{"id":301678,"date":"2023-05-29T12:42:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-29T12:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=301678"},"modified":"2023-05-29T14:59:28","modified_gmt":"2023-05-29T14:59:28","slug":"league-greats-call-for-permanent-ponga-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=301678","title":{"rendered":"League greats call for permanent Ponga switch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby league legends Paul Gallen<\/a> and Darryl Brohman have revealed their preferences for Kalyn Ponga<\/a> to stay at fullback after he produced a vintage second half performance against Manly on Sunday to seal victory.<\/p>\n

Ponga had one try assist and two line break assists on his return to the No.1 jersey<\/a>, after switching to five-eighth during pre-season.<\/p>\n

Regular fullback Lachie Miller was dropped to the bench in a significant shake-up with Tyson Gamble at five-eighth, and it appears that spine may be the best for Newcastle as a team.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Blues coach Brad Fittler confirms Nathan Cleary will play<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> NRL paid Gal for dirty Origin deed that won't happen again<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Ukrainian booed after 'embarrassing' rejection at Roland-Garros<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/p>\n

Former Queensland prop Brohman believes the No.1 jersey is ideal for Ponga, not only for what he offers in attack, but also protecting him from head knocks in defence. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"I\ufefff I was coaching yes, I think he's a fullback," he said on Nine's 100% Footy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Kalyn<\/p>\n

"When he's copped the head knocks, this year in particular, it's mainly been when he's defending, he doesn't have to do too much defence at fullback."<\/p>\n

Gallen agreed that defence is proving to be the main issue for Ponga when playing five-eighth, having already been ruled out for a number of weeks this season with a concussion.<\/p>\n

100% Footy is now available as a podcast! Subscribe\/follow via<\/strong><\/em> Apple<\/strong><\/em><\/a>,<\/strong><\/em> Spotify<\/strong><\/em><\/a> or<\/strong><\/em> Google Podcasts<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The representative star was overlooked for the Maroons ahead of the State of Origin opener with Queensland coach Billy Slater stating Ponga needs to play more football.<\/p>\n

"A lot (of his concussions) are in defence as (Darryl) said … Kalyn Ponga's a guy that's pretty much played fullback all through his junior grades so he hasn't had be in the frontline having to making 25 tackles a game so he's just not used to it," Gallen told 100% Footy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/p>\n

"He probably hasn't learnt to tackle properly to be honest … so putting him back to fullback, I agree with (Darryl), I think it's probably the best thing for his career."<\/p>\n

Brohman went on to praise Ponga for his second half showing against the Sea Eagles. \ufeff<\/p>\n

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

"I thought he was a bit slow in the first half but his second half \ufeffhe was outstanding for them and he was clearly the best player on the field," he said.<\/p>\n

"He's such a great mover, I think they've got to try save him as best they can, he's involved in every try they've scored just about … but he's just a super player and he did cop a couple of knocks earlier in the game and I think a couple of us held our breath."<\/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":"

Rugby league legends Paul Gallen and Darryl Brohman have revealed their preferences for Kalyn Ponga to stay at fullback after he produced a vintage second […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":301680,"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\/301678"}],"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=301678"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301683,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301678\/revisions\/301683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/301680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}