{"id":480298,"date":"2025-11-17T23:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T00:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=480298"},"modified":"2025-11-18T22:24:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:24:48","slug":"interest-rates-crazy-nrl-turns-on-ponga-over-bizarre-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=480298","title":{"rendered":"'Interest rates crazy': NRL turns on Ponga over bizarre ad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newcastle<\/a> fullback \ufeffKalyn Ponga<\/a> arrived for pre-season training on Monday under new coach Justin Holbrook with the New Zealand star a full participant after making a recovery from a foot injury suffered in round 17 against Canberra.<\/p>\n

But Ponga's presence on the training paddock did not seem as impactful as his appearance in an advertising campaign for\ufeff Hellmann's mayonnaise and clothing label REIGNER.<\/p>\n

In the ad, Ponga dispenses mayonnaise from a bow-tie he's wearing.<\/p>\n

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The Knights star makes around \ufeff$1.4 million a year from his NRL contract with the Knights and other NRL players took a dig at Ponga.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DRIbRMHjzdE\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp<\/a><\/p>\n

"Hope the $$ (money) was big lad," Knights teammate Matt Croker posted.<\/p>\n

Titans star AJ Brimson added: "Interest rates crazy atm (at the moment)."<\/p>\n

Roosters star Angus Crichton, Broncos premiership winner Jordan Riki and the son of Matthew Johns, former Knights player Jack, also weighed in with comments questioning the superstar.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Ponga has 371,000 followers on Instagram, making him one of the NRL's most recognisable players with a 'brand' almost as popular as Reece Walsh or Nathan Cleary.<\/p>\n

Ponga was limited to just 13 games for the wooden spooners last year, with his injury-riddled season taking its toll on the club, with coach Adam O'Brien quitting his post as a result of the pressure and scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Fit again Ponga arrived at training with other senior players, including Dane Gagai and Jacob Saifiti.<\/p>\n

New signings Dylan Brown and Sandon Smith will join the club in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There have been rumours that Ponga could look to push his way out of Newcastle, with the 27-year-old recently pictured speaking with New Zealand Warriors official, Andrew McFadden, in a sports bar in Auckland. There were also rumours earlier in the year that he was being lined up to join the Roosters to succeed James Tedesco at fullback.<\/p>\n

The latest interaction in Auckland was passed off as a coincidence by Ponga's management.<\/p>\n

Ponga is currently tied down to the Knights until 2027 and will form a new playmaker combination with big money signing Brown over the summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newcastle fullback \ufeffKalyn Ponga arrived for pre-season training on Monday under new coach Justin Holbrook with the New Zealand star a full participant after making […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":480300,"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\/480298"}],"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=480298"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480301,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480298\/revisions\/480301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/480300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=480298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=480298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=480298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}