Australian FB for end of year tests?

Who should be FB for Australia for the end of year tests?

  • James Tedesco

    Votes: 5 20.8%

  • Kalyn Ponga

    Votes: 13 54.2%

  • Dylan Edwards

    Votes: 6 25.0%
  • Total voters
    24
I can see why people are upset and I don’t think the Knights and Ponga have handled it well. They have seemingly been truthful, however perhaps they should have gone with “niggling injury”.

With his history of injury and concussion, he should be allowed to make decisions that benefit his health and longevity in the game.

I’d love to see him play for Australia. I think he deserves it and it’d be so good to see him carving up.

As an Australia supporter, I don’t want him pulling on a jersey if he’s not committed to the cause. Give it to somebody that will cherish it. Can’t force these guys to play, and I think it’s a little childish to suspend him for making himself unavailable
 
I can’t believe the club made a public statement. Dumb. Sure if he or anyone else made the decision not to play fine, but just should have been smarter about dealing with it. Surely they must have know the rules!? I love to know what happened. If you listen to the interview on SEN he seemed adamant he was available. Did he just lie, or someone/s got in his ear? I think the latter is the case.
 
frankLauda said:
I can’t believe the club made a public statement. Dumb. Sure if he or anyone else made the decision not to play fine, but just should have been smarter about dealing with it. Surely they must have know the rules!? I love to know what happened. If you listen to the interview on SEN he seemed adamant he was available. Did he just lie, or someone/s got in his ear? I think the latter is the case.
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That's what I don't get, one day earlier in that interview he was saying the body was great and he was looking forward to getting a chance in the Australian jersey.

Anyway, the club putting out the statement without talking to anybody, it comes down to Gardner again, as a CEO he should know the proper protocols for this situation.
 
I’ve thought a bit about it and I also came to the conclusion that someone at the club must have told him to give it a miss and prioritise the Knights. Given what he’s said in those interviews about playing, what else could it be?
 
MBQLD said:
I’ve thought a bit about it and I also came to the conclusion that someone at the club must have told him to give it a miss and prioritise the Knights. Given what he’s said in those interviews about playing, what else could it be?
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Hey guys, first post here - long time lurker!

Just wanted to comment on this:

I wouldn’t pay any attention to his comments in the interviews. It’s not like he’s going to announce he doesn’t want to play over an interview so naturally he’s going to just give the most basic standard answers in interviews.

There’s no way anyone within the club would tell him not to play. If it came out that a club was telling players not to play rep footy you’d never sign anyone.

This forums been great reading and has saved my mental health over some very disappointing years. Looking forward to joining the discussions!
 
Chaister said:
Hey guys, first post here - long time lurker!

Just wanted to comment on this:

I wouldn’t pay any attention to his comments in the interviews. It’s not like he’s going to announce he doesn’t want to play over an interview so naturally he’s going to just give the most basic standard answers in interviews.

There’s no way anyone within the club would tell him not to play. If it came out that a club was telling players not to play rep footy you’d never sign anyone.

This forums been great reading and has saved my mental health over some very disappointing years. Looking forward to joining the discussions!
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Welcome mate. Thats a good point aswell.
Theres abit of hypocrisy around the whole situation, ie safitis for fiji last season i think? I also missed the same outrage when he withdrew from qld selection last year.
After all this i hope he comes out and says he wants to play for the kiwis in the next cycle.
 
Listening and reading about the situation, it could have easily have been dealt with better.
I can see the points of the arguments from both sides.
I honestly think the issue hear is Andre.
I have no evidence, just a hunch.
 
Since Ponga came back from America where he got his concussion issues addressed, paid for by the club, he has seemed very aware that the club has put a lot of time, money, and effort into him as a player.
I was always sceptical that we would ever get our monies worth out of him, but fair play to him, he's done his very best for the last 2 seasons to re-pay us for paying him millions since he was a rookie and running whole pre-seasons around a kid with a handful of NRL games.
Joey says he's now our best buy, going past Ben Kennedy - fair.
He knows he owes us something special for the 10 odd Mill and god like status we have given him.
I have a lot more respect for him now that it's clear he knows he got a lot from the team and the town, and he wants to do his best to reciprocate.
 
Billy said:
Since Ponga came back from America where he got his concussion issues addressed, paid for by the club, he has seemed very aware that the club has put a lot of time, money, and effort into him as a player.
I was always sceptical that we would ever get our monies worth out of him, but fair play to him, he's done his very best for the last 2 seasons to re-pay us for paying him millions since he was a rookie and running whole pre-seasons around a kid with a handful of NRL games.
Joey says he's now our best buy, going past Ben Kennedy - fair.
He knows he owes us something special for the 10 odd Mill and god like status we have given him.
I have a lot more respect for him now that it's clear he knows he got a lot from the team and the town, and he wants to do his best to reciprocate.
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Well said
 
Chaister said:
Hey guys, first post here - long time lurker!

Just wanted to comment on this:

I wouldn’t pay any attention to his comments in the interviews. It’s not like he’s going to announce he doesn’t want to play over an interview so naturally he’s going to just give the most basic standard answers in interviews.

There’s no way anyone within the club would tell him not to play. If it came out that a club was telling players not to play rep footy you’d never sign anyone.

This forums been great reading and has saved my mental health over some very disappointing years. Looking forward to joining the discussions!
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Newcastle is run by egoic lunatics and vipers. You wouldn’t assume they’d do everything like they should just based on who is there.

I love the club but the fishes head is seriously green around the gills.

