{"id":321258,"date":"2023-08-04T07:44:12","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T07:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=321258"},"modified":"2023-08-04T08:58:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T08:58:55","slug":"crossroads-joey-unsurprised-by-grim-ponga-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=321258","title":{"rendered":"'Crossroads': Joey unsurprised by grim Ponga admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newcastle Knights<\/a> legend Andrew Johns<\/a> has admitted he wasn't surprised to hear the club's $1.4-million-dollar man Kalyn Ponga<\/a> considered retiring after repeated head knocks.<\/p>\n

Ponga spoke candidly with media during the week about his comeback, after only playing two games in the first seven rounds.<\/p>\n

"When I first came back I was a bit nervous," Ponga said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Sacked NRL coach snubs big-money move to join rival<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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"I wasn't hesitant, but I was nervous just because at one point I was looking at retirement at 25."<\/p>\n

\"Kalyn<\/p>\n

Since his return, the Knights have gone to another level and now sit on the edge of the top eight.<\/p>\n

Johns explained the circumstances around Ponga's concussions meant retirement was a path he could've taken. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"No I didn't know but it doesn't surprise me because he was in a bad way," he said on Wide World of Sports' Immortal Behaviour<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"He had half a dozen (head knocks) in 18 months, and bad ones, so he was really at a crossroads."<\/p>\n

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

The former Knights halfback said the resurgence from his beloved side was mainly down to Ponga. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"Ever since he's gone back to fullback, he just looks like a different player … I don't know how many games he's strung together now, whether it's eight or 10 in a row, but every game he plays where they've won he's been the best player on the field – he's such a talent, he's such a special player," he said.<\/p>\n

"His speed endurance (is great), which means you can sustain your speed even when you're tired,\ufeff and you can only get that really on the field, you can try and simulate it at training but nothing's like that game fitness.<\/p>\n

\"Legends'<\/p>\n

"He's lightning, when he's coming out on the back of those set moves, no one can get a hand on him.<\/p>\n

"He's very similar to Reece Walsh like that where the defenders think they've got him and he just burns them, that repeat speed, that speed endurance which he's getting because he's been on the field so much."<\/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>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newcastle Knights legend Andrew Johns has admitted he wasn't surprised to hear the club's $1.4-million-dollar man Kalyn Ponga considered retiring after repeated head knocks. Ponga […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":321260,"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\/321258"}],"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=321258"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321262,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321258\/revisions\/321262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/321260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}