As Newcastle struggle to maintain its season alive, Kalyn Ponga goes again to the place it began.
The Queensland Origin star has change into one in every of rugby league’s greatest gamers on the Knights however he first made his title within the massive time as a North Queenslander, that means he’ll come full circle when the Novocastrians journey to Townsville on Saturday night time.
Ponga has performed in opposition to his former membership loads of occasions earlier than, however given this can be a sudden-death semifinal, the stakes have by no means been so excessive.
Ponga was already one thing of a sensation when he signed with the Cowboys in 2013 as a 15-year previous, multi-sport phenom who excelled at league, union, contact soccer, golf and Aussie Guidelines.
What started as curiosity shortly bloomed into severe consideration as soon as a stunning spotlight reel of his schoolboy rugby heroics swept throughout the web.
Just like the previous Shaun Johnson contact footy highlights, the imaginative and prescient remains to be compelling. Younger fellas who transfer like that appear to have no limits past what we are able to think about, and after watching Ponga it was straightforward to think about fairly a bit.
It meant his debut within the previous Beneath 20s competitors in 2015 was as hyped as some gamers maiden NRL matches, and in a accident it was present Cowboys NRL coach Todd Payten who handed him his first begin late within the yr.
Ponga was coming right into a red-hot aspect – his debut was a 78-12 bloodbath of Canberra and the Cowboys had been nicely on their strategy to a high 4 berth, however even then, at simply 17, he stood out.
In his third sport, he ran for 285 metres with ball in hand. In his fourth, he scored a hat-trick. And his eight video games that yr had been a tantalising glimpse of what was to come back.
“It is youngsters like him that make teaching simpler, after they’re so proficient, there’s not an excessive amount of teaching occurring – generally you possibly can over-coach them,” mentioned Aaron Payne, who coached Ponga on the Cowboys in 2016-17.
“He is a kind of blokes who’s fairly naturally gifted, in order that at that age you simply have to present them confidence, encourage them to do their factor.
“If there are issues they should work on, you possibly can present them, however he was one who you loved teaching as a result of he had so many high quality attributes.”
Over the next two seasons, Ponga started to blossom. He made the crew of the yr in each seasons and the discuss of a younger participant being destined for greatness solely grew louder.
Just one Beneath 20s sport every week was televised, so imaginative and prescient wasn’t straightforward to search out. It meant a participant like Ponga might tackle a bigger than life high quality.
Generally, stats would come out on the Monday that scarcely appeared plausible, like the sport in opposition to the Warriors in 2015 the place Ponga ran for 327m, broke 20 tackles and accrued 5 line breaks.
In case you can handle to dig out the previous footage, it is all there – the pace, the footwork, the passing sport, the flexibility to slip previous defenders like they are not there in any respect.
At the same time as a boy, Ponga appeared as if he was made to do sensible issues, as if he was one of many particular ones for whom true greatness is feasible.
“With out being disrespectful to different gamers I’ve coached, and this was very early on in my teaching profession, however he was one of many first gamers I would come throughout who I thought-about to have all of the attributes,” mentioned Payne.
“Once I say that, I imply he is robust defensively, he is nice in assault, he had a passing sport, however he additionally had toughness – he’d put his physique on the road, he wasn’t afraid of contact.
“He had soccer smarts about him, he had the proper angle, he needed to get higher and he was coachable, so that you knew he was going to be fairly particular.”
After some time, it was clear Ponga actually was destined for stardom and everybody knew it.
Even with groups that contained the likes of Viliame Kikau, Brandon Smith, Coen Hess, Corey Horsburgh, Reuben Cotter, Murray Taulagi and Jake Clifford, he was at all times the stand-out.
“My assistant coach Steve Sheppard, everybody calls him Pup and he is an actual humorous bloke, he was in control of doing the pinnacle rely once we had been heading off to coaching or video games.
“Somebody would ask ‘is everybody right here’, and Pup would say, ‘KP, are you right here?'”
“KP would yell out ‘yup’, and Pup would go, ‘Righto, that is all we want, we’re good to go.'”
The hype continued to roll on as Ponga made his NRL debut in a sudden-death semifinal in opposition to the Broncos in 2016, making a mazy, exhilarating line break with one in every of his first touches, and solely continued as he signed a wealthy, four-year take care of the Knights later that yr.
He appeared sporadically within the high grade the next yr, his final in Townsville, as he waited for his NRL life to actually start.
With such ravenous expectations it will be straightforward for Ponga to have both buckled underneath the strain or change into too wrapped up in his personal talents, however Payne has nothing however reward for the way Ponga dealt with the scrutiny.
“I did not actually must handle the hype – he was child and he had his head on his shoulders,” mentioned Payne.
“I by no means noticed him get forward of himself, he was very grounded, so I by no means needed to discuss to him about that or maintain him in test.
“He at all times had an incredible angle, so I by no means needed to tackle that.”
Ponga’s time on the Knights has not at all times been straightforward. A collection of concussions threatened his profession, and the media backlash which got here at occasions he couldn’t reside as much as the not possible expectations, was brutal and cruel.
However on the entire, he has gone on to fulfil these lofty expectations he was saddled with on the Cowboys.
He is gained man of the match in Origin deciders, claimed the Dally M final yr and helped Newcastle to an sudden finals berth this yr when its season seemed misplaced because the crew sat 14th on the ladder simply six weeks in the past.
The hype that is adopted him since he was barely a youngster won’t ever depart him, however Ponga confirmed way back there’s loads of substance behind the fashion.
“Simply from the surface wanting in, I am fairly amazed with how he is handled strain and expectation,” Payne mentioned.
“There’s been a lot of that on him, and that may be a troublesome factor to take care of, some blokes do not take care of it however he is handled it rather well.
“From that, along with his expertise now, one in every of his roles within the aspect is management, and I believe he is change into an incredible chief.”
