Kalyn Ponga’s reported move to rugby union is one which just makes sense.
It was reported on Monday that the star fullback has engaged a New Zealand-based rugby agent to gauge interest in a code swap.
It’s believed he could well end up in European rugby, where money is plentiful and Ponga would be paid a small fortune to make the move, although.
“Obviously there’s been whispers around Kalyn Ponga for some time, and rugby union,” Journalist Brent Read said on Fox Sports‘ NRL 360.
“He’s contracted with the Knights until the end of 2027.
“But, an agent, a New Zealand-based agent, rugby union agent, has been shopping Kalyn around Europe.
“Now, I’ve been in contact with the Ponga camp today and I didn’t really get a straight answer out of them.
“But what I’ve gleaned from their text messages is if he’s being shopped around Europe, it’s being done without them giving the agent the green light.
“That’s what’s happening at the moment with Kalyn Ponga, he’s being shopped, his name’s been mentioned by this rebel rugby competition that’s going on at the moment so he is on the radar of rugby union clubs.”
Per a report in The Sydney Morning Herald, it’s understood Ponga is happy to leave the Knights at the end of the season if a favourable deal can be worked out.
Ponga, who is believed to be on well over a million per year at the Knights, is keen on success, and the Knights are simply not delivering it.
The star fullback himself, who is out for the rest of the year with a foot injury, has struggled for form in recent seasons, knocked down by constant injuries and concussions, and the Knights themselves could look to go in a different direction.
The club are doing just that in the coaches box, with reports yesterday also suggesting Adam O’Brien could be a likely casualty at the end of the year.
While the Knights will need to stump together an enormous payout for the under pressure head coach, his future in the Hunter is clouded at best given the form this year. Newcastle are the NRL’s worst attacking team.
The Knights, reportedly looking to either Blake Green or Josh Hannay as potential improvements, are in the midst of a roster clean out as is, having lost Daniel Saifiti at the start of this year to the Dolphins, and with the likes of Jackson Hastings, Adam Elliott and Jack Hetherington all likely to depart at the end of the campaign.
That comes with salary cap pressures having forced the club’s hand.
They have used that to sign Dylan Brown, but that lies a problem in itself for the Knights.
They would be spending almost $3 million per year of their salary cap on Ponga and Brown if the duo are both still at the club when the new year ticks over.
Having the two highest-paid players in the game on your books is simply bad business, and while the Knights are yet to green light any move for Ponga, it would be foolish if they didn’t take a look.
Brown will come in, likely under a new coach, looking to change the way the Knights go about their attack, and a part of that could well be looking to the future.
Fletcher Sharpe, who has played five-eighth this year, is a fullback by training, and would be a suitable replacement for Ponga in a new-look Knights side as they attempt to rescue their attack in 2026.
With options in the backline, and a new-look spine where Matt Arthur could well become the first-choice dummy half as well, it would make sense as this being the timeline for Ponga to exit the Hunter, leaving the Knights with a war chest of money to play with in the next free agency window.
It means they could build a team around Brown, Sharpe and their new coach ahead of a push for better things in a few years.
All of that hinges on Ponga not soaking up seven figures of the salary cap though, and rugby union, with its seemingly unlimited resources in Europe, could be the way to go about it.
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