Kalyn Ponga discussion

Owey said:
How many are Moses clients?
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I could be wrong but I believe Dylan Lucas is the only Moses player we have. I thought there was an article a while ago about the Knights not wanting to deal with Moses because he’d misled them to thinking they were getting Staggs and Luki.

That’s probably out the window now that POS is here.
 
danknights said:
Yeah I mean I wouldn't complain if he did go coz salary cap reasons. These are coming from within his family circle so who bloody knows if it'll eventuate.
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Yeah I many didn’t his Dad just come out a couple of weeks ago basically shutting down all the rumours? Ponga’s only got his immediate family in Newy so a bit hard to believe he’s got family members going around telling people stuff that’s the exact opposite to Andre. The AOB/Green being moved on part in particular is obviously a nice dream but doesn’t seem viable either given what’s coming out of the club.

Time will tell I guess.
 
Seano said:
PS. In that Moses YouTube "documentary", it's suggested that Moses was pushing for Blake Green to get the Eels gig.
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Yeah not even Moses could sell the worst attacking coach in the comp as a good head coach option.

…now watch the Knights give him the head coaching gig hahah
 
I might be wrong on this but isn’t it an agent’s job to push their client for job opportunities? Wouldn’t have thought it was controversial if Moses was trying to get Green a head coaching role.
 
Chaister said:
Yeah I many didn’t his Dad just come out a couple of weeks ago basically shutting down all the rumours? Ponga’s only got his immediate family in Newy so a bit hard to believe he’s got family members going around telling people stuff that’s the exact opposite to Andre. The AOB/Green being moved on part in particular is obviously a nice dream but doesn’t seem viable either given what’s coming out of the club.

Time will tell I guess.
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Girlfriends sister. Pretty close I'd say.
 
There was an article a few weeks ago with quotes from Andre saying there had been interest from England and France Rugby teams. Article speculates the deals were up to $2M.

Ponga strikes me as a bit of a free spirit. Laid back and not too attached to anything in particular.
*this is based on absolutely nothing but “vibes”*

I think his stocks are trending down at the moment. I don’t think we’d come in with an offer similar to what he’s on now even. I’m not convinced too many other clubs would take a punt on him for more than a million.

Unfortunately injuries are perhaps starting to hamper him. For whatever reason, injury, team performance/tactics, form etc, he hasn’t really lived up to the expectations this season.

I think mentally, that could be affecting him and perhaps not that far fetched that a change of scenery is an attractive prospect. $4M (over 2 years) and a chance to play at a World Cup with the All Blacks would be pretty tempting and probably a bit of a now or never moment for him.
He would be 32 at the 2031 World Cup, perhaps a bit late for a code switch.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the club have reached out and ‘supported’ any decision or granted permission to explore the option.

I think I’d be a little disappointed to see him leave, just from the perspective we didn’t utilise him to the full potential. I’ve enjoyed watching him over the last few years. Some frustrating moments and periods, no doubt, but overall one of the best footy players we have seen pull on the red and blue for 20 years and responsible for some of the few highs we have had in that period.

Goodluck to him with whatever he decides.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
There was an article a few weeks ago with quotes from Andre saying there had been interest from England and France Rugby teams. Article speculates the deals were up to $2M.

Ponga strikes me as a bit of a free spirit. Laid back and not too attached to anything in particular.
*this is based on absolutely nothing but “vibes”*

I think his stocks are trending down at the moment. I don’t think we’d come in with an offer similar to what he’s on now even. I’m not convinced too many other clubs would take a punt on him for more than a million.

Unfortunately injuries are perhaps starting to hamper him. For whatever reason, injury, team performance/tactics, form etc, he hasn’t really lived up to the expectations this season.

I think mentally, that could be affecting him and perhaps not that far fetched that a change of scenery is an attractive prospect. $4M (over 2 years) and a chance to play at a World Cup with the All Blacks would be pretty tempting and probably a bit of a now or never moment for him.
He would be 32 at the 2031 World Cup, perhaps a bit late for a code switch.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the club have reached out and ‘supported’ any decision or granted permission to explore the option.

I think I’d be a little disappointed to see him leave, just from the perspective we didn’t utilise him to the full potential. I’ve enjoyed watching him over the last few years. Some frustrating moments and periods, no doubt, but overall one of the best footy players we have seen pull on the red and blue for 20 years and responsible for some of the few highs we have had in that period.

Goodluck to him with whatever he decides.
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Well said
 
I really like to see him have a season with Brown here. He might rekindle his love for the game if Brown goes well and it's not all pressure on him. I also think fans have been unfairly hard on him due to his pay packet which has probably knocked him a bit too.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
There was an article a few weeks ago with quotes from Andre saying there had been interest from England and France Rugby teams. Article speculates the deals were up to $2M.
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In the same article though Andre shut it all down. The only way the talk makes sense is if this new injury has changed things for him and he wants to take the money while he can.

OR the AOB/Green stuff is also true and more recent and he’s cracked the ****s because apparently he has a very high opinion of the current coaching staff (whether we agree that he should or not is besides the point).

I still think it’s likely all BS though. People starting rumours and it being passed through groups like Chinese whispers definitely isn’t a new thing in Newy, especially where the Knights are involved. Usually people who are actually close with the players and have info are more tight lipped because they know they need to be.
 
Tim said:
I really like to see him have a season with Brown here. He might rekindle his love for the game if Brown goes well and it's not all pressure on him. I also think fans have been unfairly hard on him due to his pay packet which has probably knocked him a bit too.
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Agreed, I’ve always thought that we don’t deserve marquee players because of how quick we are to put them down. Let’s face it, he’s playing with sub par ball players who can’t get him in position to be effective. That also happened in origin 1.
 
WRT KP moving on, I can't see how any scenario works for the Knights.

If he goes to another NRL club, there aren't many trade partners there that could offer the club much in return. And that's assuming you get the agreement of all players involved, which isn't a guarantee as NRL trades are not like NBA trades. Maybe the Roosters.

And sure, if we release him to go to union or even another NRL club, we free up a stack of cash to spend, but on who? That ship has pretty much sailed for 2026.
 
Chaister said:
Exactly. He was playing with a spine of Grant, Munster and DCE/Dearden in SOO and still struggling.

Because we’re a generally hopeless club everyone will blame every other person or circumstance than Ponga himself but sometimes it is the player just not performing.
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He was also playing against a very good Blues side, despite the higher quality teammates he played with. Agree that he's not performing generally though, and I'm not a KP apologist. However, his salary aside, every fullback requires good forward pack movement and ballplayers getting them quality early ball. To say that he should be effective just because he's the highest paid player in the game discounts the reality of the fullback position and moreso the ineptitude of the Knights front office in assembling an imbalanced roster.
 
Given some of the roster decisions this year, I think the club internally wrote off 2025 in a sense, and without Sharpe and Ponga for an extended period of time the back end of this season is going to get pretty ugly. To then release Ponga with no viable replacements or marquee players available to sign would be really tough to sell at the market.
 
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