Official: Knights sign Kalyn Ponga on a 4 year deal

danknights said:
I find it funny that we have a truckload of skilled fullbacks coming through the ranks and then we sign ponga on a ridiculous amount of money. Cya guys. I hope meaney really digs his heels and and makes ponga work hard. I really hate guys that get gifted things and don't perform.
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And you go for Knights, unlucky haha. This is the club that players go to for a pay heck without performing :lol:
 
Tubby said:
It's nothing unusual really, the Roosters payed ridiculous money for Boyd Cordner before he had played a game, the Bulldogs the same with Sonny Bill, the Sharks the same with Jack Bird. The only difference with Ponga is that his salary his higher due to inflation. It may not work out, but there are many people who have been watching him for years saying he will be a mighty player
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Few years ago the sharks signed karl filiga a guy dubbed the next sonny bill and he was getting paid 600K ended up playing 11minutes and never was seen again, so the risk is there but i think ponga will be a better signing then that his shown how good he can be its about putting the right people around him i worry we won't have the quality in the backs to take the pressure off him.
 
sau said:
Few years ago the sharks signed karl filiga a guy dubbed the next sonny bill and he was getting paid 600K ended up playing 11minutes and never was seen again, so the risk is there but i think ponga will be a better signing then that his shown how good he can be its about putting the right people around him i worry we won't have the quality in the backs to take the pressure off him.
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It's disturbing how often this happens, whoever a player is promised to be the next big they very very rarely are. Jarrod Mullen, Luke brooks, Danny drinkwater, Karl filiga to name a few...
 
ryan.berger.56 said:
It's disturbing how often this happens, whoever a player is promised to be the next big they very very rarely are. Jarrod Mullen, Luke brooks, Danny drinkwater, Karl filiga to name a few...
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I don't think it's that unusual. To make the NRL, you generally have to be the best of the best in lower grades, so everyone is supposed to be a future star. So naturally when they all come together in an open league the talent levels out & only some will rise beyond the rest. Guys don't really make the NRL because they are expected to be the next average player.
 
People get massively unrealistic expectations of gun juniors.
You still have to triple your training and improve a hell of a lot between under 20s and firstgrade, and a lot of guys have reached their potential at under 20s level.

On the other hand, the Saifiti's, Phythian and even Meaney (who played park football for Ballina till age 18), were nothing at junior level, but thrived with extra training.

In a lot of ways, the best indication is how players go when they start training 60 hours a week in the senior squad.

We went through a period of buying gun juniors like Beau Henry, Kyle O'Donnell, the Likiliki brothers, Con Mika etc, and they were all duds when asked to train and play against seniors - and it wouldn't surprize me if their original clubs knew very well that they wouldn't be up to the extra workload and didn't fight too hard to keep them.
 
slotmachine said:
Clydesdale, Mamo, basically any junior we've had in the last 10 years
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Never dubbed the next big thing outside of the Knights though. Think those ones are Billy's calls. Remember him talking up Clydesdale as if he were going to be better than Buderus.
 
cowboyman said:
Never dubbed the next big thing outside of the Knights though. Think those ones are Billy's calls. Remember him talking up Clydesdale as if he were going to be better than Buderus.
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Get off this forum you unspeakable piece of ****.
Moderators.
This guy goes or I go - your choice.
 
Billy said:
People get massively unrealistic expectations of gun juniors.
You still have to triple your training and improve a hell of a lot between under 20s and firstgrade, and a lot of guys have reached their potential at under 20s level.

On the other hand, the Saifiti's, Phythian and even Meaney (who played park football for Ballina till age 18), were nothing at junior level, but thrived with extra training.

In a lot of ways, the best indication is how players go when they start training 60 hours a week in the senior squad.

We went through a period of buying gun juniors like Beau Henry, Kyle O'Donnell, the Likiliki brothers, Con Mika etc, and they were all duds when asked to train and play against seniors - and it wouldn't surprize me if their original clubs knew very well that they wouldn't be up to the extra workload and didn't fight too hard to keep them.
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or perhaps the maturity and will to succeed.

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Aidos said:
To be fair, Clydsdale did have a bit of hype around him in the juniors.
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The next Cam Smith
 
cowboyman said:
Never dubbed the next big thing outside of the Knights though. Think those ones are Billy's calls. Remember him talking up Clydesdale as if he were going to be better than Buderus.
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Player of the year in a Grand final winning SG Ball side. Yeah, I bet he had no one looking at him outside the club...
 
And Mamo was in all the rep sides at u20s level, as well as NYC team of the Year. Those 2 particular players were definitely justified in having big hopes by the fans. But as I said, every single player that comes through at the ages of 18-20 are gonna have big wraps on them, stop taking the high horse, some will develop, some won't.

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Billy said:
Get off this forum you unspeakable piece of ****.
Moderators.
This guy goes or I go - your choice.
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You said you had put some people on ignore, just put Cowboyman on ignore if you don't want to read his posts. It'd be a real shame for you to quit the forum just because of 1 person.
 
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