Parramatta Eels thrash Newcastle Knights in first game since Kalyn Ponga’s mammoth contract extension

The Newcastle Knights were hoping to celebrate Kalyn Ponga’s contract extension in style but things couldn’t have gone any less to plan.

Ponga is staying a Knight until at least the end of 2027. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

After almost a week of celebrations in the Hunter, the Ponga party was brought to a grinding halt by the Parramatta Eels, who handed the Newcastle Knights the biggest home loss of Adam O’Brien’s coaching tenure on Sunday.

On Wednesday, Kalyn Ponga put pen to paper on the most significant contract to pass across the Knights’ board table since 2016, when the club enticed him into signing.

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The Knights were understandably thrilled to have secured Ponga’s long-term future but it’s the immediate future that now desperately needs to be addressed.

With Sunday’s humiliating 39-2 loss, the Knights have slumped to their first five-game losing streak since 2019 and risk falling further behind the pack if they can’t turn things around quick-smart.

The Knights lost Ponga to a HIA in the first half and their attack struggled to click into gear even when he came back on. Their defence was even worse.

Eager to make up for their shock loss to the Wests Tigers, the Eels didn’t need set plays to score their six tries, only a bit of muscle and 17 play-the-balls in the Knights’ 20m zone. Ouch.

The Knights couldn’t keep the Ponga Party going. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

It was Parramatta that came into the match on the back foot, though.

Injury has ripped through the Eels’ outside back stocks since before the season began and the situation reached critical mass over the weekend.

Tom Opacic was a late withdrawal, forcing five-eighth Dylan Brown to shift to left centre and Jakob Arthur to start in the halves.

Parramatta fans might’ve been raising their eyebrows but that was before the makeshift left edge produced the Eels’ first three tries.

Ably assisted by second-rower Shaun Lane, Brown had little trouble containing his opposite man, Origin player Dane Gagai, in defence.

In attack, the towering Lane had a hand in both first-half four-pointers. He first crashed over for a softer try than most you’ll see in first grade and then found an unmarked Hayze Perham with an offload.

Within five minutes of the restart, Brown had the Eels’ third try and the game had slipped away from Newcastle. An Isaiah Papali’i double just rubbed salt into the wound.

When the game was in the balance, the Knights didn’t do too much wrong in attack. They completed at 80 per cent in the first half but it’ll take more than adequacy to play September footy.

And with each loss, the odds are stacking higher and higher against the Novocastrians.

No Newcastle team has ever played finals after starting 2-4. The current outfit is 2-5 and faces the Melbourne Storm next week.

Brown looked the goods at centre. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Centre of attention

In 60 NRL games, Dylan Brown had never started anywhere other than five-eighth.

But in his 61st, an injury crisis forced him into the centres, where he looked right at home.

Brown scored the try that helped the Eels stretch their lead to 18 points and now looks a strong chance to fill in at centre again if Parramatta’s luckless run of injuries continues.

Opacic is due back next week but with Haze Dunster, Maika Sivo and Waqa Blake all out long-term, there’s a chance Brown could be called on again.

Originally published as Parramatta Eels thrash Newcastle Knights in first game since Kalyn Ponga’s mammoth contract extension