Kalyn Ponga discussion

I have a big concerns about this. Firstly it might have been ok, as long as Sharpe was good to go. Do we know the extent of his injury, I thought this was potentially a career threatening injury, or at least an injury that might rule him out for a big part of next year.

And secondly, there are no decent targets we can get with Pongas money. I really hope there's something in the works behind the scenes because it seems we learnt nothing from letting Pearce walk.
 
Tim said:
I have a big concerns about this. Firstly it might have been ok, as long as Sharpe was good to go. Do we know the extent of his injury, I thought this was potentially a career threatening injury, or at least an injury that might rule him out for a big part of next year.

And secondly, there are no decent targets we can get with Pongas money. I really hope there's something in the works behind the scenes because it seems we learnt nothing from letting Pearce walk.
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I think Sharpe can return to training in December, I heard it the other day on the radio.
 
Tim said:
I have a big concerns about this. Firstly it might have been ok, as long as Sharpe was good to go. Do we know the extent of his injury, I thought this was potentially a career threatening injury, or at least an injury that might rule him out for a big part of next year.

And secondly, there are no decent targets we can get with Pongas money. I really hope there's something in the works behind the scenes because it seems we learnt nothing from letting Pearce walk.
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Hughes can negotiate for 27 from november 🧐, need a stop gap for 26 could do worse than giving dce an offer for 2yrs with the final year being club option
 
krustykraz said:
www.brisbanetimes.com.au

If Ponga wants to leave the Knights, is it time they show him the door?

By the end of this year, Kalyn Ponga will have missed a whopping 46 games in five years. It’s why some at Newcastle are considering letting him go.
www.brisbanetimes.com.au www.brisbanetimes.com.au

This was a good read.

Interesting stat is that Ponga has missed 37% of games in the last 5 seasons. 46 games missed.
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And if he's missing that amount of games, he really needs to be a total matchwinner in the games he does play. Hasn't been the case the last two seasons - he's been poor and uninvolved this year, and we had a better winning record without him last year.
 
I’d happily keep a vintage 2023 Ponga.

The 2024 and 2025 model had a few glitches. Not sure the 2026 iteration will be much better.


As for Sharpe, I think he will be fine. Anecdotally, know of a teenager that lacerated liver and kidney in a motorbike crash. He was back on a bike in 3 months, and came off again and lacerated spleen and kidney. The prognosis was again, 3 months off the bike.

Hopefully next year we have an enforcer prop that can scare away anybody that thinks it’s okay to put a hand on Sharpe.
 
If KP is as close to AOB as they say, maybe now that AOB is going, it might be the factor that convinces KP it's time to go.

He came here with the idea that he wanted to win a premiership here, I haven't heard him run out that line for a fair while now, and with AOB going, new coach, bit of a rebuild on, maybe thats the end of the road for him.

Given the change of coach, and with some cap space freeing up next year, at this stage I'd love to see KP going to free up that extra cap space. Play more like a proper structured NRL team with Sharpe from the 1, recruit a real 7, Dyl from the 6, Crossland from Lock, and Arthur + another from the 9.

See how that plays out.
 
Long Suffering said:
We have imploded.
Hit rock bottom.
We are paying $14m for a dud.
The next decade we will be in purgatory.
AIB is collateral damage for **** poor management and unbelievable recruitment.
Are these guys watching the same competition as the rest of us.
Ponga was going anyway as soon as Brown was announced. He should be insulted to hear the they paid the same for a hack as he was getting paid.
Personally I don’t blame him leaving, the management has lost the plot at the Knights
It’s embarrassing to be a supporter at the moment. Get rid of a few more than AOB.
We need a good does of laxettes through the club management
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Hi Andre!👋
 
Long Suffering said:
We have imploded.
Hit rock bottom.
We are paying $14m for a dud.
The next decade we will be in purgatory.
AIB is collateral damage for **** poor management and unbelievable recruitment.
Are these guys watching the same competition as the rest of us.
Ponga was going anyway as soon as Brown was announced. He should be insulted to hear the they paid the same for a hack as he was getting paid.
Personally I don’t blame him leaving, the management has lost the plot at the Knights
It’s embarrassing to be a supporter at the moment. Get rid of a few more than AOB.
We need a good does of laxettes through the club management
Click to expand...
Not that I think it’s true, but if Kalyn leaving has anything at all to do with him throwing a tanty about how much *someone else* is being paid… jog on mate. That’s like Elon Musk complaining about someone else getting rich off government subsidies. 😂
 
I am definitely pro losing Ponga, he is not the player he was, was definitely overpaid due to his injuries and non-constant game-winning form and had potential to be an immortal but fell quite short of his capability, at his age I feel it is doubtful he will ever reach that peak.

