NRL veteran Aaron Woods has told Kalyn Ponga to “grow up” after the Newcastle Knights skipper finally broke his silence on the toilet cubicle saga.
Ponga faced the media on Monday for the first time since he and teammate Kurt Mann were captured on film leaving a toilet cubicle in a Newcastle Pub in August.
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Both players were out injured at the time and faced heavy scrutiny for their actions while their teammates were interstate, but escaped sanction from both the Knights and the NRL.
Ponga, who was shielded from the media for six months following the incident, admitted he was in the wrong but maintained Mann was in the cubicle to “help” as he had fallen ill.
“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.”
Speaking on the LiSTNR podcast Footy Talk, Dragons star Woods was wrong to have waited so long to address the issue.
“He’s club captain. You can’t hide,” he said.
“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.
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“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.”
Woods maintained his was a huge fan of Ponga as a player but that it was time he matured into the leader the Knights need.
”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.”
Woods’ comments follow criticism from veteran rugby league reporter Phil Rothfield who, prior to Ponga’s appearance on Monday, urged him to show remorse.
“He’s super fit despite a calf injury, but I’d just like to see him today at this press conference, as captain of the club, I think it is important to take a bit of ownership and tell people what happened.
“Show a little bit of remorse, I don’t like the fact that he’s been hidden away for the last six months.”
