Kalyn Ponga discussion

KP told Billy of his decision before the first game was played so had nothing to do with how Walsh played.

Big bonus for us to keep him with our squad for this period of time, having only Friz involved gives us limited disruption and time to build into the backend of the season.
 
MullosLefttoRight said:
KP told Billy of his decision before the first game was played so had nothing to do with how Walsh played.

Big bonus for us to keep him with our squad for this period of time, having only Friz involved gives us limited disruption and time to build into the backend of the season.
Click to expand...
Speaking of Friz, now he is an origin player again what's our chances of keeping him? Surely someone is happy to pay him some silly coin based on his recent good form.
 
nunnsy said:
Yeah have seen heaps of comments saying ponga was no chance anyway. Walsh had a good debut but not up to pongas level of origin performances.
Click to expand...
It’s so interesting the reaction to Walsh’s performance on Wednesday night. Firstly I’ll be clear - I thought he played pretty well. But two big knocks I’ve heard on KP, are about his poor kick returns, and his poor defence, with his career tackle efficiency of around 60%. I’ve seen him absolutely cop it after Origin games where he’s recorded about 150 running metres, for not keeping up with Teddy on that count, what a great disadvantage he puts us at, etc.

Walsh recorded 81 running metres from 12 carries, and a tackle efficiency of 62.5% on the night (to be clear: I think the tackle efficiency stat is borderline meaningless, and he did his job on the night). He recorded a total of 21 touches in the whole game, which is a pretty low amount of involvement even factoring in the Blues having more possession. He definitely chimed in well in attack, and was safe at the back, but overall I reckon if KP puts in that same level of performance, people would use it as data to support their bagging of him.
 
nunnsy said:
Yeah have seen heaps of comments saying ponga was no chance anyway. Walsh had a good debut but not up to pongas level of origin performances.
Click to expand...
KP is the better player overall for mine. But Walsh did little wrong in his first Origin game. Not a world beating performance, but good enough to beat the Blues. Even if KP was raring to go, I have no doubt that Billy will stick with Walsh for Game 2.
 
As sad as I was to see NSW lose I did think the fact we’ll probably retain ponga and gagai over this period barring injuries will help us try and build toward something.
 
Joshhh said:
Yeah it's nice that he's made the choice now, but he definitely wanted to play. Probably just came to the decision after missing selection in the first game, considering he's barely been on the field and Walsh did a great job.
Click to expand...

Read something implying he sent the message/withdrew after the selection but before the match. So he didn’t know how Walsh would go.
For me, he’s just wanting to get away from all the media noise around it every time the team is announced. Questions will probably still come, especially if he plays well.

Seems a good thing for us. Don’t think he’d find his way into the team this series, but at least we don’t have to worry about him not backing up after origin.

Edit: sorry just saw Mulloslefttoright said same thing
 
Same thing Latrell did last year. When you miss that much footy (and honestly Trell probably cost them a premiership by getting suspended), it’s only natural to feel like you owe your team.
 
jamesgould said:
He's been huge this season since returning to fullback. Our best player by a country mile. Great to see and he's earning his paycheque at the moment.
Click to expand...
I still think he can do the 1% a little better. His defence still isn't where it needs to be but then he shouldn't have to make many tackles every game if the team is gelling well.
 
So exciting to see him get the ball out the back of some well-executed and varied attacking shape too, rather than the “throw it to KP and pray” approach of last season.

Moving Hastings to the left side to have them link up more frequently appears to be working well.
 
He's finally maturing into a proper footballer now. Not just a talented kid that's in and out of games. I really think he took a big step up last year with Pearce gone, he just hadn't been able to stay on the field consistently. After 2021 there were real concerns about him being lazy or not being demanding enough to take ownership of the team. But in 2022 he switched on mentally and decided he wanted to be at the forefront of the game. That's what really sparked the whole is he a half conversation. We've been struggling for over a year to figure out the right balance and where he fits, but it's starting to look like we're getting closer. Just need to try and keep adding quality pieces around him.
 
Kalyn is by far our best player. It is great to see him consistently playing well.

As Joshhh said we just need to build a team around him.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top