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Andre Ponga is being painted as one of the most divisive figures in the NRL at the moment but the father of Newcastle’s skipper has always been unapologetic about doing what’s best for his family.
His family has suffered more than its fair share of tragedy and he has repeatedly maintained that football is Kalyn Ponga’s second priority.
When the Knights skipper addressed the media on Wednesday with the ink barely dry on his five-year contract extension, reportedly worth around $5 million, he reiterated his father’s mantra that family comes first.
“It is a proud moment to sit here on my terms and our terms both us a club and myself and our family to make this announcement,” he said to open the press conference.
To get a sense of the Ponga family’s raison d’être, Andre’s first-person piece penned for Athletes Voice in 2019 tells a back story united by love in the face of heart-breaking tragedy.
Andre and wife Adine experienced the moment no parent ever wants when their 18-month-old son Kacey died in a drowning accident when Kalyn was seven.
When their daughter Kayley was born, Adine suffered a stroke.
And Kalyn has also had to overcome a medical emergency of his own after suffering a brain infection in 2015, the year before he made his NRL debut with the Cowboys, thrust into the finals series by the injury-hit side before he was physically ready as a skinny teenager.
Kalyn’s cousin, Manaia, also died way too young after taking her own life. “She was a similar age to Kalyn and the two were close. They spent a lot of time together growing up during the five years we spent back in New Zealand after Kacey’s death,” Andre wrote.
Andre was by Kalyn’s side when he announced his contract extension on Wednesday – it was no coincidence he was wearing a Nike polo shirt as they are one of his son’s sponsors.
(Photo by Peter Lorimer/Getty Images)
His presence was seen by critics as a further example of him being too much of an influence over his famous son’s career, a control freak who is always in the background. He is known among the NRL media for signing off text messages with “Team Ponga”.
Sitting alongside Knights coach Adam O’Brien and football manager Danny Buderus was perhaps not the wisest move from a public relations standpoint after Andre had been accused of getting Knights officials offside during the contract negotiations and disrespecting the Dolphins by not keeping them in the loop as they awaited an answer on their contract offer.
Although it shouldn’t have been a surprise. The last time Ponga announced a contract extension with the Knights in June, 2020, Andre arranged for a small hand-picked group of journalists to attend a virtual press conference over zoom at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cowboys players Jason Taumalolo (left) Kalyn Ponga celebrate following a Cowboys win. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
He had negotiated the deal with the Knights after “Team Ponga” had fired his previous agent, Wayde Rushton, who had overseen the original five-year $3 million contract to leave the Cowboys.
Andre was on that virtual presser too with Kalyn. He was livid later that day when a reporter who had not been part of the select few on the zoom got wind of the details of the announcement, which had been embargoed for the reporters in attendance, and broke the story before it was officially announced.
Knights CEO Phil Gardner was also part of that announcement where he said there was no “All Blacks” clause” in the deal for the Maroons fullback.
Technically he was right because the NRL salary cap auditors didn’t want a clause in the contract which gave a rival code a free swing at one of its most marketable players.
(Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
However, there were player options for 2023 and 2024, which opened the door to the recent circus involving the Dolphins trying to entice Ponga to Redcliffe.
But don’t expect Andre to apologise for doing what he believes is best for his son and his family.
In the Athletes Voice piece, he describes his pride in Kalyn after hearing his 21st birthday speech in which he downplays his sporting achievements against the importance of family.
“He didn’t get up there and talk about himself and everything he’d done in rugby league to get to this point, where he had an outstanding future in the game. It was the exact opposite. He talked about the people who had helped him secure a life in which he could feel loved and be happy,” Andre wrote.
After a video is shown of his life on and off the football field, Kalyn says: “It’s not about me. You’re all here to celebrate my 21st, but if you look at that timeline it’s not about me. There are things that happened along the way that are about more than just myself. It’s not about me at all.
“You’ve probably helped my family, everyone here – my dad, my mum, my little sister – more than I’ll ever know … Everyone sees me in the jersey, the star, the highlight of every scene (on parts of the video), but the beginning of that timeline is the truth. That’s where all of you play a part in my life. That’s where I’ve been made and that’s why I’m proud to be here and my family’s proud to be here.
“Everyone sees me as like this big person with the jersey on and the headgear on and smiling, but if it wasn’t for everyone here I wouldn’t be doing that and that’s the truth.”
He finished his speech by telling everyone: ‘I’m the product of all of you.’
With no clauses, options or coded fine print in his new contract, Ponga can now concentrate on what he does best out on the middle of a football field.
The Knights head into Sunday’s home clash with premiership heavyweights Parramatta on the back of a four-game losing streak, sitting in 11th place with a 2-4 record, so in order to get their finals campaign back on track, they need Ponga focused and firing.