{"id":293140,"date":"2023-05-04T20:21:22","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T20:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=293140"},"modified":"2023-05-04T21:58:54","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T21:58:54","slug":"grim-reality-check-in-joeys-ponga-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=293140","title":{"rendered":"Grim reality check in Joey's Ponga admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

N\ufeffewcastle<\/a> legend Andrew Johns<\/a> has implored Knights coach Adam O'Brien to move Kalyn Ponga<\/a> out of the halves.<\/p>\n

That opinion carries significant weight, given two-time premiership winner Johns is employed as a halves consultant at the club.<\/p>\n

He has previously endorsed Ponga wearing the No.6 jumper<\/a> but he now says the million-dollar superstar must revert to fullback to regain some confidence.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Vegas-bound boss defends gambling-charged pursuit\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong>

Joey: Bizarre Dragons switch that led to star's axing\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Ponga looked lost at times as the Knights missed a whopping 61 tackles in a 43-12 loss to Parramatta<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

\ufeffIt was his second game back from a lengthy concussion layoff, during which he flew to Canada to consult specialists using machines not available in Australia.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ponga was knocked out in round two against the Tigers, continuing a worrying recent history with serious head knocks.<\/p>\n

"He is lacking confidence, obviously, coming back from the head knocks," Johns told Wide World of Sports' Freddy and the Eighth<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"He shouldn't be playing five-eighth. Should go straight back to fullback.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong> 9Now<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"(But) then Lachie Miller has been their best player (at fullback)… I don't know.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Miller, a former Olympic rugby sevens player, has been impressive \ufeffsince adopting the No.1 jumper at Newcastle.<\/p>\n

Ponga is an Origin-class fullback, however, and his transition into the halves has so far not gone to plan.<\/p>\n

\"Boys<\/p>\n

While he's the incumbent Queensland No.1 Phil Gould this week said there is "no way" Ponga is ready for the Origin arena.<\/p>\n

\ufeffJohns was also left fuming at several Knights players – not including Ponga – heading to Bali this week for a bye-round holiday.<\/p>\n

\ufeffGould teed off on the issue on his Wide World of Sports podcast this week.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffIf you were a player and you get beat by 50, you wouldn't go away," Johns said to Brad Fittler on Freddy and the Eighth.<\/p>\n

"You would be into training on Monday morning training on your own, guarantee."<\/p>\n

Newcastle's next game is against Gold Coast on Sunday week.<\/p>\n

\ufeffFor a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N\ufeffewcastle legend Andrew Johns has implored Knights coach Adam O'Brien to move Kalyn Ponga out of the halves. That opinion carries significant weight, given two-time […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":293142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=293140"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293145,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293140\/revisions\/293145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/293142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=293140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=293140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=293140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}