{"id":334481,"date":"2023-09-28T02:08:50","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T02:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=334481"},"modified":"2023-09-28T03:01:47","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T03:01:47","slug":"you-little-liar-what-johnson-whispered-to-ponga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=334481","title":{"rendered":"'You little liar': What Johnson whispered to Ponga"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaun Johnson<\/a> has revealed what he whispered to Kalyn Ponga<\/a> moments after the Knights fullback "robbed"\ufeff him of the Dally M Medal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Johnson sat atop the leaderboard for most of the latter half of the season, and was hot favourite to win the top gong at Wednesday's ceremony in Sydney.<\/p>\n

But as Ponga – who led the Knights to a 10-game winning streak at the end of their season – climbed up the leaderboard, even Johnson conceded in an interview on the Fox Sports coverage that he\ufeff feared he would be overtaken.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Wasn't going to go': Ponga's Dally M admission<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> AFL grand final umpire hits back at furore<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Maxwell bowls Aussies to pre-Cup consolation win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

In round 26 – the last game both men played for the regular season – Johnson polled enough to shoot out to a five-vote lead.<\/p>\n

But in a thrilling finish, Ponga was handed the maximum six votes for Newcastle's win over Cronulla, pushing him ahead of Johnson by one to clinch the medal.<\/p>\n

\"Shaun<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe pair were standing side by side with the rest of the NRL Team of the Year winners on stage when the Dally M was revealed, and they could be seen sharing a word.<\/p>\n

"I said to Kalyn up there, 'did you play the last two rounds?'," Johnson later revealed to The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

"He said, 'I didn't play the last one', and I was like, 'neither did I'.<\/p>\n

"When they gave me my points [for the last game], I asked him, 'how well did you play? Did you kill it?', (and) he said, 'I played good, but I didn't kill it'. I was like, 'OK'.<\/p>\n

"Then six points popped up, and I was like, 'bro, you killed it, you little liar'."<\/p>\n

While no one could argue Ponga's incredible form at the back end of the year, Johnson played five more games throughout the season and was more consistent for the Warriors.<\/p>\n

Johnson may also have been a victim of playing in a more rounded team, whereas Ponga stood out in most appearances for the Knights.<\/p>\n

Ponga was the only Knights player in the top 20 vote-getters, while Johnson was joined by teammate Addin Fonua-Blake who polled 44.<\/p>\n

Johnson's fiery teammate Jazz Tevaga took\ufeff to Instagram on Wednesday night to blast the Dally M system.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"\ufeffCongrats Kalyn but everyone knows it. SJ was robbed," the post read.<\/p>\n

"This is almost as bad as that forward pass."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Tevaga was referencing a Reece Walsh forward pass that led to a Broncos try in the preliminary final.\ufeff<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/LeagueScenePod\/status\/1707165491427758514?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/9_Moley\/status\/1707152234348175661?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

While there's a faction who do believe Johnson was robbed of the medal, the man himself could not agree.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I wasn't [robbed]," Johnson said.<\/p>\n

"Kalyn had a great year, he was the centrepiece of the Knights going on their run, and it was a really special run they went on. If there was going to be a person I thought was going to get it, it was him.<\/p>\n

"As the night goes on, and they string you along, your heart gets racing, and I was like, 'maybe I am a genuine chance of winning it'.<\/p>\n

"At some point in the night I started caring about it."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shaun Johnson has revealed what he whispered to Kalyn Ponga moments after the Knights fullback "robbed"\ufeff him of the Dally M Medal. Johnson sat atop […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":334483,"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\/334481"}],"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=334481"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334489,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334481\/revisions\/334489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/334483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=334481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=334481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=334481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}