We have a lot of good/great potential fullbacks coming through due to Kalyn having inspired them through their early years, with Sharpe being an incredibly competent, and imo more than worthy replacement for him in his natural position. Kalyn going will hopefully give our younger up-coming players more hope that they will breach the NRL sooner rather than later with him no longer standing above them in pecking order.

Hopefully Votano can also grow and impress further over the near future. It will also give us further money to increase the strength of our team overall, hopefully the cap space is used wisely and we either find a great halfback with the money or enhance other parts of our squad to make enough of a difference.
 
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Long Suffering said:
We have imploded.
Hit rock bottom.
We are paying $14m for a dud.
The next decade we will be in purgatory.
AIB is collateral damage for **** poor management and unbelievable recruitment.
Are these guys watching the same competition as the rest of us.
Ponga was going anyway as soon as Brown was announced. He should be insulted to hear the they paid the same for a hack as he was getting paid.
Personally I don’t blame him leaving, the management has lost the plot at the Knights
It’s embarrassing to be a supporter at the moment. Get rid of a few more than AOB.
We need a good does of laxettes through the club management
Click to expand...
I can’t disagree with so much of this unfortunately.
 
Long Suffering said:
We have imploded.
Hit rock bottom.
We are paying $14m for a dud.
The next decade we will be in purgatory.
AIB is collateral damage for **** poor management and unbelievable recruitment.
Are these guys watching the same competition as the rest of us.
Ponga was going anyway as soon as Brown was announced. He should be insulted to hear the they paid the same for a hack as he was getting paid.
Personally I don’t blame him leaving, the management has lost the plot at the Knights
It’s embarrassing to be a supporter at the moment. Get rid of a few more than AOB.
We need a good does of laxettes through the club management
Click to expand...

Exactly who in club management do you want gone? Gardner I will give you as a freeby.

AOB being collateral damage leads me to think we hired a potential great coach and ruined him with poor recruiting, and somehow poor management? Unless I misunderstand? To that I would say we hired someone who thought they were ready to head coach, quickly learned they were not, and the club dropped the ball extending him.

Not sure what you mean with the "same competition as the rest of us"? You would have to explain further the thinking with this one.

Ponga going or not has been a constant media headline. It's like they can't wait for him to go for some reason. Today I am reading a news story that high up club officials are open to the idea of letting KP go. I mean how much truth there is to all this who knows, but if KP isn't looking to leave, reading all this stuff certainly would make him question himself. If, Ponga decided to leave because we signed DB, good riddance to him. I want him gone today. He should be thinking finally the club is trying to get people around me to help.

Management lost the plot? Signing AOB I can understand, he was touted as the next big thing, extending him I can't forgive. But other than that, I get you don't agree with DB signing, that has to play out and see how it goes, I'm not willing to write it off without giving it a chance. Management have been trying to recruit the right players but they have not been signing. Maybe AOB had something to do with that and the style of dire football we were playing, and the view we are a basket case of a club. Now, AOB news hitting the airwaves, new coach incoming, might be a good fresh start for the club.

Seems most of your post is raging about DB signing, and losing Ponga. Ponga, who should be soo insulted by DB getting paid more than him, the same player that is consistently injured, spends much of the game walking around aimlessly? KP should focus on becoming the players his pay packet is paying him to be. We could get the same performance from a player paid half as much, less even.
 
Defence wins games said:
I can’t disagree with so much of this unfortunately.
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I can.

First, the club hasn't hit "rock bottom" or "imploded" because they're seeking to change things up to get out of mid-table mediocrity.

