Knights coach Nathan Brown calls time on Kalyn Ponga experiment
Nathan Brown doesn’t regret it. And Kalyn Ponga is adamant his stint at five-eighth wasn’t a failure. But now the Newcastle coach and his star player agree that Ponga’s best position is at fullback.
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Nathan Brown says he doesn’t regret it. And Kalyn Ponga is adamant his brief stint at five-eighth wasn’t a failure.
But for now the Newcastle coach and his star player have also agreed that Ponga’s best position for the team is playing fullback.
And that is where Ponga will be playing when he runs out against St George Illawarra this Sunday after this season’s most controversial experiment was put on the backburner.
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“I don’t regret it, not at all,” Brown told The Daily Telegraph.
“And do I think Kalyn Ponga is going to be a very good five-eighth one day? 100 per cent.
“But it appears he suits the combinations we have better at fullback right now.
“It doesn’t mean Kalyn Ponga won’t play five-eighth years down the track.
“First of all let him become the best fullback he can be ... let him become the best fullback in the game.”
Brown also conceded: “It is probably a good coaching lesson for me.”
But he praised Ponga for supporting the move.
While it was initially the 21-year-old who wanted to try his hand at five-eighth, Brown said when he sat down and spoke with Ponga about it again on Monday it showed him why Ponga’s such a special individual to coach.
“Last week we sat down and had a chat about it and said we would have a look at it for one more week,” he added.
“But if we be honest and look at our offence last year, it certainly looked like it flowed better when he was at one, even though he will do reasonably similar things.
“I can’t sit there and deny that.
“Obviously Kalyn is coming into his second year and he is obviously a fairly good target now.
“But I probably showed my hand last week (before the game against Canberra).
“I said to him ‘if I get a gut feeling and have to throw you back during the game are you sweet?’
“And the thing with Kalyn that probably a lot of people don’t realise is that as good a player as he is, he is a better team member.
“He is not really deep down that bothered by it.
“And he knows he can play good at five eighth and good at one.
“It is just it certainly appears to suit our team that he plays better at fullback.”
Ponga said for now he was happy to be back wearing the No 1 jersey.
“Browny’s decided to put me back there and I supported his decision,” Ponga said.
“Obviously I wanted to play well in that position.
“I still want to learn in that position.
“I think we’ll see how this weekend goes.
“If it works well, then we’ll continue with it.”
Asked whether he considered the switch a failure, Ponga added: “I wouldn’t like to say that.
“Like I said, it’s all about how I go this weekend at fullback and if it doesn’t work, then I’ll go back to half and try again there.”
Captain Mitchell Pearce added: “Browny’s obviously picked Kalyn at fullback.
“That’s one little piece of the big puzzle in our team.
“Browny obviously sees that as an opportunity to free Kalyn up with his game. I thought he was doing some really nice things for a young five-eighth who’s played only 20 first grade games.
“Hopefully that adds a little bit to our attacking stuff, (but) there’s other areas of our game that we need to keep improving on for 80 minutes.”