Kalyn Ponga WALKS OUT of press conference after copping a grilling about Wayne Bennett meeting

Kalyn Ponga is at the centre of a tug-of-war for his services in 2023 between current club Newcastle and new franchise the Dolphins – but he was in no mood to talk about it in the wake of his club’s 30-6 loss to Manly.

Following Newcastle’s third consecutive loss, Ponga fronted the media to face a barrage of questions about his future and his reported meeting last Saturday with Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett.

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It resulted in some terse reponses followed by Ponga gesturing to his coach Adam O’Brien and both of them walking out of the press conference.

Now you see him, now you don’t. Ponga smirked at questions about his meeting with Bennett before ultimately walking out of the media conference

When pressed on his meeting with Bennett, Ponga was blunt. 

‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but every time you ask I don’t give you an answer, so stay patient, I have people working on it, my focus is always here [at Newcastle] and you know that,’ he said.

Quizzed about his meeting with Bennett, Ponga said: ‘It obviously happened. Once it happened I moved on and I was worried about the [Manly] game.’

The reporters refused to drop the subject, however, forcing O’Brien to leap in to speak on behalf of Ponga.   

‘I can speak to that. [Firstly] it’s not a lunch date [with Bennett]. It’s his right, it’s in his contract, a contract we wrote,’ he said.

‘I’m comfortable because I don’t see a dip in any of his preparation and his hunger at training. That hasn’t wavered. I’ve got a radar out for that stuff.

‘At the end of the day, I want him to make the best decision with all the information on the table. Then there’s no regrets, and if he chooses to stay, he’s made the choice with all the facts. I’m really comfortable with it either way.

‘I know his teammates are in similar situations. I know [other deals] are not as high profile and [being discussed] at this stage of the year, but they all come off contract, they all negotiate, and they usually negotiate with more than one club.

‘We’ll get the answer, and he’s worth waiting for from my perspective.

‘Tonight, we should be talking about that performance, which wasn’t great for us.’

Ponga and the Knights endured a difficult evening against Manly, losing 30-6 – the club’s third consecutive loss after opening the season with consecutive wins.

It comes after former Brisbane Broncos and North Queensland Cowboys star Brent Tate said Ponga was not worth the dollars the Dolphins are reportedly offering him.

‘We talk about million dollar players and he is going to get a huge contract at the Knights,’ Tate said.

‘I love Kalyn and I think he is a wonderful player. But I still think he is pretty unproven when you talk about million-dollar players.’

‘I think Munster would be a great recruit for the Dolphins.’

Knights trainer Craig Catterick attends to Ponga who had blood coming from his nose after a high shot from  Harper and a collision with the ground.

Ponga had a mixed night for the Knights in the loss to Manly on Thursday night, scoring a try but also being forced from the field for a HIA just before halftime. 

He was caught by a high shot from Manly centre Morgan Harper and hit his head on the turf, before returning to score his side’s only try of the match. 

Manly coach Des Hasler said he was pleased with his players’ effort to contain Ponga and was confident Harper would not have a case to answer for the incident.

‘He’s a quality player, and one of the most dangerous things a player like Kalyn has is time; we thought we cut down a little bit, he said.  

‘I think he [Harper] will be OK. I think he was unlucky.’