Sitting in the commentary box in Newcastle on Thursday night, Andrew Johns made a noise no man should make on a family-friendly broadcast.
“There’s only a couple of players in the world [who] could do this,” Johns said as he watched Kalyn Ponga send Dane Gagai over against the Dolphins.
Ponga lined up for what had been a chest pass from Jack Cogger, skipped a body-length past Jake Averillo while the ball was in transit, scooped it up from around his knees in the same motion and pushed it on for his veteran centre to stroll over.
Rugby league, not just Joey, needed a breather as the highlights rolled.
All this week, rugby league has wrestled with Dylan Brown’s $13 million, 10-year move to Newcastle from every angle, but two sets of numbers still loom largest.
From next year, the Knights will have $2.8 million (23 per cent) of their salary cap tied up in Ponga and Brown, two brilliant but somewhat enigmatic stars.
Kalyn Ponga takes on the Dolphins on Thursday night.Credit: Getty Images
And Brown is slated to wear the No.7, where he has played just 10 of his 124 NRL games, and won only two of them.
On Thursday night, albeit against an extremely out-of-sorts Dolphins side that’s been knocked around by Cyclone Alfred, Ponga at times played as a halfback on the left, and a five-eighth on the right.
“Maybe a window into what we’re thinking down the track,” Adam O’Brien said afterwards, which drew a smirk from Ponga.
Both captain and coach understood but were still unimpressed with repeated questions about Brown and the biggest deal in rugby league history after an impressive 26-12 win.
But the new attacking dynamic with livewire Fletcher Sharpe at five-eighth has Ponga touching the ball almost 30 per cent more often this season.
“Both Kalyn and Fletcher can play second and third layer [of attacking shape] being fullbacks,” O’Brien said.
“Getting their hands on the ball at first layer makes us a bit more dangerous as a footy team rather than being really predictable with having Kalyn out the back of all the shapes.
“His hands on the ball creates stuff and at the same time so does Fletch. It makes us a more dangerous footy team.”
Ponga is the NRL’s best player when presented with a man-on-man, four-on-four scenario. No-one else so consistently skips outside his man to create chances for outside ball-runners. Getting him in that position, and not consistently telegraphed as the second-receiver focal point of Newcastle’s attack, has long been O’Brien’s issue.
With the Knights’ forwards dominating the ruck, Ponga regularly swung into first receiver once Newcastle eyed attacking field position. As such an elusive running threat, he attracted three defenders before linking with Sharpe and Bradman Best leading up to the Knights’ opening try.
Best’s quick play-the-ball had the right-side shift in play, and three defenders either sitting back nervously (Felise Kaufusi and Max Plath) or reluctantly dragged in (Kodi Nikorima) as the overlap for James Schiller’s try is created.
“Never seen them look so slick,” Johns noted in commentary throughout the first-half blitz.
Sharpe, meanwhile, sniped around the ruck and sniffed out offloads and half-breaks with the classic support play of a fullback.
Newcastle staff moved him into the halves over the pre-season after putting a microphone on him at training, marvelling at the 20-year-old’s chatter and organisation of his teammates.
Again, the Dolphins committed no less than three play-the-ball errors where they didn’t get boot to ball, and cheap piggyback penalties gave Newcastle the type of platform playmakers crave.
Life doesn’t always look so rosy in the NRL, which is where Jack Cogger still plays a significant role, and Brown will be expected to next season.
The prospect of Brown’s own running game tying in with Ponga and Sharpe on the front foot is mouthwatering.
But Cogger is still Newcastle’s primary kicker, especially when coming out of trouble and building the side into a contest.
Nathan Cleary wasn’t full of praise around Cogger’s role in straightening Penrith up during their 2023 grand final revival for nothing. For all the footwork and flash of Ponga and Sharpe, percentage play making will always have its place alongside them.
At $1.3 million a year, Johns pointed out this week that Brown has to have the voice and kicking game to balance all that brilliance.
During the course of negotiations, Newcastle reportedly plotted out a hybrid halfback role for the Kiwi star. Less out of the game-managing styles of Mitchell Moses and Adam Reynolds, more akin to the full-field work of Ponga.
It’s a tantalising prospect, as much for ‘what if it works?’ as ‘what if it doesn’t?’
Just as enticing as Kalyn Ponga with the ball in hands.
with Robert Dillon.
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