Kalyn Ponga is returning to the place where it all began as Newcastle battles to salvage their season.
The hero of Queensland Origin has established himself as one of rugby league’s top players with the Knights, but he came of age in North Queensland, so when the Novocastrians visit Townsville on Saturday night, he’ll be returning full circle.
Ponga has faced his old team numerous times in the past, but the stakes have never been higher because this is a sudden-death semifinal.
Ponga was a 15-year-old multi-sport wonder who was a league, union, touch football, golf, and Aussie Rules star when he signed with the Cowboys in 2013. He was already somewhat of a celebrity.
What started off as curiosity soon became into
Similar to the classic Shaun Johnson touch football clips, the idea remains captivating. Young men with such movement seem to have no boundaries outside our imaginations, and after witnessing Ponga, it was simple to envision a lot.
As a result, his 2015 Under 20s competition debut was as much awaited as some players’ NRL debuts. Ironically, current Cowboys NRL coach Todd Payten gave him his first start of the season towards the end of the season.
Even in his debut game, a 78-12 rout of Canberra, which put the Cowboys on track for a top four place, Ponga was making his way into a hot team. However, at the age of just 17, he made an impression.
In his
Aaron Payne, Ponga’s coach at the Cowboys from 2016 to 2017, said, “It’s kids like him that make coaching easier; when they’re so talented, there’s not too much coaching going on – sometimes you can over-coach them.”
He is one of those guys that is quite naturally brilliant; at that age, all you need to do is give them confidence and push them to pursue their passions.
“If there are things they need to work on, you can show them, but he was one who you enjoyed coaching because he had so many quality attributes.”
Ponga started to blossom throughout the course of the next two seasons. Both seasons, he was named to the squad of the year, and speculation that he was a young player destined for greatness only intensified.
There was just one Under 20s match aired each week, therefore it was difficult to see. It implied that a player could adopt a larger-than-life character, similar to Ponga.
On Mondays, there were occasionally numbers released that were almost too good to be true. One such instance was the 2015 matchup with the Warriors, in which Ponga raced for 327 meters, broke 20 tackles and scored five line breaks.
Everything is there if you can locate the old video: the agility, footwork, passing style, and the capacity to move past opponents as if they aren’t there.
Ponga had the impression from an early age that he was destined for greatness, as if he were one of the chosen few who could achieve actual greatness.
“Without being disrespectful to other players I’ve coached, and this was very early on in my coaching career, but he was one of the first players I’d come across who I considered to have all the attributes,” stated Payne.
“When I say that, I mean that he was tough—he wouldn’t back down from a challenge and was a terrific passer in addition to being powerful on defence and offensive.
“He had football smarts about him, he had the right attitude, he wanted to get better and he was coachable, so you knew he was going to be pretty special.”
It became evident after some time that Ponga was headed for stardom and that everyone was aware of this.
He was always the standout, even on teams that had players like Murray Taulagi, Jake Clifford, Corey Horsburgh, Viliame Kikau, Brandon Smith, and Coen Hess.
“Everyone nicknames my assistant coach Steve Sheppard, Pup, and he’s a really humorous guy. He was in charge of counting heads before we left for practice or a game.
“Someone would ask ‘is everyone here’, and Pup would say, ‘KP, are you here?'”
“KP would yell out ‘yup’, and Pup would go, ‘Righto, that’s all we need, we’re good to go.'”
Ponga made his NRL debut in a sudden-death semifinal against the Broncos in 2016, and the excitement only grew when he signed a lucrative four-year contract with the Knights later that year. Ponga’s first play was a frantic, thrilling line break.
