{"id":364164,"date":"2024-01-30T23:17:47","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T00:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=364164"},"modified":"2024-01-31T03:03:18","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T03:03:18","slug":"ponga-confirms-collision-course-with-origin-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=364164","title":{"rendered":"Ponga confirms collision course with Origin star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newcastle<\/a> superstar Kalyn Ponga<\/a> has revealed he won't be available to represent Maori at the All Stars<\/a> next month.<\/p>\n

\ufeffBut he says he will put his hand up for Queensland<\/a> selection after opting out of the 2023 State of Origin<\/a> series.<\/p>\n

This revelation puts him on an enthralling collision course with Broncos young gun Reece Walsh, who took ahold of the Maroons No.1 jumper amid a series win last year.<\/p>\n

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\ufeff"I do want to put myself\ufeff forward for Queensland this year," Ponga told Triple M Newcastle's Tanya and Steve<\/em> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffHopefully we can have another good season here and I can play Origin."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ponga – the reigning Dally M Medallist and highest paid player in the NRL – has played seven Origin games since making his Maroons debut in 2018.<\/p>\n

He played the winning 2022 series but withdrew himself from selection last year after suffering a number of concussions, the latest of which forced him to miss six games at the start of last season.<\/p>\n

His position has now been assumed by fellow gun fullback Walsh, who won't be giving up the prized No.1 shirt without a fight.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Ponga is opting out of the All Stars, revealing he won't be available to suit up for the Maori a third time.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"It's a special game for both cultures, \ufeffand I've been lucky enough to be a part of it for three series now," he said.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffBut I want to focus on the Knights and get myself right for the season."<\/p>\n

Newcastle stormed into the top eight last year and \ufeffmade it to a semi final before being bundled out by the resurgent Warriors.<\/p>\n

Ponga is determined to lead the team to a grand final to help justify his $1.4 million-a-year salary.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffThe excitement and the momentum from last year we've tried to carry into this pre-season," he said.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffThe standards are high, the expectations on ourselves are high too."<\/p>\n

The Knights open their season against the Raiders on March 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newcastle superstar Kalyn Ponga has revealed he won't be available to represent Maori at the All Stars next month. \ufeffBut he says he will put […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":364166,"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\/364164"}],"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=364164"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364167,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364164\/revisions\/364167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/364166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=364164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=364164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=364164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}