Kalyn Ponga fulfils his destiny with Maroons debut
THERE was no one particular moment when Andre Ponga realised his son Kalyn, who will debut for the Maroons this weekend, was going to be a star athlete. It’s what he was born to do, writes Rikki-Lee Arnold.
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THERE was no one particular moment when Andre Ponga realised his son Kalyn was going to be a star athlete.
In fact, Andre can’t even remember a time when Kalyn was not interested in sports.
From the day he could walk he started running, and if he wasn’t running then he had some kind of ball in his hands.
Soccer ball, rugby union ball, golf ball — it didn’t matter, according to his proud dad.
There was no one particular moment because, for Kalyn, sport was his whole life as a kid.
But the only game that has remained with him over his 20 years is rugby league.
Tomorrow night, the Newcastle Knights talent will run out in front of a packed ANZ Stadium in Sydney to make his highly-anticipated State of Origin debut. And the Maroons fans will be counting their lucky stars that Kalyn is a Queenslander.
He’s only young but it’s understandable why there is such a growing hype around Kalyn in the rugby league world.
In the past four months of the NRL, he has stunned with his fancy footwork, speed, poise and jaw-dropping natural ability.
But there were times when the reality of seeing Kalyn in rugby league and wearing the coveted Maroons jersey seemed distant, because he could have had his pick of any sport he wanted.
Kalyn was born in Port Hedland in Western Australia, the first child of Andre and Adine Ponga.
Shortly after his birth in March 1998, his family moved to Mount Isa in Queensland’s north.
It was there that he took his first steps towards his career.
While it may seem incredible that the choices he made when he was five could have an impact on who he is today, both Kalyn and Andre know that if he had not started with soccer and golf, things may have never turned out how they have.
It was Andre who first came up with the idea for Kalyn to try soccer. His mother had done the same for him when he was a child.
And from that, Kalyn just grew and grew.
“We were always outdoors, so if he wasn’t playing with a ball — whatever ball it was — he was running,” Andre says.
“He played soccer from when he was five years old. He was probably six when we put him in the golf clinics out in Mount Isa.
“It was a matter of whatever he wanted to do, we just supported him really.
“But those were two sports that we thought kids could learn a lot of things from. It was a team sport and an individual sport.”
In 2005, however, the family decided to move back to New Zealand, the original home of both Andre and Adine.
Kalyn was seven at the time and not only did he continue to play both soccer and golf, but he also took up touch football, which seems inevitable given the Ponga family runs its own touch football club in Palmerston North called Te Whanau Pa. Translated it means “family touch”.
All Kalyn’s cousins played at the club, and Andre felt it not only helped Kalyn grow as an athlete, but as a person away from the sporting fields.
“It is probably one of the good reasons why Kalyn is where he is,” Andre says.
“Touch teaches you
good values and good sportsmanship, and you’re also learning to play alongside girls at a young age. It was just a positive environment for us.”
Touch football also played a big part in Kalyn eventually transitioning to rugby league.
That came five years after the family returned to New Zealand.
Adine fell pregnant with the couple’s daughter, Kayley, and the family decided it was time to head back to Queensland.
Mackay became the new home town for the Ponga family in 2011. Andre had done plenty of research before the move to see whether Kalyn could continue in any of his three beloved sports, particularly since he’d just won the under-13 national golf championship in New Zealand.
But what Andre discovered was a whole new sport for Kalyn to try.
“I did the homework on what was available in Mackay before we moved over to see what opportunities he had.
“The golf wasn’t too strong up there. But he was at that age when a lot of his mates were playing rugby union back home (in New Zealand). There wasn’t union in Mackay, but there was rugby league.
“For me, it was an easy transition for him to go to rugby league if he decided, because touch is very much like rugby league … league is more physical, is all.”
And that’s exactly what Kalyn did. His rise through the ranks was swift.
In his first game for Souths Mackay he was selected for the North Queensland Marlins representative side.
In 2012, he became only the second 14-year-old to be chosen for Australia’s
under-15 league team, and the next year he was offered a one-year scholarship with the Brisbane Broncos.
The gifted fullback then moved to Brisbane and took up a rugby union scholarship with the Anglican Church Grammar School, which Andre says was decided in a bid to help Kalyn also pursue a strong education.
He was impressive in both league and union, and also took part in a Brisbane Lions development program, expanding his repertoire to include AFL.
Kalyn had many options, but it was rugby league he chose when he signed with the North Queensland Cowboys at the start of 2014, at the end of his scholarship with the Broncos.
The Broncos were still interested — as were the Melbourne Storm and Sydney Roosters, and Queensland Reds and Brisbane Lions should he have fancied a code switch.
He went on to make his NRL debut in a crucial
semi-final against the Broncos in September 2016.
But after some time in Townsville, Kalyn began to crave a bigger challenge.
And the Lions started circling again.
Kalyn spent most of his career at the Cowboys playing in their
under-20s system.
As someone who thrives when confronted with a massive challenge, it was not what he wanted to be doing.
“I wanted to play (Queensland Cup) but I wasn’t playing Cup,” Kalyn tells Insight.
“I lost the love for the game. I wanted to challenge myself. I knew that if I challenged myself I’d have to work hard, and working hard and competing is why I love sport. I was going to go down a completely different track and sign with the AFL.
“The Brisbane Lions at that point were at the bottom (of the competition), so I knew once I got in there I would have a lot of hard work to do and that’s what I wanted to do.
“They came to me before the Knights did and I was pretty much set on it.
