Kalyn Ponga walking into potential minefield with Newcastle deal

THE problem with big-money contracts is that every extra dollar amplifies the level of expectation. The million-dollar question is how will potential Newcastle NRL teen recruit Kalyn Ponga handle the pressure?

Kalyn Ponga. Picture: Wesley Monts

• Boozy Broncos in Brisbane bar biff
• Complete draw for 2017 Auckland Nines
• Is Hunt’s Wallaby dream dead and buried?
• Marsh’s appointment was beginning of the end
• I didn’t want to rip off Cowboys: Hannant

WHAT price do you put on walking away from a footballing education under Johnathan Thurston?

If you’re Kalyn Ponga, about $3.6 million. And the Cowboys phenom may soon find out that with more money comes more problems.

No one, not even the Cowboys, could condemn Ponga for inking a mega five-year deal with the struggling Newcastle Knights, which he is expected to do in coming days.

LISTEN UP: Mike Colman and The Courier-Mail team talk about at the problems besetting Australian cricket, dissect an equally unsatisfactory situation at the Socceroos, get some good news about the Wallabies and discuss a very busy week in rugby league.

Click here to subscribe on iTunes or find us on SoundCloud

The deal will make the 18-year-old the richest teenager in rugby league history. Richer than a young Thurston or $onny Bill Williams. An instant millionaire. Never again will the Ponga family, which has had to deal with some terrible private family trauma, have to sweat over their next dollar.

But, in a sense, the worry has only just begun for the quick-stepping young gun.

The Newcastle deal would make Kalyn Ponga the richest teenager in rugby league history. Pic Darren England.

The problem with big-money contracts is that every extra dollar amplifies the level of external expectation. The embattled Knights are in their darkest hour and desperate clubs do desperate things. Paying multi-millions for a teen who has played two first-grade games is dangerously desperate but the buck will eventually stop not with Newcastle, but Ponga.

The Knights are offering Thurston-style money for an NRL greenhorn not yet equipped to deliver Thurston-style consistency nor handle Thurston-style expectation.

Ponga is a sharp, intelligent young man with a salt-of-the-earth humility but if he deems cash is king, he will be walking into a minefield in Newcastle.

On one hand, his salary would dictate he is Newcastle’s golden boy who must hit the ground running, winning games with his backfield brilliance, from day one.

On the other, he faces navigating dressing-room barbs from jealous Knights players.

Some will surely be privately miffed that the squad’s youngest player is somehow one of their richest ... a bit like the coffee boy earning more than the company CEO.

Rugby league history shows the most successful players invariably strike the right balance between money and opportunity.

Ponga is flying at the Cowboys. He has tasted first grade at 18. He is being mentored by Thurston, the code’s greatest player. Culturally, the Cowboys are a premiership force and coach Paul Green has big plans for Ponga.

Kalyn Ponga is flying at the Cowboys. Picture: Wesley Monts

The alternative is that Ponga joins the whipping boys of the NRL. The current Newcastle team is the worst NRL squad I’ve seen in 20 years. By 2018, they will still reside in the NRL cellar. Ponga is a once-in-a-generation talent but even he would know that fullbacks and playmakers are only as effective as the forwards in front of them.

A gifted teenager is not the solitary solution to the many ills of the Newcastle Knights.

Broncos legend Darren Lockyer knocked back scores of more lucrative offers during his stellar career. He was smart enough to know that you can’t put a price on great rosters that win games and premierships.

Ponga is so talented he will make it in the NRL wherever he goes. But if he quits the Cowboys there will be many more dark days at the Knights and moments when Ponga, searching his soul, wonders whether he is prepared to pay the price.

Originally published as Kalyn Ponga walking into potential minefield with Newcastle deal