Kalyn Ponga isn’t worth $1.5 million a season. Not even close.
He’s a freakish talent who has interest from just about every rugby league club in the world, while the coaches of both the Wallabies and All Blacks have spoken – directly and indirectly – of their desire to see him in their respective sides.
“AFL are interested in him too and probably car racing, too,” Nathan Brown joked this week.
“I think he’s got a lot more to achieve in the game and when he’s done he might take up cricket.”
Add to the fact Ponga’s a good-looking young fella – straddling the divide between Gens Y and Z, in fact, so he’s marketable to a wide audience – with the right attitude and a laid-back approach to life and sport, and you’ve got the complete package.
So $1.5 million a year is basically insulting. The boom fullback should be on way more money.
(See what I did there? “By now, you may have guessed I’m speaking ironically and have nothing but good things to say about what you do.”)
But the NRL is the NRL, so there are limitations in place.
I’m an advocate for the salary cap. It does a pretty good job of evening out talent and ensuring a select few clubs don’t dominate the competition decade after decade.
Granted, the Roosters and Storm are crushing it at the moment, but since 1993, there have been 14 different grand final winners.
I chose that year as it coincided with the first champions of the Premier League being crowned – and in the corresponding time, there have been just six clubs with their ribbons attached to that particular trophy.
Not for nothing either, but while Chelsea and Manchester City have won the Prem multiple times, their periods of success came after significant injections of funds compliments of billionaires buying them.
What’s more, the reason Leicester City’s victory is the sporting story of the decade is because of how ridiculously improbable it was.
The NRL salary cap, imperfect though it is, works by spreading talent and therefore giving fans hope that their team – no matter how badly they perform – could be just a few short years away from the ultimate glory.
If you want evidence, look no further than Newcastle.
Three wooden spoons in a row were tough, but with a bit of smart recruitment, barely 18 months after that historic lean patch the club was humming along as one of the form sides in the competition. People in the Hunter were daring to dream of what was possible this October.
And leading the charge from distant hope to genuine belief was Ponga.
(AAP Image/Brendon Thorne)
The smartest piece of recruitment of all, KP was signed for a rumoured sum of $600,000 a season. Initially it was seen as a huge gamble – that’s a lot of coin for a teenager who’d played two first-grade games – but with Ponga having established himself as a rep player, it’s actually been a total bargain.
And apparently Ponga’s management now want a bit of back-end appreciation, hence the $1.5 million-a-season price tag.
Ultimately, if you add $600K for two seasons, he’s averaging $1.2 million a year over six years. That’s the kind of pay packet Daly Cherry-Evans and Ben Hunt are rumoured to be on, so it’s not unheard of.
But, freakish though he is, he wasn’t worth that kind of money when he arrived at Turton Road – in fact, the only reason he came was because the struggling Knights blew every other offer out of the water.
An upgraded deal was certainly on the cards – I argued almost a year ago to the day that he should have been bumped up to the two-comma club from this season on – but $1.5 million is, well, it’s a spicy meatball, isn’t it?
The way I see it, it’s one of three potential moves.
The first – and let’s get the worst one out of the way – is to lay down a ridiculous sum that Knights CEO Phil Gardner and Co. will knock back, giving Ponga’s management the ability to say, “Well, they wouldn’t come to the table, that’s why KP’s going to the Roosters.”
(As per usual, no inside baseball here – just that Nick Politis always seem to find cap space for another million-dollar star.)
I’d say that’s not the case though, as Ponga’s signed for another two years after this and the Knights aren’t going to let him go early.
The second is that they’re playing the oldest tactic in the negotiating book: start high. You can’t ask for 800K a season then kick stones when you don’t get a million bucks – you’ve got to ask for too much, have a bit of back and forth, then end up on a mutually agreeable sum.
That’s probably what’s happening here. Probably.
However, the third move is almost as likely.
Ponga’s rep, Wayde Rushton, realises he’s got a once-in-a-generation talent on his books – which, for the record, he definitely does, with Ponga front and centre on the Rush Sports homepage – and therefore wants to rewrite salary cap history.
Ceteris paribus, Ponga will be the face of the Knights – possibly the game – for the next decade. He may not have represented his country or won a grand final yet, but ability-wise he’s up there with DCE and is far more marketable than the Manly half.
Rushton is asking $1.5 million because that’s what Ponga is worth to the club.
Importantly, if option three is in play, it recreates what is expected for your marquee man – Ponga won’t be the only player banking that kind of coin for long, and thus the Knights won’t be the only club dealing with the problem of having to balance their books with one bloke taking up more than 15 per cent of total cap space.
Is it going to create salary cap headaches down the line? You bet. Is it a problem the Knights can afford to deal with? Perhaps the more pertinent question is whether the club can afford to let him go.
Because if $1.5 million is what Ponga genuinely wants, he’ll get it somewhere. And Newcastle will have significantly fewer fans in the Andrew Johns Stand if Kalyn Ponga is snapping ankles wearing another club’s jersey.
