melbourne) Storm. I came here and rode a high for 18 months there at Cronulla too. Every player gets brought back down to earth at some point, and all greats go through it.
"I'm not a great yet - and I'd love to be a great of this game one day - and they all had to go through it and I'm just lucky that I get to go through it now and learn from it and become a better player."
Hynes knows for starters, to be a great, he needs to deliver for the Sharks in the crunch games, which he plans on doing.
"People talk about the big-game experience and I haven't had to play too many big games," he said after gaining some much-needed confidence from piloting Cronulla to a 26-16 win over top-eight rivals South Sydney last Saturday night.
"They (the critics) don't know whether I can be a big-game player yet. Last year's semi-final didn’t show it because we lost.
"So I'm here to prove the doubters wrong and I think that was a big game on the weekend we provided. I just went to back to simple, basic things.
"We started well, we completed sets, we played the end to end footy we wanted to play and it worked.
"I think I went away from what works for our team in a couple of games previously so it's just so much better when you have a simpler, clearer game plan and you go out and execute it.
"That's the blueprint now for the rest of the season."
