The Knights announced on Anzac Day<\/a> that Ponga, who was already contracted until the end of 2027, has extended that commitment for at least three more years.\u00a0<\/p>\nHolbrook was excited and encouraged about the new deal that will keep their captain in Newcastle until the end of 2030, with the Knights holding an option for another two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Supreme effort play from Ponga<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw what we\u2019re capable of, those first couple of games of the year when you\u2019re at full strength… so to get him back on the field, and a host of others, is exactly what we need,\u201d Holbrook said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe effort was fine [against Penrith], but it\u2019s the understanding of how to play the game, and individuals have got to play at their best at the moment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously know we\u2019ve got some troops missing and we need to all be at our best and we weren\u2019t there today, but from a coaching point of view, the boys tried so hard.<\/p>\n
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Phoenix Crossland Try<\/p>\n
\u201cBut against the class of what we\u2019re playing, you can\u2019t give them that many opportunities and fumble your way.”<\/p>\n
Speaking to Fox Sports in the lead-up to kick-off against Penrith, Ponga revealed that the signing of Dylan Brown to a 10-year contract, reportedly worth $13 million, was one of the main reasons he decided to stay in Newcastle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy? This place is home to me, and I\u2019ve said it from day one, I want to win a comp here,\u201d Ponga told Fox Sports.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the addition of some players definitely gave me that confidence to stay. I mean, Dyl Brown being the big one, \u2018Sharpey\u2019 (Fletcher Sharpe), the way he\u2019s progressed, and there\u2019s a core of boys that have been here for two, three, four years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI know they want to win and they\u2019re hungry. We\u2019ve got some young boys coming through, and the coaching staff, Justin Holbrook, the way he\u2019s just changed our environment, I sort of rambled on a little bit there, but that\u2019s a few reasons why.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown, only two games back from a knee injury he sustained against the Sea Eagles, will now get to play alongside Ponga for at least half of his 10-year tenure at the Knights.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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NRL Best Moments \u2013 Round 8<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a team that\u2019s better with him playing in it, so for another three years, on top of what he\u2019s already here for, five years now, it\u2019s some big news and I\u2019m really happy for him,\u201d Brown told NRL.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something he\u2019s definitely thought about for a long time. There\u2019s things that he could obviously go to elsewhere, but it\u2019s good to see that his heart lies here with Newcastle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if he\u2019s back next week or the week after or whenever, but like I said, when he\u2019s playing, everyone plays better around him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the morning of the game against the Panthers, at the club\u2019s Centre of Excellence less than one kilometre from McDonald Jones Stadium, Brown noticed Ponga training alongside Lucas, Best and Marzhew as part of their recovery and rehabilitation program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure who\u2019s back next week, if anyone is confirmed back, but of course, anyone that comes back from that group, it will be pretty good,\u201d Brown said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Bradman Best Try<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were watching them today, actually, when we met up at the Centre of Excellence, the whole left edge was actually training.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit weird to see but it just shows there\u2019s a lot of talent to come back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Knights and New Zealand Test hooker Phoenix Crossland, a teammate of Ponga\u2019s in Newcastle since 2019, described his retention as \u201cmassive\u201d for the club, and the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, Kalyn is one of my best mates so to see him for another three years, it\u2019s outstanding,\u201d Crossland said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s our captain, he leads this club, and it\u2019s good that he\u2019s here for another three years. It\u2019s really exciting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his first home game for Newcastle, Brown had few chances to shine in the first half as the Knights made too many handling errors to ask any serious questions of the Panthers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But he dummied and stepped into space to run away and score a 65-metre try in the 52nd minute, cutting Penrith\u2019s lead to 30-12, and made a similar line break and long run a few minutes later but could not link up with Sharpe in support.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Dylan Brown Try<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a big day, being Anzac [Round], but the big moments that we wanted to attack, we didn\u2019t really ice them,\u201d Brown said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like we played some good footy but in terms of moments and icing them \u2013 our errors and our completion rate \u2013 they were terrible. I think we handed the ball over on first tackle like six times, and it\u2019s pretty hard to win when you\u2019re doing that stuff.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh from committing to Newcastle for at least another three years, Knights captain Kalyn Ponga looms as one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-399984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}