Knights coach Adam O’Brien has opened up on his initial fears when Kalyn Ponga went down early in his side’s 26-6 loss to the Sharks and criticised his team’s lack of energy.
Ponga was hit hard in a tackle early in the Knights’ loss, but passed his HIA and returned to the field to finish the match.
“Honest answer initially I thought, Oh no!” O’Brien said post match.
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“Because it was KP, but then when I saw the tackle I was OK. I watched the replay and I thought he would be OK.
“I think with this one there is an incident. They wanted to have a look at him off the field. I don’t have a problem with that.
“In the past we have probably taken him off for less, but I was OK with the one today. I can understand why they went and looked at him, but I was fairly confident that he would be back out there.”
Ponga is no stranger to concussions and HIA’s and was always confident he could come back onto the field.
“I felt pretty good to be honest,” Ponga said.
“Obviously I stayed down a little bit just from the contact. But in terms of my head and the concussion side of things I felt pretty good.
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“I went through the HIA and felt really good. I have been through this more than enough times now.
“I know what the procedure is to go through and I felt really good. I felt confident to come back.”
Ponga denied the club or the independent doctor treat him differently because of his history.
“I don’t think it is subjected to the player,” Ponga said.
“I think the club and whoever does it, it is the same. It is not going gentle on me or hard on him. It is what it is and if you pass certain questions then you get back on the field. I passed them with ease and I felt really good.”
Ponga was involved in an embarrassing moment in a play-the-ball, but revealed it had nothing to do with concussion.
“I have to take ownership for that,” Ponga said.
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“I thought it was last and I was spraying the dummyhalf for the pass. That’s completely my fault.”
The Knights players were seen multiple times in heated exchanges, but Ponga stressed that was just about maintaining standards.
“That is probably holding each other to a standard, but I wouldn’t say it is going at each other personally or anything like that,” Ponga said.
“I think you have to hold each other accountable. That happens in every team I’ve played in.
“At the end of the day you are just trying to get the best out of each other.”
O’Brien is confident Ponga will be ready to play for Queensland in Origin I.
“100 per cent,” O’Brien said.
“I’m excited for him to get into camp and play well.
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“You always want your players playing at the highest level. He will bring a lot of that back. He does every year.
“They come back better for the experience. I’m excited for him.”
O’Brien conceded his side were given a lesson in energy and enthusiasm form the Sharks and played far too slow.
“It just looked like there was one team out there that had a whole lot of spark about it,” O’Brien said.
“They looked very fast and we looked very slow and in second gear.
“I thought at 12-6 we looked like we were in it, but once they got that next one at 18-6 they looked even faster.
“We just couldn’t go with them. They were very good at slowing us down and we were very good at letting them play fast.”
O’Brien is searching for consistency from his side because they have showed they can match it with the top teams at different times in 2023.
“We have tried different things with our training loads and mixed everything up, but the reality is that is where we are at, at the moment,” O’Brien said.
“Knowing what it takes to win week in and week out through a long season. We are not there yet.
“We have shown signs this year that we are headed that way, but it takes a fair bit to just stick at it week in and week out and we clearly have work to do in that area.”