Kalyn Ponga has revealed how the help of a sports psychologist is his added weapon as the Knights champion strives to get better in his quest to break Newcastle’s 24-year premiership drought this season.

Ponga, who kicked off his eighth campaign with the Knights in Friday night’s win over the Wests Tigers, opened up about the pressures of being Newcastle’s $6 million man and what drives him to find another title-winning edge.

The Queensland Origin superstar also bared his soul over his on and off-field challenges, including the tragic death of his baby brother Kacey, his own concussion battles and the infamous toilet cubicle saga that represented a wake-up call.

Few athletes in the NRL fit the description of the ‘franchise player’ quite like Ponga.

While four-time premiers Penrith, the Storm, Brisbane and the Roosters boast a slew of big-name stars, Ponga is the generational gem whose performances will make or break the Knights this season.

Bookmakers have already written off Newcastle. They are one of the favourites for the wooden spoon. That’s fuel for Ponga’s fire. He goes into 2025 increasingly hungry to break his and his club’s premiership duck, so hungry he has sought professional help in his quest to scale the NRL title summit.

“Winning is everything to me,” he says.

MIND OVER MATTER

Watch Ponga glide and ghost past hapless NRL defenders and it’s hard to comprehend the 2023 Dally M champion confronts dark moments that test his self-belief.

But those moments of doubt are real and Ponga, rather than fear it, takes it head on. The Maroons maestro says the true battle in an NRL landscape of gifted athletes is not always physical, but mental, prompting him to seek out help to strengthen his mind.

“I’ve had different mental coaches the last few years,” Ponga says.

“I guess you could call them a psychologist.

“I feel they help me.

“In terms of football stuff, I have the coaching staff. Blake Green is our attack coach and Rory Kostjasyn, who is now at the Dolphins, was my defence coach.

“Between those two, I felt I had enough support football wise, but there’s also people I’ve used outside of football.

“In 2023, my Dally M year, I worked quite heavily with someone. We went through a heap of stuff. It helped keep my mind clear and keep me confident.

“I’m still seeing someone now.

“I think I’m like a lot of athletes. You have a thousand different thoughts flying in your head. I have some doubts, so it’s nice to clear those thoughts with someone.

“In terms of performance, I know what works for me and it’s about doubling down on them with that help.”

MY BROTHER’S KEEPER

On Wednesday, two days before Ponga ran out to face the Wests Tigers at Campbelltown, the Knights skipper was on a FaceTime call.

This wasn’t just any casual call. It was Kalyn’s remembrance day for his younger brother Kacey Jon Ponga, who passed away in 2005 after a terrible drowning accident in the north Queensland town of Mount Isa.

Kacey was 18 months old. Wednesday, March 5 would have been his 21st birthday. Ponga was seven at the time of the tragedy.

As he prepared for the Tigers clash, Ponga took part in an emotional family service, 2200km away in Newcastle, as his father Andre and mother Adine returned to New Zealand to visit Kacey’s gravesite.

“KC turned a heavenly 21 for us,” Andre told this masthead from New Zealand after visiting his deceased boy’s grave.

“Kalyn was on FaceTime with us.

“KP was that little boy who cared for his little brother and still does to this day.

“He is that brother that give the same care for his sister (Kayley).

“Kalyn may be a great athlete in the sporting world, but, to us, he is a greater son and brother”.

Speaking after Newcastle’s 10-8 defeat of the Tigers, Ponga said: “It was pretty emotional. He is 21 which is obviously a big milestone. Mum and dad were back home, which was nice. It is a big part of why this family is where we are now and so close. I still love him and still miss him.

“My mum would have been emotional — she cries at the drop of a hat at the moment.

“I had my head on all week. I play for him every time.”

GUIDING LIGHT

Upon arriving at Kacey’s gravesite on Wednesday, Andre and Adine attached a 21st birthday key they had made for the occasion.

Historically, turning 21 is the ‘key to the door’ of reaching adulthood, and the independence that comes with it, a responsibility that resonates with Ponga.

He was 19 when he signed a $3.6 million contract with Newcastle, the richest deal for a teenager in NRL history. On the cusp of his 21st birthday, he finished runner-up in the 2018 Dally M Medal, going within two points of being crowned the NRL’s No. 1 player.

Talk to Ponga for more than 10 minutes and you detect a wisdom and maturity that belies his 26 years. He says coping with, and processing, Kacey’s death has helped him compartmentalise the perceived adversities of the cutthroat NRL world.

“Probably what happened to my brother, that was the hardest thing in my life,” he says.

“I was too young to process it really. I knew what was going on. It was more the impact it had on my mum and dad, but they’ve had to get through it.”

Getting through it involved packing up their life in Queensland and returning to New Zealand, where Kacey’s body was taken home for burial and, according to Ponga’s mum, “the grieving process started”.

The words inscribed on Kacey’s tombstone can bring tears to the most hardened soul.

Ponga’s message reads: “I love you Kacey. You are the best brother. I have you in my heart forever and ever. Love Kalyn.”

Andre’s final words: “Kacey boy. When I sigh of sadness and shed a tear for you, your spirit within me keeps shining through. Missing you. Love for you always. Dad.”

