Kalyn Ponga discussion

IDK as I suggest in my post, but it's hardly a new problem at the Knights.

I like what POS has done with the limited resources and options he's got for 2026, which he's built a fair bit of flexibility into for 2027 and beyond. Plenty for AOB or the next coach to work with/develop.

Also, getting some help from the back 5 would make a huge difference, as it did with the Young/Marz one-two punch out of defence in 2023. But they'll need to clean up the errors and get better at defusing kicks.
 
EASBay17 said:
Whos gunna manufacture something and change the momentum when our middles are getting slaughtered. We will be very dangerous if we are generating ruck speed and playing on the front foot but sharpe brown and ponga are all downhill skiers.
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Look at the middles the Fins have had to run with since most of their starters have been ruled out for the season. Hasn’t stopped them from piling on points

They play to their strengths particularly their speed in the outside backs. They don’t try play through the middle and out grind teams
 
Newygirl said:
Look at the middles the Fins have had to run with since most of their starters have been ruled out for the season. Hasn’t stopped them from piling on points

They play to their strengths particularly their speed in the outside backs. They don’t try play through the middle and out grind teams
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Was thinking the same watching Phins the other night
 
Newygirl said:
Look at the middles the Fins have had to run with since most of their starters have been ruled out for the season. Hasn’t stopped them from piling on points

They play to their strengths particularly their speed in the outside backs. They don’t try play through the middle and out grind teams
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Yep and when they run into a side like the Raiders who have an elite, dynamic pack I think that will catch up with them.

But for the rest of the year, there just aren’t a lot of teams running around that actually can punish you with a power game through the middle right now. And besides the Raiders most of the teams with big strong forwards are very vulnerable to expansive play with a lot of ball movement.

All year I’ve been prepared to give the Knights a pass if they play their game but certain teams are too much for us. That’s footy. Sometimes the other team is too good. What’s inexcusable is if the team comes into a game where there is a viable path to victory and they take a different path instead. The losses to the Raiders, Storm and Warriors in the last few weeks, they came in with the right approach, the effort was great, they just couldn’t get it done. I walked away okay with those games… but very very frustrated with the season context in which they occurred, in which totally winnable fixtures were idiotically tossed away.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Yep and when they run into a side like the Raiders who have an elite, dynamic pack I think that will catch up with them.

But for the rest of the year, there just aren’t a lot of teams running around that actually can punish you with a power game through the middle right now. And besides the Raiders most of the teams with big strong forwards are very vulnerable to expansive play with a lot of ball movement.

All year I’ve been prepared to give the Knights a pass if they play their game but certain teams are too much for us. That’s footy. Sometimes the other team is too good. What’s inexcusable is if the team comes into a game where there is a viable path to victory and they take a different path instead. The losses to the Raiders, Storm and Warriors in the last few weeks, they came in with the right approach, the effort was great, they just couldn’t get it done. I walked away okay with those games… but very very frustrated with the season context in which they occurred, in which totally winnable fixtures were idiotically tossed away.
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Agree, also the Raiders haven’t been a real threat like they are now since they added some speed and power backs to their side. Now they’ve got Weekes and Savage etc who can punish teams as well and rack up scores, they couldn’t do that before. They’ve put together a very balanced team.

Yep losing games simply because you refuse to play one half of the game is inexcusable. What bothers me is that it still hasn’t seemed to click that it was his conservative style that was actually causing a lot of the problems, not solving the error issues like he thought they were.

Anyway, the two losses to the Titans were it for me. Nobody should survive that.

Shame because he’s clearly done some good things but he refusal to change on the attack is just inexplicable to me. I also have no confidence that the start of next year wouldn’t be the same.

PS The Fins with all their middles back next and hopefully Flegler could be a very good team.
 
Yeah I think he's a micromanager and it's a weird criticism but he works too hard. He's clearly a bit of an anxious personality too and I think that filters down.

