{"id":334392,"date":"2023-09-27T21:49:05","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T21:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=334392"},"modified":"2023-09-27T22:01:09","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T22:01:09","slug":"wasnt-going-to-go-pongas-dally-m-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=334392","title":{"rendered":"'Wasn't going to go': Ponga's Dally M admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

K\ufeffalyn Ponga<\/a> is the toast of the NRL<\/a> after taking out his first Dally M Medal at Sydney's Royal Randwick<\/a> on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

But the Newcastle<\/a> superstar wasn't even going to go to the event\ufeff, in what would have been an awkward situation for the organisers at the end of the ceremony.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Knights score Dally M double as Ponga pips Johnson<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> 'Super shoe' records leave a sport divided<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Clubs 'white with fury' as AFL lashed for 'deplorable' call<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But, luckily, an NRL official intervened at the last minute and insisted Ponga make the trip down.<\/p>\n

\"Dally<\/p>\n

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

"I wasn't going to go yesterday, to be honest," Ponga revealed to Nine's Today <\/em>on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

"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.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2023 NRL grand final exclusively live and free on <\/strong><\/em>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

"But I had to last minute get ready, and my mum… she can get ready pretty quick.<\/p>\n

"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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"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.<\/p>\n

"She's been there the whole journey of the last five years, and she deserves to be there.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"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.<\/p>\n

\"Webster's<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But it's more likely he was referencing \ufeffan incident in August last year when he was busted in a toilet cubicle with teammate Kurt Mann<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI let a lot of people down over the last year but something I wanted to do was make people proud," he told Today <\/em>on Thursday.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffIt probably hasn't sunk in yet, I haven't time to reflect on the night and the occasion and the year I've had.<\/p>\n

"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."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

K\ufeffalyn 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 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":334394,"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\/334392"}],"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=334392"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334397,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334392\/revisions\/334397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/334394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=334392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=334392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=334392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}