'You’ve got to grow up': NRL veteran's scathing takedown of Ponga

Aaron Woods has taken a swipe at Newcastle Knights star Kalyn Ponga following his admission regarding the toilet cubicle drama.

Ponga and teammate Kurt Mann were caught on camera exiting a toilet cubicle together last August while both being injured and unable to lay for Newcastle. After remaining silent for the past six months regarding the incident while speculation and frustrations at the pair were running rife, the Knights skipper finally fronted the media on Monday to explain why they were there.

Apparently, it was all due to Ponga being “sick” from food he had eaten earlier, and Mann was just lending assistance.

“Putting myself in that position. I shouldn’t have been out in the first place,” Ponga told reporters.

“I was in the wrong there. “I shouldn’t have been out in the first place. I do support the boys, they know that.”

“I was sick. He (Mann) was there to help. Food that I had earlier….. I can’t go back and change anything.

“The only thing I can do is live in the now and my actions moving forward, I can learn from those lessons, I can learn from that period of time.”

(Photo by Ashley Feder/Getty Images)

Speaking on the LiSTNR podcast Footy Talk, Woods, who is heading into his 14th season of the NRL, said Ponga should have “come out and front-foot it” rather than waiting so long before speaking about the incident.

“He’s club captain. You can’t hide,” said Woods.

“You’ve got to come out and front-foot it. He should have just spoke about it then,” he said. “He went into the toilets with Kurt Mann. They did whatever they did. Come out and move on. Just front-foot it there straight away. Now it’s dragged on … six months, eight months … however long it’s been. We’re coming into a new season.”

Woods said all it did was create a distraction for the Knights heading into the pre-season matches.

“Obviously he’s coming off his (calf) injury. Hopefully he’s getting his first trial this week.

“Now we’re bloody talking about the toilet again. He’s just got to knock it on the head.

“You want to be captain.

“I know he’s got this blasé attitude, he’s a pretty cruisy type but when he crosses the field he’s straight onto it … but when you’re club captain, you’ve got sponsors and all that you’ve got to look after, you just need to front-foot these little things.”

(Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Woods went on to say that it’s time for Ponga to “grow up”.

”You’re not a kid, mate. You’ve got to grow up. You’re the captain of the club and you’re the face of it, he’s one of the superstars of our game, he’s one of the highest earners,” he said.

“You’ve just got to front-foot those things so we can just knock it on the back (and) we don’t need to go on about it for the new year of footy.”