Triple M.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI think it\u2019s just a coincidence, but I don\u2019t know. How long have I been going on about Kalyn Ponga wanting to leave Newcastle for? He has been too afraid to take the jump.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one has moved on this yet, he wants out, guarantee you he wants to explore other options. He is exploring other options.<\/p>\n
Kalyn Ponga with Andrew McFadden at a Warriors sports bar in Auckland. Credit: Supplied.Source: The Daily Telegraph<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe he is afraid to leave the safety net of the $1.4 million and the life he has in Newcastle. I can tell you now, he definitely is thinking \u2018is the grass greener elsewhere?\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just do think it\u2019s a coincidence with the Warriors though.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Knights skipper is off-contract in 2027 and not free to negotiate with rival clubs until November 1 of next year.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, with uncertainty surrounding Ponga\u2019s future running rife, the gun fullback released a statement to insist he will remain at the club until the end of his contract.<\/p>\n
The leaked picture sent the rumour mill into overdrive, with News Corp revealing the circumstances behind the meeting.<\/p>\n
Ponga and his father Andre had flown over to New Zealand for a speaking engagement at the bar with former Warriors forward Sione Faumuina.<\/p>\n
Brown’s masterclass leads NZ to win | 03:13<\/p>\n
It was there that Ponga bumped into McFadden, who had placed some bets on Derby Day last Saturday.<\/p>\n
According to the report, Faumuina questioned Ponga onstage whether he would want to join the Warriors given his New Zealand Heritage, a question the superstar fullback laughed off.<\/p>\n
Ponga has been rumoured to be leaving the Knights when his deal expires after being linked to R360 and the Roosters in the past.<\/p>\n
Ponga wants to win a premiership, while a massive payday with the rival code could help set him up for life after footy.<\/p>\n
He has also shown interest in playing for the All Blacks in the past, but doesn\u2019t want to play Super Rugby, which is necessary to represent New Zealand in rugby union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rumblings surrounding Kalyn Ponga\u2019s desire to depart the Knights have once again surfaced, with one reporter declaring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-275143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}