If there's a world where we can keep the grit/resilience in defence and some other good stuff he brings, but also play with freedom and fluency in attack more often, I'm happy to keep him. It's just a pretty long track record now which says that under him we actually can't have both.
 
Yeah but if he hasn’t learned to let go a bit and put his trust in others by now, not sure he ever will.

In my experience, micromanagement always stems from that persons own lack of confidence and inadequacies. Clearly he fears the uncontrollable, hence the game plan.

Yeah he clearly works very hard but needing a that level of control and micromanaging everyone is going to result in some serious burnout sooner or later.
 
If KP stays then all good, but I think the captaincy should be taken away from him and he should be told focus on your football without the added pressure of captaincy.

I have never seen a leader in him, great player but not a great leader. Give Dane the captaincy or Lucas if Dane goes.

If KP decides to leave then happy days, we free up 1.4/1.5 million.
 
JOJO82 said:
If KP stays then all good, but I think the captaincy should be taken away from him and he should be told focus on your football without the added pressure of captaincy.

I have never seen a leader in him, great player but not a great leader. Give Dane the captaincy or Lucas if Dane goes.

If KP decides to leave then happy days, we free up 1.4/1.5 million.
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What does Ponga have to do so supporters believe him that he will at least see this contract out?
Everyone just seems to be flogging a dead horse with this.
Let’s move on and don’t give the idiots at Fox and others click bait.
 
If he remains captain, I think he should be co-captain with gags next season.

Gags deserves the recognition as club captain after his service to the club.

I'd also entertain going with Lucas as joint captain with KP next season to give him some exposure to the leadership side of things. Glimpse of his future.
 
mudmarn said:
Ponga is not the person we need to captain this club.
I honestly think that it must of been part of his contract that he got the job. Big Phil was involved with his contract so it wouldn't suprise if he put it in there.
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Probably wasn't in his contract but its 100% got to do with placating Kalyn emotionally in that he probably expected to be captain. The club has spent the last 6 years operating as if he was bigger than the club in the hope that this was how to generate success.
 
Les Misérables said:
Probably wasn't in his contract but its 100% got to do with placating Kalyn emotionally in that he probably expected to be captain. The club has spent the last 6 years operating as if he was bigger than the club in the hope that this was how to generate success.
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We’ve basically treated him like an MVP candidate basketball player, but in basketball one guy can carry a team so much more. You can’t stop Luka Doncic just bringing the ball up and navigating around defenders to get to his spots. The greatest defensive minds in the sport have never been able to do more than slow him down and he can turn average to poor teammates into useful players.

Footy is the complete opposite, the performance of every player on the field is linked to those around him in a way which is probably closer to soccer. Certain great individual players will win you certain moments, but everyone no matter how good needs to be put into position to succeed at their role, rather than one great player putting others in position. Which means no one can be bigger than the team.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
We’ve basically treated him like an MVP candidate basketball player, but in basketball one guy can carry a team so much more. You can’t stop Luka Doncic just bringing the ball up and navigating around defenders to get to his spots. The greatest defensive minds in the sport have never been able to do more than slow him down and he can turn average to poor teammates into useful players.

Footy is the complete opposite, the performance of every player on the field is linked to those around him in a way which is probably closer to soccer. Certain great individual players will win you certain moments, but everyone no matter how good needs to be put into position to succeed at their role, rather than one great player putting others in position. Which means no one can be bigger than the team.
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I agree but haven't you also posted the sentiment that great players don't need a team around them to be good? Citing Teddy etc. Might have been others saying that, correct me if I am wrong please.

Plenty not to like about how KP injects himself in games, how he plays some strange hybrid fullback/half role etc. is that the coach or player pushing that, or not setting boundaries on how he plays for the team.

People say let's see what AOB can do with Brown here next year, but we've already seen what he can do with Ponga. I'd like to see how Ponga changes his playing style under a new coach.

Most agree that Ponga isn't earning his high salary cap percentage. My opinion is either get a new coach, or get rid of Ponga or both.
 
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