'Always been my dream to play for Knights': Team Ponga and club made to look like amateurs

“It’s always been my dream to play for the Knights…”

It’s a quote from Kalyn Ponga that I’ve got in black and white.

If you Google it you’re unlikely to find it reported by any news outlet, but I’ve got the piece of paper on which Ponga wrote it – the pic is posted below – with his signature at the bottom.

Ponga sent a letter to Knights junior members ahead of the 2022 season kicking off, making this declaration.

Reading it, I was a little miffed.

If you’ve always wanted to play for the Knights, and they’re paying you more than $1 million a year to do it, why is there so much uncertainty over continuing to live this lifelong dream?

Seriously, if someone came along and told me I could fulfil my childhood ambition of being a ninja-cowboy ­and be paid even five figures for it – never mind seven – I’d burn my CV because I’d never need to find another job.

Yet KP is living his dream but wanted a series of get-out clauses in his contract so he could abandon everything he’s ever wanted?

Now, I know that the odds Ponga actually wrote the letter are astronomical – I get how ghost-writing works, it’s actually a large part of my career (I’ve written four books to date, one of which you may even have on your shelves, but none of them have my name as the author).

But here’s the thing about writing for someone else – they read it before it gets published. And tends to be they have notes, telling you, for example, ‘I wouldn’t say it like that’, or ‘Let’s include something a little more personal at this point’.

Or, ‘We can’t write that because it’s not actually true’.

It doesn’t matter that Ponga probably (definitely) didn’t write this mass-produced letter to the children who wear red and blue, letting them know about all the discounts they can score through this membership.

His signature is at the bottom. He literally signed off on it.

They’re his words now.

(It came on the Newcastle Knights letterhead, so this was just as much endorsed by them.)

So we can take it one of two ways: it’s true, and maybe he’s just a way more complicated dude than we can ever fathom if this is how he treats his own dreams.

Maybe.

Or, the second way to take it: it’s not true.

Maybe this kid who was born in Western Australia, grew up in Queensland and New Zealand, had a scholarship with the Brisbane Broncos, then came through the ranks at the Cowboys when Johnathan Thurston was at his peak, hasn’t always dreamed of playing for the Knights.

Maybe, between KP, his management and the Knights’ front office, no one stopped to think that they should go with something a little more believable.

(Photo by Ashley Feder/Getty Images)

That what is a throwaway line could be reshaped – how about just plain old “I love playing for the Knights” – and have the same effect.

Based on the way his current contract fiasco is playing out, I’m pretty much in favour of the second option.

And while it may seem like I’m being pedantic over what I just called a throwaway line, it’s another classic case of the brown M&Ms.

If you’re not paying attention to the details, the big picture becomes a mess.

And at the moment, Ponga, his management and the club are in an epic mess, in which all three look bad as a result of failing to pay attention to the details.

Over the weekend, News Corp reported that Ponga and his camp had come to terms on a three-year extension of his deal with the Knights, which would see him through until the end of 2027.

However, apparently Newcastle pulled the deal after Ponga’s management – that is, his father, Andre – wanted to hold off on announcing that pen had been put to paper.

Basically, after more than four years of bending over backwards to accommodate Camp Ponga, the club had enough and told them where to go.

Coach Adam O’Brien completely dismissed the claim, pointing out the fact club CEO Phil Gardner is on holidays in Hawaii – how would such a high-level decision, regarding the largest contract in the club’s history, be reached without the big cheese even in the country?

Knights legend and club coaching consultant Andrew Johns dismissed the report too, saying, “I don’t believe it. Simple as that.”

At this point, it’s also worth noting that Dean Ritchie, who broke the news on Sunday, is the same reporter who wrote last July, “Knights superstar Kalyn Ponga is poised to sign a new deal at the club, before being groomed to assume Newcastle’s captaincy as he transitions into the five-eighth position”.

Almost a year later, ‘Bulldog’ and his “well-placed sources” are one from three on that report, and it’s questionable whether Ponga would even have the captaincy if Jayden Brailey was fit.

(Photo by Ashley Feder/Getty Images)

Based on his last two press conferences, the Queensland fullback isn’t ready for the mantle of skipper.

His continued stance that his contract status isn’t affecting him seems preposterous at this stage. At the very least, it’s tainting his brand.

He’s gone from being the cool, laidback guy who can turn it on in freakish fashion when he crosses the white line, to coming across as petulant and somewhat smug in dealing with the media.

He is also beginning to encroach into selfish territory. Look, he’s got a deal that allows him to wait until midway through this season to decide if he’ll take up options in his favour to remain in the Hunter for 2023 and ’24, that’s fair enough, but how much more information can he possibly be waiting on to make the call?

There are two clubs who will pay him a mill-plus. He’s just not worth that much money at any other club based on market forces and the other 15 rosters.

Haven’t both the Knights and Dolphins put their best offer forward at this point? What else do you need to know to make a decision?

Other people are queued up for the dunnies. Shit or get off the pot, man.

Now, in the not-unreasonable scenario that Newcastle have rescinded their offer, Andre Ponga looks like a novice. Because he is.

He’s got one ‘client’, his son, and somehow he’s managed to piss enough people off that a deal said to be worth the better part of $6 million is no longer on the table because Andre – who top brass at the club always speak highly of and have incorporated him into the club to the point he’s got some wishy-washy role with the NRLW side, despite having no rugby league history to speak of, certainly not at any elite level – has finally pushed them too far.

Mate, you had the golden goose but the gold’s gone. Pretty sure that just makes you a goose.

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

As for the club, it really took you guys this long to stand up for yourselves?

As part of the Wests group, the Knights are a small wing of a nationwide empire that – as an indication of size – came in fifth for the entire state of NSW when it came to where people used their ‘dine’ vouchers from the State Government’s ‘Dine and Discover’ scheme.

Yet this multimillion-dollar enterprise has been held hostage by one dude and his dad for how long?

As for signing Ponga on a four-year deal with clauses in his favour for half that period of time, I can somewhat sympathise given how prevalent player options are becoming in the NRL.

But why the hell would they agree to have the clauses activated midway through the season?

Tell Ponga he can have his get-out but he needs to decide by November 1 the previous year, so they can plan ahead. Y’know, like everyone else does.

Instead, the Knights are waiting until some point in June – some publications say Round 10, others say Round 12 – for Ponga to let them know if he’s in or not for ’23.

So they’ve got more than $1 million tied up for half a year in a guy who can tell them that, actually, he’s out and they can spend their money elsewhere.

As for who they’ll then spend it on, well, um… apparently Cameron Munster, who isn’t available until 2024?

For ’23, the Knights look like being a bit stuffed, because all the elite players were locked up around the start of November.

Long story short, and sorry Mum for swearing twice, but this is a total shit-fight on all fronts.

Kalyn Ponga and the Newcastle Knights are supposed to be a feelgood rugby league love story.

Two parties who came together in an hour of need and rebuilt a proud club, leading them to premiership glory and a place of sustained success, and all while the young man’s father helped him from behind the scenes.

Instead, Ponga’s indecision has damaged his brand, the club look weak for allowing him by law to treat them this way, and Andre is the manager with one client who apparently has seen the biggest deal of his life go up in flames.

Pay attention to the details. Because a dream turns to a nightmare pretty quick if you think words on a page with your signature at the bottom don’t mean anything.