Tough school for Kalyn as Sharks feed on top four

No Kalyn Ponga for Origin. That would be a damn shame.

Newcastle’s Kalyn Ponga is tackled by Cronulla’s Luke Lewis yesterday. Picture: Getty Images.

There’s any number of talented young athletes who ditch team sports in favour of individual endeavours because they get sick and tired of being held back by bumbling, knock-kneed, overawed, outplayed and incompetent teammates.

They want matters and results to be in their own hands. They want to live and die by their own swords. They want the opportunity to express themselves without the intervention of peers with lesser degrees of skill and flair. The Knights’ Kalyn Ponga has chosen rugby league as his full-time profession and he’s doing a sterling job of making his mark — but he’s also learning fast that you can only do so much when your teammates are duds.

The Knights were smashed 48-10 by Cronulla. It was ugly for anyone who wasn’t a Shark. One of the most electrifying players in the NRL was representing one of the worst teams, which will muddy the waters when the State of ­Origin teams are announced.

Ponga has not made his side a premiership threat and yet it’s through no real fault of his own. How would he go in a better side? With more powerful teammates? You’d love to find out. Yet Queensland coach Kevin Walters was left yesterday with every reason to overlook the 20-year-old. Which would mean no Ponga for Origin. Which would be a damn shame. Which would be a reflection of his Knights’ teammates ­deficiencies more than the man himself.

Ponga was nailed by Luke Lewis and hounded by Wade Graham. Flattened. Smashed. He left the field for a head injury assessment. He passed it, but was quiet for the remainder of proceedings. You can’t state your Origin claims too emphatically when your side is getting pumped.

“A lot of people are commenting on Kalyn for many different reasons,” Knights coach Nathan Brown said.

“He’s got a certain skill set that is unique to a lot of players. If we can get him in certain situations, it can help him do his good stuff. For that to happen, he needs the team to do quite well. He’s going to come up with his own brilliant stuff but he requires other people to do good as well.

“Today was our worst performance … we never really got flowing today and a lot of Kalyn’s best work is done out at second and third receiver.”

Asked about the hit from Lewis, Brown said: “At the end of the day, Luke Lewis plays the game hard and pretty fair. If he’s got his timing wrong and a touch late, he’s certainly not the type of player to go out there and deliberately do it.”

The Sharks slipped into the top four after five-eighth Matt Moylan ran riot in his most industrious ­effort since he joined the club this year from Penrith. Six try assists. Five line-break assists. Muscled-up defence.

It was the Sharks’ sixth consecutive win. The Knights sank to 11th on the ladder.

“Credit to the young kid,” coach Shane Flanagan said of Ponga. “When I was doing the preview I sort of had to cut back because all I seemed to be talking about was Pongee. He’s had an amazing year so far. We had to make sure that were on him. We did a good job on him. He’s going to be a quality player for a long ­period of time but Lewie and Wade have been around. They know what they’re doing.”

The Knights’ crowd of 20,913 deserved better than a defeat. Ponga deserved better than being a one-man band. Meanwhile, Valentine Holmes bolted over for a hat-trick. Hello, Origin.