Secondly, Brown is neither a dud nor getting $14m, it's $13m, and it's not even $13m despite the reports either, because the final two years are club options.

I fail to see how the "next decade will be purgatory" with a salary cap under control, a young and exciting roster and a new coach.

I'm a huge fan of KP, but clearly it's not working for him as much as it's not working for the club. He's been carrying the club for a long time, but can anyone really see him carrying us beyond the bottom of the 8, assuming he stays fit?

A change can be a good thing for all parties concerned. Who knows, a few years down the track, maybe KP comes back for an end-of-career cameo.
 
I really wanted to see how Ponga would go under a different coach that might structure the attack a little more on getting him 1 on 1 with weak defenders etc. Or using him to his strengths. I feel AOB has just let him do what ever he wants and it's confused everyone.
 
Kurriboy said:
Exactly who in club management do you want gone? Gardner I will give you as a freeby.

AOB being collateral damage leads me to think we hired a potential great coach and ruined him with poor recruiting, and somehow poor management? Unless I misunderstand? To that I would say we hired someone who thought they were ready to head coach, quickly learned they were not, and the club dropped the ball extending him.

Not sure what you mean with the "same competition as the rest of us"? You would have to explain further the thinking with this one.

Ponga going or not has been a constant media headline. It's like they can't wait for him to go for some reason. Today I am reading a news story that high up club officials are open to the idea of letting KP go. I mean how much truth there is to all this who knows, but if KP isn't looking to leave, reading all this stuff certainly would make him question himself. If, Ponga decided to leave because we signed DB, good riddance to him. I want him gone today. He should be thinking finally the club is trying to get people around me to help.

Management lost the plot? Signing AOB I can understand, he was touted as the next big thing, extending him I can't forgive. But other than that, I get you don't agree with DB signing, that has to play out and see how it goes, I'm not willing to write it off without giving it a chance. Management have been trying to recruit the right players but they have not been signing. Maybe AOB had something to do with that and the style of dire football we were playing, and the view we are a basket case of a club. Now, AOB news hitting the airwaves, new coach incoming, might be a good fresh start for the club.

Seems most of your post is raging about DB signing, and losing Ponga. Ponga, who should be soo insulted by DB getting paid more than him, the same player that is consistently injured, spends much of the game walking around aimlessly? KP should focus on becoming the players his pay packet is paying him to be. We could get the same performance from a player paid half as much, less even.
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Wow, so we are happy with everything at the Knights atm?
Let’s face the facts, the club is a basket case atm, with the only concession being the inordinate number of injuries.
We are in the process of a clean out and rebuild, with hopefully some of our best juniors, senior players and strategic imported players making us a competitive team again, with maybe a proven coach to get the best out of the team.
Everything else is just noise.
As long term Knights members who have seen this happen so many times over the last 25 years, we, like everyone else here, hope that this time we can at least get some, preferably all the components right to again be in contention for a third premiership.
Let the transition begin(again).
 
Defence wins games said:
Wow, so we are happy with everything at the Knights atm?
Let’s face the facts, the club is a basket case atm, with the only concession being the inordinate number of injuries.
We are in the process of a clean out and rebuild, with hopefully some of our best juniors, senior players and strategic imported players making us a competitive team again, with maybe a proven coach to get the best out of the team.
Everything else is just noise.
As long term Knights members who have seen this happen so many times over the last 25 years, we, like everyone else here, hope that this time we can at least get some, preferably all the components right to again be in contention for a third premiership.
Let the transition begin(again).
Click to expand...

You do understand my post was in response to the notion we are going to be in purgatory for a decade and management needs to all go essentially, and the stuff about Ponga should be getting upset by DB signing pay packet?

We have brought in staff in key positions and they are trying to turn things around. Firing AOB is a great start, getting rid of Ponga could well be another great move for the club.

No, I'm not happy with everything at the Knights at all, there is so much up in the air. But I'm happier than I was before the AOB news, and the KP might be leaving news. Steps in the right direction towards a better club.

But off the back of that news, I'm not going to buy in to the club management need to go, and we are going to be in purgatory for 10 years etc. To me, these are steps in the right direction from management.
 
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