Nicho Hynes' kicking nightmare explained as founder of 'sticky' product issues timely warning

The founder of the company that manufactures a 'grip spray' used by athletes around the world has told Yahoo Sport Australia that less is more if NRL players want to avoid coming unstuck. Several players this year - including Nicho Hynes - have come undone after using too much adhesive spray on their hands, resulting in a turnover of possession as the ball takes that extra split second to separate from the carrier's grasp.

Cronulla star Hynes is the latest player to pay the price for sticky fingers, partially blaming his shanked penalty kick for touch against Melbourne last week on a poor ball drop caused by an overload of the grip spray. "That’s the one thing that I look back on and think that’s where I made an error,” Hynes said.

"It (the ball) held on to me (due to the sticky spray), then it fell and I just kicked it. I need to be better there. I need to hold the ball better and take my time. It's my job to kick the ball out."

Manly superstar Tom Trbojevic knows how Hynes feels, knocking on at the play-the-ball in a recent game after the ball momentarily stuck to his hand as he went to plant it. "The old superglue on the hands has brought Turbo undone," Fox League commentator Warren Smith said during the call.

"This is one of the sticky spray drops. Trbojevic puts the ball down and the ball sticks to his hand for a fraction of a second. Players using spray on their hands…(it) gets another victim."

Do NRL players truly need grip spray?

The incident led to Phil Gould asking Billy Slater: "Do you really need the spray on your hands, Billy? It’s got to be a mental thing, surely?" Slater replied: "I always found that if you have too much spray on your hands it affects your passing so I didn’t use a hell of a lot of it. But it's quite common (for players to use it)."

New Zealand-based company GripTec supplies its product to the All Blacks as well as most professional rugby clubs in the country and several NRL clubs. Even superstar Indian cricketer Virat Kohli uses the company's GripTec cream to help his batting grip, swearing by its benefits.

It's led to massive sales in cricket-mad India. Company founder Steve Morpeth told Yahoo Sport Australia: "Our spray is designed to be used sparingly for optimal grip and control for catching and releasing the ball.

"In rugby league, we often see players using significant amounts of the spray to minimise any chance of dropping the ball. Whilst this will give the player great confidence and ball security during hit ups and rucks, it may mean the ball takes that milli-second longer to release from the hands when going for a kick or pass. It sounds like this has been the case for Nicho Hynes."

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Hynes will be out to bury some personal demons when the Sharks take on North Queensland in Friday night's elimination semi-final at Allianz Stadium.