There was an interesting segment on Freddy and the eighth where they were talking about it and Andrew Johns pretty much spelled out that he thinks someone within the club has seriously screwed up. Not blaming Kalyn himself as the announcement was made by the club but they’ve left him to hang out to dry. He doesn’t think the clubs run very well at all and though I often don’t agree with some of the things he says, I’m sure if anyone knows what happens behind the scenes he’d have more of an idea than most of us and it doesn’t seem to be very high. He was actually really dirty on them and couldn’t believe they’d do that.

I thought it was interesting anyway
 
Ponga is a unique situation in that he was almost forced into retirement last season very early into his career. Playing extra football on top of that is only a risk that isn't necessary. Even if that's not the reason he didn't want to play in the upcoming tests, surely most could see this as a huge factor. And yet, they want him to defend in the middle, when they torched us (fair) for playing him at 5/8 and putting him at risk for repeated HIA.
 
MBQLD said:
Newcastle is run by egoic lunatics and vipers. You wouldn’t assume they’d do everything like they should just based on who is there.

I love the club but the fishes head is seriously green around the gills.

There was an interesting segment on Freddy and the eighth where they were talking about it and Andrew Johns pretty much spelled out that he thinks someone within the club has seriously screwed up. Not blaming Kalyn himself as the announcement was made by the club but they’ve left him to hang out to dry. He doesn’t think the clubs run very well at all and though I often don’t agree with some of the things he says, I’m sure if anyone knows what happens behind the scenes he’d have more of an idea than most of us and it doesn’t seem to be very high. He was actually really dirty on them and couldn’t believe they’d do that.

I thought it was interesting anyway
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Interesting, maybe I was on the money blaming Gardner. Will have to check out Freddie and the Eighth tomorrow.
 
MBQLD said:
Newcastle is run by egoic lunatics and vipers. You wouldn’t assume they’d do everything like they should just based on who is there.

I love the club but the fishes head is seriously green around the gills.

There was an interesting segment on Freddy and the eighth where they were talking about it and Andrew Johns pretty much spelled out that he thinks someone within the club has seriously screwed up. Not blaming Kalyn himself as the announcement was made by the club but they’ve left him to hang out to dry. He doesn’t think the clubs run very well at all and though I often don’t agree with some of the things he says, I’m sure if anyone knows what happens behind the scenes he’d have more of an idea than most of us and it doesn’t seem to be very high. He was actually really dirty on them and couldn’t believe they’d do that.

I thought it was interesting anyway
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The last comment he made was “its absolute amateur hour, you put your star player out to dry, it ridiculous”.
 
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MBQLD said:
Newcastle is run by egoic lunatics and vipers. You wouldn’t assume they’d do everything like they should just based on who is there.

I love the club but the fishes head is seriously green around the gills.

There was an interesting segment on Freddy and the eighth where they were talking about it and Andrew Johns pretty much spelled out that he thinks someone within the club has seriously screwed up. Not blaming Kalyn himself as the announcement was made by the club but they’ve left him to hang out to dry. He doesn’t think the clubs run very well at all and though I often don’t agree with some of the things he says, I’m sure if anyone knows what happens behind the scenes he’d have more of an idea than most of us and it doesn’t seem to be very high. He was actually really dirty on them and couldn’t believe they’d do that.

I thought it was interesting anyway
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Oh I’m definitely not disagreeing with your point that the Knights made a mistake here. To me it seems that neither Andre Ponga or whoever was responsible for the content of the press release at Knights has read through Kalyn’s contract property. Pretty amateur all round.

The part I’m referring to is I wouldn’t assume he’s been told by someone at the club to stand down because of his interview comments. It’s not like he’s going to be asked a question and say “oh now that you mention it I’m not going to play, I’m going to rule myself out thanks”.
 
Very surprised that the Knights have got caught up in this. Parr is a seasoned operator, you think he would play all this by the book.
 
I personally don't believe the Knights told him not to play. I think they were as surprised as anybody about it but handled it poorly. I believe KP doesn't value playing further in to the off season and risking injury, I also believe he isn't keen to represent Australia against his family's heritage and KP is a close family man. Thirdly I think he values his time away from RL and just wants a full odff season to recover and get ready for next year.

The Knights had a choice to lie and say he is injured, or put out the truth. If they lie, can the ARL ask for a medical or evidence? They chose to put out the truth and we are where we are now.

I wonder what happens now if Mal just names him anyway?

Also, it was talked about that KP can't rep for NZ in RL now as he represented Australia at a nines torunament early on and that makes him ineligible.
 
Kurriboy said:
I personally don't believe the Knights told him not to play. I think they were as surprised as anybody about it but handled it poorly. I believe KP doesn't value playing further in to the off season and risking injury, I also believe he isn't keen to represent Australia against his family's heritage and KP is a close family man. Thirdly I think he values his time away from RL and just wants a full odff season to recover and get ready for next year.

The Knights had a choice to lie and say he is injured, or put out the truth. If they lie, can the ARL ask for a medical or evidence? They chose to put out the truth and we are where we are now.

I wonder what happens now if Mal just names him anyway?

Also, it was talked about that KP can't rep for NZ in RL now as he represented Australia at a nines torunament early on and that makes him ineligible.
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They can't lie, he would have been picked and the Australian team doctor has final say on if he is fit to play or not.
 
I thought Joeys spray was out of line. I imagine Andre and KP probably just told the Knights to handle it and that’s what they did. Also Mal would’ve called either Peter Parr or Danny Buderus to tell them about KP, so interesting if Joey was inadvertently launching into his best mate yesterday.
 
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