The Daily Telegraph\u2019s Dean Ritchie says Ponga\u2019s contract would limit the incoming new coach\u2019s flexibility with the Knights roster.<\/p>\n\u201cIs it time that with a new coach, and we believe it\u2019ll be Blake Green, is it time for Kalyn Ponga to move along,\u201d Ritchie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet Blake Green have some room to move in his salary cap and then he can go out and mold a roster that suits him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this side isn\u2019t good enough now under Adam O\u2019Brien, and there\u2019s no room for Blake Green to move under the salary cap, then is Blake Green inheriting the same side which means more likely, he\u2019ll get the same results?\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ponga is world class, but it\u2019s not like the Knights don\u2019t have options to replace him.<\/p>\n
Local junior Fletcher Sharpe burst onto the scene this season before injury ended his 2025 campaign. <\/p>\n
Foxsports.com.au\u2019s Paul Crawley agreed with Ritchie, noting Sharpe\u2019s development, however believed the Knights might have missed the boat with a couple of potential free agent signings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem for the Knights is Brown and Ponga is chewing up so much of the salary cap,\u201d Crawley<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could\u2019ve worked if Kalyn was to move onto another club, I thought that Fletcher Sharpe is a ready-made fullback. You had blokes on the market like Toby Sexton and Reed Mahoney and for Kalyn\u2019s money, you could have completed your spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying any of those players are in his class, but it could have been a more complete side. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnless one was to leave. There were rumours about Kalyn potentially putting out feelers for this new (R360) rugby competition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adam O\u2019Brien\u2019s replacement at the Newcastle Knights will be handed a playing roster bent \u201cout of shape\u201d by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-98225","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\/98225","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=98225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}