V’landys confirms NRL investigating Ponga’s ‘disrespectful’ Kangaroos call
ARLC chairman Peter V’Landys has confirmed the NRL will be investigate Kalyn Ponga’s decision to make himself unavailable for Australia, though failed to confirm if the Knights star would be suspended or not.
NRL rules state that players must make themselves available for represented games unless they are injured, which Ponga is not.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, V’landys said “it’s quite surprising and disappointing that anyone would contemplate not taking that honour of representing your country.”
V’landys confirmed Nine’s Danny Weidler’s report from earlier today that the NRL are ‘discussing the possibility of banning Kalyn Ponga from games next year after his decision to pull out of Kangaroos selection.’
Asked if Ponga would be forced to represent the Kangaroos in future, V’landys said “I don’t want to use the word force, but I’m going to investigate this one, put it that way.”
However, V’landys didn’t confirm whether the NRL’s investigation would result in a suspension for the 26-year-old.
Newcastle officials had been informed that Ponga would be picked in Meninga’s squad for next month’s Pacific Championships.
But the 26-year-old made his stunning announcement on Tuesday afternoon, declaring his focus was on winning a premiership with the Knights.
“I want to win a comp, for me anything short of that isn’t success,” Ponga said.
“My focus has never shifted from wanting to win a premiership with the Knights, that has been my goal since I joined the club in 2018 and continues to be my focus.
“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 earned that yet. That’s why I have made this decision and will work hard every day to chase those goals.”
The Knights superstar came under fire from Tuesday night’s NRL 360 panel for how he handled the situation after it was revealed both the NRL and Meninga were unimpressed by his actions.
“The major sticking point here is the process or the lack of process that’s been followed,” Dave Riccio said.
“Make a phone call to Mal and say this is what I’m thinking, would you be ok with it and this would be a far different story.
“But the fact the media statement came out to the complete surprise of the NRL and Mal Meninga is what’s going to create a bigger story here.”
Braith Anasta called Ponga’s conduct “unprofessional” before journalist Paul Crawley called for a fine and an Origin ban.
“There’s ways to do things,” Crawley said.
“I looked at his statement that said he wanted to put his focus on Newcastle and at first you go well that’s fair enough, but when you start pulling apart the parts to this process that have been neglected.
“As I understand it the Knights had been informed he would be in the squad, so if it turns out that he didn’t put in a call to the NRL and especially to Mal Meninga, that’s just an absolute show of disrespect and a slap in the face.
“The NRL have to take a stand on this because in the past, in eras gone by, it was always up to the representative doctor to make a decision on whether a player was available or not.
“That seems to have disappeared in where clubs have taken on more professionalism, but there’s no talk of injury here.
“If the NRL doesn’t take a tough stance, it opens a loophole for other clubs to say in the future that we don’t want our players playing for Tonga or Samoa or Australia or New Zealand in the end of season Test matches.
“It’s a show of disrespect to the NRL where’d you’d almost slap him with a fine for bringing the game into disrepute and you wouldn’t let him play Origin next year. If you don’t want to play Tests, well Origin is a selection trial for the Australian team.”
Ponga made himself unavailable for Queensland selection last season following several concussions and it paid dividends as he stormed home to win the Dally M Medal.
Ponga missed nine games for Newcastle this year with a foot injury and finished the season in sublime form as he single-handedly dragged his club into finals.
They were knocked out in week one by the Cowboys and Ponga now won’t play again until next year following his Kangaroos snub.
“It’s just unnecessary, there’s a way to go about things and it’s happened a few times with Kalyn’s camp,” Anasta said.
“If you just handle things the right way, it gets you a long way and people understand. We don’t know what he’s going through, it could be anything. But if you ring the coach, you ring the NRL and tell them those reasons then Mal would go ‘no worries’.”
Crawley highlighted that there was a precedent for Ponga’s situation and how to handle it.
“I remember when Jamie Lyon didn’t want to play rep football anymore and he took time out to ring Ricky (Stuart) and I spoke to Ricky after that and I remember him saying ‘I admire his honesty’,” he said.
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