As a Knights Foundation Member, season ticket holder and self-confessed tragic, I feel compelled to make some noise about what has become an extremely embarrassing issue - the Knights handling (or mishandling) of the Kalyn Ponga toilet cubicle incident in August 2022.
If the Knights do not speak up and inform its members and fans of the facts, the club's decisions based on the investigation and the 2023 Knights captaincy, then it surely is the low point in the club's 36-year history in terms of honesty and integrity.
There has been a lot of conjecture and a lot of pub talk about what happened or what didn't happen.
What isn't in question is that on a night when their team was being flogged interstate, captain Kalyn and high-profile player Kurt Mann were videoed coming out of a hotel toilet cubicle together.
What were they doing in there together?
There are probably three or four possible things that come to mind (use your imagination), but Kalyn's manager, who is also his father, told a Sydney newspaper that Kalyn was out drinking, celebrating the purchase of a property, he'd had too much to drink and was being sick in the toilet.
Kurt was there helping his mate.
Yep, that's one of the things I was thinking that could have been happening.
Urinating, sword-fight style was another.
What you and I think happened doesn't matter, because soon after the incident, Knights Director of Football Peter Parr told journalists that the NRL Integrity Unit had started an investigation and that, until the process (which he estimated wouldn't take long) was finalised, the Knights couldn't comment further.
That was five months ago.
Since then . . . crickets!
So, now let me ask some questions from a fan's perspective.
First question: why were Kurt and Kalyn out drinking when the team was playing, instead of being interstate supporting their team, or at least watching the game on TV?
Quite frankly, it looks like they didn't care.
Second question: why were they drinking when injured? It was once common knowledge that injured Knights players are on an alcohol ban. Has this changed?
Common sense says someone with repeated concussions shouldn't be drinking at all, let alone to excess as reported by Kalyn's father.
Third question: what were they doing in the toilet cubicle?
Fourth question: what was the outcome of the NRL investigation?
Fifth question: if no rules were broken, nothing untoward happened, why hasn't Kalyn given his version of events, apologised for the bad look and promised to do better?
Sixth question: why do the Knights think they can sweep this ugly incident under the carpet, pretend it didn't happen, and treat loyal fans like dead set fools?
Last question: does Kalyn deserve to be the leader of our club?
Phil Gardner, Peter Parr - the Hunter community deserves better than what you have done here.
Clearly, the Newcastle Knights need better leadership, on and off the field.
Greg Mowbray is a leadership consultant and Knights Foundation Member (and tragic)
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