When Ponga runs out each week, he says he feels Kacey’s spirit with him. And there is tangible representation. On his inner left ankle, Ponga has a tattoo of a bumblebee, a traditional New Zealand wooden toy which Kalyn says was his brother’s favourite.

When he steps off his left, Ponga looks as lethal as he is unstoppable, as if propelled by a greater, higher force.

“It shaped our family as a whole,” Ponga says. “When things like that happen, you build a stronger bond. I want to go out there and make Kacey proud and my dad proud. He looks over us and looks after us.

Andre told this masthead in 2018: “I say to close friends, it is not fair because Kalyn has someone else playing with him. It’s a disadvantage to some players that he has that guidance from above. I probably use it as a joke but emotionally that is how we look at it.”

WAKE-UP CALL

For all his talent, Ponga’s sporting journey has not been flawless. A turbulent seven-month period forced Ponga to confront his mortality and, indeed, his morality.

In August 2022, he was embroiled in an infamous off-field saga, when Ponga and then teammate Kurt Mann were escorted out of a Newcastle pub by a security guard after being found together in a toilet cubicle.

Ponga claimed he was sick after celebrating his house purchase. The pair escaped sanctions from the NRL, but the fallout underscored Ponga’s gravitas and applied the blowtorch of expectation from a proud one-team footballing town.

Asked to nominate his biggest challenge in football, Ponga says: “Probably injuries, or the thing that happened a few years ago (the pub incident).

“When you go through some challenges and some mishaps, you have to learn.

“I’ve had a few in my career, not too many, but I’ve had a few moments and I’ve had to learn quickly from them. Age, maturity and learning along the way, that’s all sort of why I am the person that I am.”

Such was the gravity of Ponga’s off-field drama, he momentarily forgets a separate career-threatening event. In March 2023, the attacking sensation flew to Canada for concussion testing after a series of serious head knocks. There was a risk Ponga’s career could have ended prematurely. Thankfully, he received the green light from Canadian head-trauma specialists.

“Actually, I forgot about that. That was actually my biggest test,” he said.

“That was crazy.

“I said to myself, if I don’t play again, I would be all right … I don’t know if that was to soften the blow.

“There was a slight chance I wasn’t going to be able to play again, but then going over to Canada, being in that environment, getting the all clear and coming back, that was a relief.

“Once I got the all clear, I have always had belief in myself that I can perform at the highest level.”

REP RAGE

Ponga caused a stir at the end of last season when he withdrew from selection from Australia’s Pacific Championships campaign.

Under NRL rules, Ponga, as a Queensland Origin player, was eligible for Australia. He apologised and made himself available again, only for Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga, seemingly miffed over the selection brouhaha, to overlook Ponga anyway.

Ponga, who last month turned out for the Maori All Stars, insists there is no bad blood with Meninga and admires his passion for the green-and-gold jumper.

“In my mind, my body wasn’t ready to go into that camp last year,” he said.

“That was the feeling. I didn’t mean any malice in it with my actions.

“I understand I got the process wrong which I apologised for. I did have a chat to Mal. I can see why people want to play for him, that’s what I got from the phone calls I had with him.

“Despite everything that went on, I could understand why people want to play for Mal.”

RUGBY SHOCK

Ponga was equally brilliant in rugby union as a schoolboy and earlier in his career, in 2019, the Knights fullback spoke of his dream to one day represent the All Blacks.

While he was born in Port Hedland in Western Australia, Ponga’s cultural roots are deeply entrenched in New Zealand.

On the eve of the Tigers clash, former All Blacks playmaker Steven Donald claimed that a code switch is “still on the table” for Ponga, who was linked to the Hurricanes.

Ponga is off-contract at the end of 2027, the year of the next rugby World Cup, which starts October 1 in Australia.

Asked if he has shut the door on rugby, Ponga said: “I don’t know. I have things I want to achieve first in the NRL and it will all depend on that.

“To be honest, I don’t know if I could even pick the game up again. I haven’t watched a union game in about 10 years. I played it as a junior and I enjoyed it, but it would be interesting to see if I could do it. I don’t even know what position I would play. It’d be a massive adjustment. It would be a great challenge.”

GOOD KNIGHT

Winning an NRL premiership could convince Ponga to try a new challenge in rugby _ or it could motivate him to construct a Penrith-style dynasty in Newcastle.

Professional sport has taught Ponga that time flies. He’s now entering his 10th NRL campaign. He celebrates his 27th birthday in three weeks. Before he knows it, Ponga will be into his 30s and the true coronation of his greatness will come if he leads Newcastle to their first premiership since 2001.

“Winning a comp is definitely one goal, then if you win one, do you want to win another one?” he said.

“I still don’t know that feeling, so it would be nice to win a premiership first.

“I have definitely made Newcastle my home, but eight years has flown by, I don’t know where it’s gone, and you have to make the most of every season.

“Competing is one of my passions and I want to win. It’s too hard to be in this business if you don’t love it or want to win.

“A big goal of mine and the playing group is to be there at the end of the year.

“There is a burning fire inside me here.”