{"id":910349,"date":"2026-09-29T23:40:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T23:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910349\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T23:40:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T23:40:20","slug":"nrl-news-2026-the-mole-kalyn-ponga-linked-with-nfl-switch-journalist-grant-cohn-comments-knights-fullback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910349\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: The Mole, Kalyn Ponga linked with NFL switch, journalist Grant Cohn comments, Knights fullback"},"content":{"rendered":"

American sports journalist Grant Cohn, who travelled to Melbourne to watch the NFL game earlier this month<\/a>, has become an instant NRL fan and believes Kalyn Ponga<\/a> could cut it with his team, the San Francisco 49ers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s like the smallest guy in the team,\u201d Cohn told his massive US audience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s their best player. He\u2019s like a combination of Christian McCaffrey and Cooper DeJean.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can really make people miss, he does offence and defence, he\u2019s a hell of a player … the best players in the NRL could play in the NFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe the 49ers could get Ponga.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohn was stunned that Ponga is \u201conly\u201d on a salary of around $1.2 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys are putting their whole body on the line for $1 million. Would American athletes do that? I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sliding doors\u2019 moment for Knights star<\/p>\n

Underrated halfback Sandon Smith is the accidental hero of the Knights\u2019 stunning grand final charge<\/a>, but 12 months ago he wanted to stay at the Roosters.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s management has revealed to nine.com.au this week that the talented half had his heart set on staying at the Roosters this season \u2013 until he was told there was no room for him.<\/p>\n

Having played most of his career with the Roosters, Smith saw his future at the club, until a sliding doors moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone pretty much knew that Daly [Cherry-Evans]<\/a> was coming to the club and they already had Sam Walker<\/a> and Hugo Savala,\u201d Smith\u2019s manager Gavin Orr said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got told we were free to look around and it came down to the Knights or the Cowboys. He decided on the Knights because he thought there was more opportunity to make the team, but he knew it would be tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cDylan Brown was the club\u2019s marquee signing and Fletcher Sharpe had the five-eighth spot sewn up … but with Dylan\u2019s injury he has played virtually the entire year and been a key man in getting the Knights to the grand final \u2013 against his old club \u2013 it\u2019s been an amazing season for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hero of the Knights\u2019 shock win over Penrith last weekend with his two second half solo tries, Smith now finds himself taking on the team that let him go in the season\u2019s biggest game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Roosters were transparent with me. I\u2019ve got no remorse toward the club,\u201d he said after the Penrith win.<\/p>\n

Warriors star in high demand\"\"<\/p>\n

Eddie Ieremia-Toeava.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Eddie\u00a0Ieremia-Toeava is a man in demand following his impressive season with the Warriors in 2026.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old back-rower played 13 games in the strong Warriors pack and impressed plenty of people with his hard-running and no-nonsense defence.<\/p>\n

But the Warriors, sensing that rival clubs are ready to swoop on the busy forward, are currently preparing an extension to his current deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ieremia-Toeava to sign a two or three-year deal in coming days.<\/p>\n

Eels skipper\u2019s bitter exit<\/p>\n

Eels NRLW skipper Mahalia Murphy set tongues wagging this week when she announced on social media that she was leaving the club – and she wasn\u2019t happy about the circumstances behind her departure.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve done some digging and it seems Murphy injured her knee early in the year and did not see eye to eye with the medical and rehab staff over the way her problem was treated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mahalia Murphy.\u00a0NRL Images<\/p>\n

Her form dropped as the injury affected her on the field and in the end, the club told Murphy there was no place for her in 2027.<\/p>\n

The Eels didn\u2019t even acknowledge Murphy in their tribute to farewell players so it\u2019s been a bitter ending.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With an off season to get the knee right, it will be interesting to see if a rival club gives her a chance. On her day, she\u2019s a top notch player.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American sports journalist Grant Cohn, who travelled to Melbourne to watch the NFL game earlier this month, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-910349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910349","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=910349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}