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Cronulla star Nicho Hynes took out a prestigious award at the Dally M ceremony on Wednesday night - but he also copped an embarrassing dig from co-host and Melbourne storm great Cooper Cronk.
The 28-year-old - who turned heads when he arrived with his girlfriend Piper Wallis - took out the Ken Stephen Medal for his community work and was in the thick of the race for the Dally M Medal early in the count.
Two independent judges vote for the best players in every regular-season game and the points they allocate are added up and read out during the ceremony so fans can see which stars are going up and down the leaderboard.
Early in proceedings, Cronk was updating viewers on where the players stood after the completion of round 18.
He was listing the feats that earned different stars points for the judges - reminding the crowd that Dragons star Zac Lomax scored a hat-trick and landed 10 conversions in one game - but changed his tune when he came to Hynes.
'Nicho Hynes fails to poll and remains on 30 points,' Cronk said, prompting a wave of laughter from the audience as the Sharks star smiled and nervously played with the collar of his shirt.
The apparent backhander didn't go unnoticed by footy fans.
'Cronk doesn't even try to hide his hate for Hynes,' one wrote on X.
Hynes turned plenty of heads when he hit the red carpet with girlfriend Piper Wallis
But the Sharks star received some unwelcome attention when remarks from co-host Cooper Cronk (pictured at the Dally Ms with wife Tara Rushton) cracked up the audience when he singled him out during a voting update
'Yep never said that about anyone else! What a Gronk Cronk!' another added.
No worse than Anastasia's diss to SJ last year,' a third said, referring to 2023 host Braith Anasta being called out by fans for giving Warriors great Shaun Johnson the same treatment Hynes received during last year's count.
However, fans who slammed Cronk have jumped the gun.
It's common practice for the Dally M host to update fans on how each of the frontrunners polled during a block of games - even if they failed to attract a single vote from the judges.
Cronk did the same when he revealed that Penrith lock Isaah Yeo didn't win any votes at one point during Wednesday night's telecast.
Hynes' season was interrupted by a serious leg injury that kept him off the field for several weeks, robbing him of any real chance of winning his second best and fairest award.
Hynes - who won the Dally M as footy's best and fairest player in 2022 - came away with the Ken Stephen Medal (pictured) on Wednesday night in recognition of his community work
The medal went to Melbourne star Jahrome Hughes, who held out James Tedesco by one point to claim his greatest individual honour.
Storm No.7 Hughes became the first Kiwi half in 32 years on Wednesday night to claim the NRL's top award, after a thrilling finish to the count.
Leading Tedesco by one point headed into the final round, Hughes and the Sydney Roosters fullback both polled six votes to finish the season one point apart.
He was then met by an impromptu haka, led by Storm teammate Will Warbrick alongside Eliesa Katoa and Joseph Tapine.
Manly halfback Daly Cherry-Evans finished third, with his teammate Tom Trbojevic fourth despite missing large parts of the season.
Roosters second-rower Olivia Kernick won the women's Dally M, taking her first major prize by finishing two points clear of Parramatta fullback Abbi Church and Gold Coast halfback Lauren Brown.
Hughes's maiden top gong comes after what has clearly been the best year of his career to date.
The Storm No.7 stepped up in the absence of Cameron Munster through the middle stage of the season and helped take Melbourne to the grand final.
'I don't really play the game for individual accolades, I play it for team accolades,' Hughes said.
'That was the way I was looking at it coming into it.
'But now I have been lucky enough to win it, I see how special it is. When you see the players who have won it, it's pretty crazy.'
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