Papi Smurf
Roar Rookie
Better, stronger, faster: Kalyn Ponga is the Six Million Dollar Man... so Ponga is playing on one good leg with one eye and one arm? No wonder the Knights are in trouble.
planko
Roar Guru
Bottom line when he started at the Knights 2 Million for 4 seasons was overs. He had played half dozen cameo role games. Now after 2 seasons yes 500k is Unders but fact is they could make him play the next 2 seasons for 500k. Sure he deserves an upgrade from the 500k but I would suggest a fair figure is 750k for the next 2 on proviso that he signs for 4 MORE years at 1.1 to 1.2. Otherwise tell your story walking.
bugo
Guest
"basically equates to about $1,000 a minute if you just count fixtures". What an odd comment! So players train all week, listen to screaming coaches and travel for free?
Emcie
Roar Guru
Even on that streak though Pearce was getting all the credit for sparking their run.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
How much was Tedesco worth to other clubs when he was at the Tigers? If this article was about him a few years back the story could be about his 34% win rate over 5 years at the Tigers, how he wasn't good enough to play SOO and all sorts of other ''pertinent'' facts. The Knights will need to hang on to Ponga unless his price is ridiculous , just as the Tigers needed to keep Tedesco if they could. The alternative could be a decade of plodding along watching Ponga carve up in a rival team.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
The best answer is probably something like $750/$800 K with bonuses based around team outcome. If he's going to get paid over a mill, he should be instrumental in getting the team into the finals.
Chris Love
Roar Guru
The only way Ponga could be worth 1.5m is if he were to go on a 2009 Hayne type run that not only gets Newcastle into the finals but they win it. Then come round 12 next year Newcastle is leading the comp with 10 wins. I say that partly because while he’s shown very solid performances in origin and between rounds 7-11 this year he’s achieved not much in the game. Partly also because you would need to be that good to be able to justify a significantly reduced roster in coming years. With Klemmer and Pearce also on big bucks that’s three players taking up a massive chunk that should equal if not exceed the DCE+Turbox2 deal. Right now the Knights are short a quality hooker and 5/8 and could also use another quality forward and centre. If they give him 1.5 he’ll never win a premiership with them. And when that happens many will tell him he needs to move to win a premiership but in reality his price tag will strangle the knights.
Chris Love
Roar Guru
Moses is on around 800k And Gutherson around 700k plus a top up on this years deal from memory.
Chris Love
Roar Guru
He was on fire round 7 through 11 including Toweling up the Roosters by 24.
Emcie
Roar Guru
But the discussion's about how much he's actually worth isn't it? Not how much his manager can claim he's worth? I seem to have mixed up two points in my origin statement. I'm not sure you can credit Ponga with the game one win, QLD were the better side in the first half and continued to be in the second. That game was won through the middle where QLD were dominant, not by individual effort from Ponga. He was able to work off the platform that had been created but he certainly didn't turn around the momentum of the match, and I don't recall him being anywhere near consideration for man of the match which you would expect if he did. And I'm not sure you can use that game as an indicator of his performances at rep level without taking into account his abysmal showing the next game where he was supposedly going to show what he was capable of after warming into the first game.
Bruz
Roar Rookie
Definitely not worth 1.5m a season, not even close mate. Freakish talent undoubtedly but still a young man and hasn’t even tasted finals footy in his career yet.
Insider
Roar Rookie
You mentioned the USD in your you tube analogy, lol , as for the growing game based on what figures ? NRL will always play second to AFL so that leaves not much pie
eagleJack
Roar Guru
But that is exactly what the managers will be doing. Comparing others in the market, when at the negotiating table. The cap is going up. And therefore so are salaries. And on your Ponga not getting credit for his great 2nd half in Game 1, turning the match into QLD’s favour, because I have to take into account his Game 2 performance?! How does that make sense? Is that how we normally judge a match winning performance? Or game influencing performance? How they then do in the next game?
eagleJack
Roar Guru
Who’s comparing to US sports? My point is that $1m isn’t a large amount. Even in Australia. And certainly not “tulip bubble” territory when the game is growing.
Larry1950
Guest
The problem with these escalating contracts, aside from the greedy Mr 20%'s, is that the club's down the bottom make the market for the middling quality playmakers with potential. Gold Coast made DCE worth $1m+ for Manly to keep him, Ben Hunt probably couldn't sign quick enough when St George came knocking with that unrealistic offer,burley he didn't need to sleep on it. Now the Turbo brothers are going to cost Mably $2m between them, I'll be glad if they stay but they play so hard that the Manly board will be brushing up on their morning prayers.
Emcie
Roar Guru
You’ll probably find that a lot of contracts these days have clauses to increase by the same percentage that the cap increases by, which would be what I’d assume reporters have latched onto regarding DCE’s contract. It’d have more to do with trying to structure a long term contract when you have no way to know future cap constraints then negotiation ploys. It’d be pretty much essential when trying to organise a ten year deal,especially with how much the cap’s increased by in recent years.
Larry1950
Guest
I get that you're worth what a club will pay but $1.5m a season basically equates to about $1,000 a minute if you just count fixtures. How many games has Ponga missed with injuries since he went to the Knights, around 3-4 this year, which means on his $600k contract he probably on $800 a minute now and how are they travelling? Guess it could be worse, he's 21 and Newcastle could have Darius Boyd on $800k a season as a 31 year old with two seasons left on that money like the poor Broncos.
Emcie
Roar Guru
Yeah, I'm not sure using examples that you believe represent players on more money then they deserve is a great way of justifying why a player deserves x amount of money.
Emcie
Roar Guru
I'm not sure tackle efficiency has the most relevence in a position that rarely gets into double figures for tackles.
Insider
Roar Rookie
Ok 1 game, whoopie