Billy
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Brown has done a lot of things I didn't like, as a coach, but credit where it is due, he made a whole pre season all about one 19 year old kid with a handful of firstgrade games behind him, and the 19 year old kid thrived with about 20 million dollars of resources all focused on developing just him.
In short, no player in the history of Rugby League has had so much money and effort spent on him by a club as Ponga has had by the Knights, and certainly not a kid who mostly played under 20s the year before.
You can literally see Ponga learn a new skill one day, try it out in a game the next day, make a few tweaks, and have it perfected by the next game, so he is a brilliant student who justifies all the effort put into him, but it certainly isn't a one way street. The Knights, and Brown in particular, have put everything into developing Ponga.
If the kid goes on to be an immortal some day, his acceptance speech should be all about what Brown did to "hothouse" his talent.
In short, he owes us a few good years before he goes off somewhere else.
In short, no player in the history of Rugby League has had so much money and effort spent on him by a club as Ponga has had by the Knights, and certainly not a kid who mostly played under 20s the year before.
You can literally see Ponga learn a new skill one day, try it out in a game the next day, make a few tweaks, and have it perfected by the next game, so he is a brilliant student who justifies all the effort put into him, but it certainly isn't a one way street. The Knights, and Brown in particular, have put everything into developing Ponga.
If the kid goes on to be an immortal some day, his acceptance speech should be all about what Brown did to "hothouse" his talent.
In short, he owes us a few good years before he goes off somewhere else.