News Adam O'Brien reveals full extent of Kalyn Ponga's illness despite classy performance

chisdog

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Newcastle Knights fullback Kalyn Ponga has turned in a classy performance to down the Cronulla Sharks - and he had to do it with a mystery virus.

The 22-year old was in everything in the 26-22 thriller, scoring the opening try and the match-winner, as well as setting up another two tries for the Knights.

Ponga was seen to be visibly ill on the field, throwing up multiple times and struggling to keep up with the play later in the game.

Speaking to the media after the game, head coach Adam O'Brien revealed the full extent of he and Connor Watson's mystery virus.

“He played really tough. He obviously lives with Connor, and the both of them suffered from a virus," he said.

"Both are pretty crook, couldn’t eat and spent most of the time on the toilet in the past 24 hours. I was proud of both of them.

"To put himself in the frame – the one he set up was exceptional piece of skill. He played tough all night, but you could clearly see he was carrying something as well. We’ll get him on the mend and we’re on again in six days.

“I think they were trying to give him some medication to try and stop it. He was quite crook, but he was adamant he wanted to go back out. He looks a bit spent at the moment.

"Connor didn’t train yesterday, Kalyn did. I rang Connor this morning and he slept fairly well into the day, and seemed like he was going to be okay.

"Kalyn sort of deteriorated as the night went on. To do what he did was pretty amazing."

Ponga was clearly the best player on the park - a fact not lost on his skipper Jayden Brailey, who was full of praise for the QLD Origin star after the game.

“I knew he was crook – but I didn’t know he was spewing out the back," he said.

"He’s a tough kid and has been around the game for a while. I thought he was unreal. We just found a way to win tonight and he played tough – a lot of us did.

"He played a big part in getting us the win."

And if Ponga was the best player on the field, fill-in centre Brodie Jones certainly wasn't far behind.

An injury to Hymel Hunt in the opening five minutes forced a reshuffle to the backline, with the second-rower being forced into an unusual position.

"We put Brodie Jones in and I thought he was just exceptional. To do what he did tonight, he had his hand in eight or nine plays – that had me up and down. I’m not always animated when I’m angry – I’m animated when I’m happy," O'Brien said.

“When Brodie made his debut, it was after a captain’s run last year. I remember thinking geez he’s done a good job, he’s done no preparation. When you are the 18th man you say you are preparing to play, but just to get thrust into it after the captain’s run – he done a really good job then.

"He’s the kind of kid that just goes ‘right, I don’t have to overthink this’ and just needs to get out there and give it the best effort, and that’s certainly what he gave us. He gave us that and so much more tonight, he came up with some clutch plays defensively.

"He put himself in the frame to take that ball from Kalyn, and then he was there again at the end. I think I counted in the box or in my head, he was in eight piece of play that I actually stood up and applauded.

"He’s done a good job."

As for the overall performance of the Knights, who have now improved to 3-3 after six rounds, O'Brien knows they have plenty of improvement left in them to be a force in the NRL.

“It wasn’t so much the win – the wins are always important. We needed to see a response," he said.

"The things we were looking at were our starts of the game, we needed to be able to have a whole lot more intent to it than it did last week. I thought we made some steps forward in that area.

"There are certainly a heap of things we need to be better at. The good parts of it, that’s the expectation and in six days’ time, it needs to be the same.

"We can’t be having a really intent preparation to get to a game and start well – it’s got to happen next Thursday now.

"There will be some stuff we need to fix up over the next month."
 

chisdog

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The question I have is having gone through COVID-19 & the hell everybody in the code (along with the rest of the World obviously) if this virus is a mystery, wouldn't it have been more prudent to quarantine the pair & particularly not play them?
 

Psycho Doggie

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The question I have is having gone through COVID-19 & the hell everybody in the code (along with the rest of the World obviously) if this virus is a mystery, wouldn't it have been more prudent to quarantine the pair & particularly not play them?
Yeah, I thought the "soldier on" paradigm had finally been rejected. Selfish git is going to make other people ill.
 

BELMORE

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The Sharks squad probably been on the dunny all day today
 

NallaC

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The question I have is having gone through COVID-19 & the hell everybody in the code (along with the rest of the World obviously) if this virus is a mystery, wouldn't it have been more prudent to quarantine the pair & particularly not play them?
Exactly. Especially considering vomiting is classed as a minor symptom of cvoid19.
Knights should be fined and doc points for the breach of covid19.
 
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