Players don't win the Dally M as much as stories do and Nicho Hynes had a good one in 2022.
After joining from Melbourne — where he'd impressed as a back-up — the halfback was a flashy new player on a flashy new team in Cronulla, who were the flavour of the winter months with their rise under new coach Craig Fitzgibbon.
It's the kind of simple, repeatable narrative that sticks in the mind of voters.
When Cronulla have a strong team performance — just as they did on many occasions as they won 11 of their last 12 matches of the regular season — and given Hynes is in the middle of almost everything they do, well it's easy for him to vacuum up the votes.
In the end, his victory was not a surprise, and it is deserved. Hynes is a fine player and an excellent ambassador for the sport.
His journey from reserve grade battler to NRL stardom, and the brave way he's been open and honest about his battles with mental health, are inspiring.
His victory speech was endearing, touching and a much-needed highlight in what was a poorly executed awards show.
The game should feel good that this kind of player and this kind of man can succeed in this sport.
However, the other side of the coin is coming as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. There's only one thing rugby league loves more than building up somebody new — and that's tearing them right back down again.
And, in a classic case of rugby league myth-making eating it's own tail — the rod was created for Hynes' back even as his medal glinted under the lights at Randwick Racecourse.
Hynes had a fine season, without question, but this was not a situation like Tom Trbojevic last year, nor Johnathan Thurston in 2015, nor Ben Barba in 2012.
You see, Hynes polled more votes than any of those players in their respective virtuoso seasons: He finished with 38, the most of any player in the medal's history.
Hynes winning wasn't a slam-dunk going into Wednesday night. You could make the case for St George Illawarra's Ben Hunt as a one-man-army, or for the Roosters' James Tedesco as the game's best overall player, or for Penrith's Isaah Yeo as its best forward and even the redoubtable Panther Dylan Edwards had a shot if you really wanted to talk yourself into it.
Each man had his own case and each of those cases had merit.
However, instead of getting a tight finish, it was an absolute romp for Hynes. He was five votes clear of Tedesco in second, the same margin Trbojevic had on last year's runner-up Nathan Cleary.
That's the line that will be attached to this Dally M victory for all time: Nicho Hynes polled more votes in a single season than any other player in history.
That's a simple, repeatable narrative that sticks in people's minds and — if you're carrying that kind of history and you're young, hungry and on a good footy side — you're expected to live up to it in the future and, if you don't, the knives will come out.
So, next year Hynes has an even greater task in front of him. The same thing happened to Trbojevic and Thurston and Barba and plenty of other Dally M winners when they were backing up their winning seasons.
Hynes will almost certainly have another fine season next year. He seems too devoted to his craft and, with Fitzgibbon at the helm, the Sharks are too well coached for anything else to happen.
He might even be a little bit better. This was his first season as a full-time starter in the NRL after all. It only stands to reason he becomes a little more capable with more time under his belt.
However, in 2023, we will be used to him as a Shark and used to him being one of the best halfbacks in the game.
Watching a player go from good to great is a story everyone loves, but people tire of seeing great players stay great.
There will be no novelty to him playing well in the new colours, no fresh sensation that compares to watching Cronulla become his team as we all did this season.
The best he can hope for is more of the same and even that will be treated with indifference because we've already seen it all through this season.
Rugby league creates heroes, then it tires of them and starts creating others and, as much as so many people enjoy the rise, even more will come if they think they'll see a fall.
It's a hard truth Latrell Mitchell, Kalyn Ponga and Nathan Cleary have had to learn and one Hynes must now face.
There is now a high bar for Hynes to reach, one he played no role in creating other than playing well for his new club and, if he does so again, it won't be treated as special or new, it will be what we've come to expect.
The discourse machine will ramble on in search of new blood and some other story will capture the imagination of the sport and we'll tell it to each other over and over again, and there will be a new hero that rises up, just like Hynes did this year.
And the second Hynes falls short of the expectations everybody else created, even for a single game, the story that forged his victory will be turned against him because, now, for many years to come — and perhaps for all time — he polled more Dally M votes in a single season than anybody else.
