Kalyn Ponga’s decision to make himself unavailable for post-season Tests with the Kangaroos is inevitable considering the workload of current players, according to former Test winger Josh Mansour.
Ponga has faced backlash after Newcastle released a statement on Tuesday saying the fullback would remove himself from eligibility for the Pacific Championships in October and November to focus solely on a full preseason with the Knights.
“I want to win a comp, for me anything short of that, isn’t success,” Ponga said.
“When I’m done, I want to look back at my career with a positive reflection, including people saying he was a great signing and represented our community to the best of his ability.
“For now, I don’t feel like I have earnt that yet, that’s why I have made this decision and will work hard every day to chase those goals.”
After ruling himself out of State of Origin in 2023 after repeated concussions, Ponga missed 10 weeks in the middle of the 2024 season with a foot injury, before guiding Newcastle into eighth place on the ladder with dominant performances in the last month.
Despite winning the Dally M Medal last year and being one of the best fullbacks in the league, Ponga has never played a Test for his country but was likely to be included in Mal Meninga’s squad after dragging the Knights to another finals series, albeit exiting in the first week with a loss to North Queensland.
NRL players are expected to make themselves available for representative duty unless they are injured, but the Knights’s statement only said Ponga was taking “his required break” before shifting focus to the 2025 preseason.
The statement concluded: “The Newcastle Knights support the decision that Kalyn has made and will respect his request for no further commentary on this matter.”
But not everyone is taking the same tack, including rugby league Immortal Wally Lewis.
“Each player is entitled to their own decision … but if I was in the same position, I wouldn’t be making the same choice,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Representing your country is the greatest honour you will ever have in your sporting career. I know all the blokes I had the thrill of playing international football with would give their left arm to play.”
ARL chairman Peter V’landys told News Corp there would be an investigation into potential ramifications.
Former Australian selector Bob McCarthy told the SMH he would “be putting the red line through his name”, while others, including former Penrith champion Greg Alexander suggested the withdrawal could have been a private conversation with Meninga, rather than a public statement.
Josh Mansour said players are at their “wits’ end” with the packed schedule. (Getty Images: Andrew Vaughan/CameraSport)
Mansour agreed with Alexander that the communication could have been handled better, but said he did not see the issue with a player opting to take a break from the busy NRL schedule.
“Can we just talk about the schedule? It’s 27 rounds,” he said on the ABC NRL Daily Podcast.
“If you don’t make the top eight, you go into a preseason in November, trials start in February, the season starts in March and if you go all the way to the grand final, it finishes in October.
“With that, you’ve got Origin footy, which Kalyn does play, and he’s obviously the captain of the club, he’s a fullback, he does arguably the most work that any player would do during a season.
“So, god forbid, he wants to have a break, go away from footy and freshen up mentally and physically, so he can be right to play footy and ply his trade next season.
“I do not understand what the big deal is, I really don’t.”
The former Penrith, South Sydney, NSW and Australia winger said “players are absolutely at their wits’ end” in terms of load management.
“The way the trajectory is at the moment, in rugby league, players are bound to fall apart,” he said.
“There are a lot of things that we have to sacrifice as professional athletes, especially when it comes to the international schedule after the season.
“We have to condense the season, we just have to. It’s over-saturated. Less is more.”
