{"id":301327,"date":"2023-05-28T14:09:19","date_gmt":"2023-05-28T14:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=301327"},"modified":"2023-05-28T14:58:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-28T14:58:42","slug":"disappointed-ponga-opens-up-on-brutal-origin-axing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=301327","title":{"rendered":"'Disappointed' Ponga opens up on brutal Origin axing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knights ace\ufeff Kalyn Ponga<\/a> says he was "disappointed" with his State of Origin<\/a> axing but "respected" Billy Slater's decision to opt for boom Broncos youngster Reece Walsh.<\/p>\n

Ponga fielded questions about his Queensland dumping<\/a> following Newcastle's 28-18 win against Manly at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Newcastle co-captain switched from five-eighth to fullback and was dangerous, setting up a try, tallying 169 run metres and generally being highly involved in attack.<\/p>\n

He was available for the Knights after Slater, in his second year as Queensland coach, picked Walsh at fullback for Wednesday night's State of Origin opener at Adelaide Oval.\ufeff<\/p>\n

READ MORE: '<\/strong>Joke': British star punished for Roland-Garros outburst\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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"I was disappointed early. I've got good support around me and … as soon as I knew what the decision was from Billy I accepted it, respected it and moved on," Ponga said of being cut from the Queensland side.<\/p>\n

"I knew I had a job to do this week for the Knights and nothing I did out there tonight was for Queensland … It was for the Knights.<\/p>\n

"I want to play games, I need to play a lot more footy and just be on the field.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"We had a good conversation, I respect Billy's decision and I support Queensland and I'm excited to see the boys go out there on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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

"But we had a good chat and I respected his decision."<\/p>\n

Slater admitted that Ponga's concerning history with head knocks, which led to him visiting a concussion expert in Canada this year, was a factor in his Origin omission.<\/p>\n

Ponga flew to Vancouver\ufeff for advanced neurological testing after copping his fourth concussion in 10 months in round two.<\/p>\n

The \ufeff25-year-old sustained more knocks to the head in Sunday's game against Manly but was not ordered off for a head injury assessment.<\/p>\n

"I just have to play games. I can't worry about that unfortunately," Ponga said.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2023 State of Origin series LIVE and exclusive on Channel 9 and<\/strong> 9Now<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"But fortunately today I had a couple and (they had) no effect and I felt fine.<\/p>\n

\"Knights<\/p>\n

"It's a part of footy and a part of my game.<\/p>\n

"I've had a couple but I can't worry about them … I just have to sort of move on and do my role and just try and play good footy."<\/p>\n

Walsh will make his Origin debut on Wednesday night, taking Ponga's place despite the Newcastle superstar scoring the match-winning try in the 2022 decider<\/a>.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I just want to win games here; it's honestly what I want to do," Ponga said.<\/p>\n

"I need to play footy \u2026 I've had a couple of tough months, to be honest, with the head knocks and everything that has been going on. So for me I just want to play good footy here. That's the priority and off the back of that hopefully things will come, but I can't worry about that."<\/p>\n

For 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":"

Knights ace\ufeff Kalyn Ponga says he was "disappointed" with his State of Origin axing but "respected" Billy Slater's decision to opt for boom Broncos youngster […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296851,"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\/301327"}],"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=301327"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301331,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301327\/revisions\/301331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/296851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}