“I was going to do it … then the Knights came on board, that opportunity arose and I took that one.”
It could be hard for many Queenslanders to admit that it took a NSW-based club to save Kalyn’s career in the NRL. But that was certainly the case.
Had he not joined the Knights at the start of this season, Kalyn would not be playing rugby league today and definitely would not be making the State of Origin debut he so greatly desires.
“I can’t emphasise enough how much they’ve allowed me to be me,” Kalyn says of the Knights.
“(Coach Nathan Brown) has done a great job in bringing the best out in me.
“I’m still learning every week, which is exciting. He knows that and I know that myself as well.
“But I wouldn’t be here (in Origin) if I wasn’t at the Knights.
“It’s the most happy I’ve been with my sport. I love playing with the boys that I’m with.
“That’s something you get when you’re young. You love playing with your mates.
“I have that and at the Knights we’re not winning, but we’re learning every week, which is exciting.
“I love where I’m at …
it’s comforting to be on a journey. The last few years I hadn’t really been on that.”
Kalyn says, however, he still owes a lot to the sports he played growing up. They taught him mental strength and helped him develop the footwork that he has become renowned for in rugby league.
But one of the best experiences of his life came this week, learning from star Queensland fullback, Billy Slater, who was, Kalyn says, his childhood sporting hero. Slater’s famous chip and chase try from the 2004 Origin series is his first memory of the rugby league great.
“Coming into camp and watching Billy … He’s unreal.
“He’s ridiculously good. His smarts, the way he talks, his decision-making, it’s all top class. I’m definitely happy to learn off him and I’ve tried to pick his brain a bit.”
If the lure of AFL and rugby union were not scary enough for rugby league fans to think about when it comes to Kalyn Ponga, then his Maori heritage certainly is.
There was a time when many people were unsure whether Kalyn would pledge his allegiance to Queensland and Australia, or to New Zealand.
Not even his family knew.
Kalyn says it took him a while to decide, but deep down he always knew he was a Queenslander.
He also wanted to respect his father and all his uncles back in New Zealand. But when it came to crunch time, Kalyn couldn’t turn his back on the state where he had first found his passion for rugby league.
“My Dad’s pretty passionate about where he’s from and his family,” Kalyn says. “He’s always said to me that he’d support me no matter what I did and whoever I played for.
“It was three or four years ago when I said to him, ‘I’m leaning towards Australia and Queensland’.
“I think he found it pretty hard. But that’s where my heart lies. I’ve done most of my life here. I grew up in Queensland for the majority of my life.
“He’s had a lot to do with my childhood in terms of what I’ve done, which is what a good Dad does. But for this decision, this was me; this was what I’m doing.”
As Kalyn’s big debut draws near, his family could not be prouder. His parents and now seven-year-old sister who moved with him from Townsville to Newcastle will be in attendance tomorrow and Andre says he’s had goosebumps since it was first confirmed by Queensland coach Kevin Walters that Kalyn would make his debut.
“We’re talking about the Origin here,” Andre says.
“In terms of the pinnacle of rugby league, if there was ever a jumper someone would want to put on, it’s either a Blues one or a Maroons one.
“To see him run out on Sunday is just going to be phenomenal. I have goosebumps even now.”
rikkilee.arnold@news.com.au
MASTER OF MANY TRADES
AFL
BRISBANE Lions CEO Greg Swann says Kalyn Ponga was the fish that got away — twice.
Brisbane signed Ponga to a five-year contract in 2016 to play AFL but the offer was swamped by the big money deal from Newcastle.
“He and his family are fantastic people and Kalyn had a genuine intent to play AFL but it just didn’t work out in the end,’’ Swann says.
“He was going to quit rugby league and come to the AFL but we couldn’t hold him to it. Newcastle made him an offer that nobody could refuse.”
Ponga was part of the Lions Academy and starred for the Brisbane side in an under-15 carnival against the Gold Coast Suns and Sydney Swans academy teams before signing with the North Queensland Cowboys.
Brisbane stayed in touch with Ponga and his family while the prodigy was in Townsville where he regularly did AFL-specific training sessions to keep his skills sharp.
Swann says Ponga would have played off a halfback flank but ultimately ended up as a midfielder if he’d stayed in the AFL system.
RUGBY UNION
THE young gun’s school rugby union coach Jason Gilmore has no doubt the young talent would have succeeded in the Super Rugby.
Gilmore was one of the men who played a role in bringing Ponga to Anglican Church Grammar School in 2013 when the then 15-year-old moved to Brisbane to take up a scholarship with the Broncos.
Gilmore says they always knew Ponga was a rugby league player first, but he had a “freakish” ability the school could not resist.
“He’s the best junior rugby player I have seen,” he says.
“When I spotted him at about 14 or 15, he was the most talented I had seen at that age.
“He’s certainly one of a kind in terms of his athletic ability. I have no doubt he would have played Super Rugby.
“It certainly doesn’t surprise me (that he’s playing Origin). It’s satisfying to see the blokes you’ve coached come through the system and do really well.”
GOLF
KALYN Ponga’s golf career was short, but still successful.
He took it up at the age of six and played through until he was 12, when he won the New Zealand under-13 national championship.
While he didn’t pursue golf past that point, his father Andre says it was exactly what Kalyn needed at that point in time.
“Golf was an environment that just taught any kid about good values, honesty, honour,” he says.
“That’s what it stood for, for me. I guess having a bit of talent to play the sport was a bonus.”
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