'Wasn't going to go': Ponga's Dally M admission

Kalyn Ponga is the toast of the NRL after taking out his first Dally M Medal at Sydney's Royal Randwick on Wednesday night.

But the Newcastle superstar wasn't even going to go to the event, in what would have been an awkward situation for the organisers at the end of the ceremony.

The 25-year-old had no excuse not to attend the event, living a couple of hours up the road in the Hunter city and with the Knights out of the running for the premiership.

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But, luckily, an NRL official intervened at the last minute and insisted Ponga make the trip down.

Players who finish high in the Dally M vote count, or who are selected in the teams of the year, are often tipped off by the NRL that they should attend the ceremony.

"I wasn't going to go yesterday, to be honest," Ponga revealed to Nine's Today on Thursday morning.

"When I woke up in the morning I actually sent the NRL an email saying I didn't want to go. I just wanted to sit at home and watch it on the couch.

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"But I had to last minute get ready, and my mum… she can get ready pretty quick.

"I didn't know I was going to win, and I thought it would be nice to sit at home and watch it from the couch.

"But once I knew that maybe I was going to be in contention, I thought if I'm going to win this it would be special to take Mum.

"She's been there the whole journey of the last five years, and she deserves to be there."

While most NRL and NRLW players arrived on the green carpet with their partners in tow, Ponga melted hearts by taking his mother to Royal Randwick.

The night could not have ended any better for the pair, as the Knights fullback stormed home late in the Dally M count and polled a maximum six votes in round 26 – his last game for the season – to pip Warriors halfback Shaun Johnson by one.

"I had an early season holiday and while I was over there I decided that I wanted to stop letting people down and start making people proud," an emotional Ponga said while accepting the medal.

Ponga almost retired from rugby league due to repeated concussions earlier this year, but a trip to Canada to consult specialists got him back on the field and his career back on track.

But it's more likely he was referencing an incident in August last year when he was busted in a toilet cubicle with teammate Kurt Mann.

Ponga had been named co-captain of the team that year. Newcastle's previous captain, Mitchell Pearce, had relinquished the leadership role after his own off-field scandal, and Ponga looked in danger of going down the same path.

"I let a lot of people down over the last year but something I wanted to do was make people proud," he told Today on Thursday.

"It probably hasn't sunk in yet, I haven't time to reflect on the night and the occasion and the year I've had.

"I guess once I knew that I was fine (from concussion) I just put my head down, I had a lot of belief around me, a lot of my teammates, staff, family, they all believed in me."