Tedesco and Ponga went through different worlds to meet in NRL grand final

Source : ABC NEWS

Sunday’s NRL grand final between the Roosters and Newcastle is a land of contrasts and nowhere is more apparent than the difference between the two fullbacks and captains, James Tedesco and Kalyn Ponga.

Their position, status and ability is about all the two have in common and right from the start the two have walked very different paths to Stadium Australia.

Ponga has been in the papers since he was 15, his first highlights went viral when he was only 17, his first NRL game was a sudden-death semi-final and his first touch was a scorching linebreak that announced a new prince was born.

Once he joined Newcastle in 2018 and finished as the Dally M runner up in his first full season in first grade, his talent was so blinding he never had to prove himself — belief was in his ability was assured.

The world was his, because everyone in rugby league was so eager to give it to him.

For the 33-year old Tedesco, things were different. The Camden product was a good junior, but far from a great one. Just making first grade was far from a guarantee.

Eventually, he didn’t just run down those who were ahead of him, he raced right past them and by the time he made his NRL debut for Wests Tigers in Round 1 of the 2012 season he’d shown himself to be a player of the future.

But that future would have to wait. Where Ponga’s debut was covered in chrome, Tedesco’s became the hardest day of his young life when he blew his knee out 30 minutes in and was stretchered off Leichhardt Oval in tears.

It kicked off a series of injury troubles and it wasn’t until three seasons later that Tedesco managed to shrug them off and become an every-week first grader.

During those years, the naysayers rose up and once again Tedesco outlasted them. He is a player of enormous internal motivation — for him, improvement is less of a journey to be better than a compulsion that defines him and he has put a saddle on that beast and ridden it to greatness. 

The doubt of others is the whip he uses to flog it, like he did when time seemed to come for him as he lost his New South Wales and Australian spots two years ago.

He was old enough to go quietly into that good night without shame, and after a career of magnificent achievement the game was prepared to move on only Tedesco would not let it.

“In 2024 and 2025 when I wasn’t playing Origin or Test footy, people were doubting me a bit and I got some drive from that,” said Tedesco.

“I’ve been used to that — growing up I was told I wasn’t going to make it when I wasn’t picked in teams, when I had injuries at the start of my career people told me my body wouldn’t last.

“Those external things do motivate me, but the internal one is still the biggest. That’ll always be there for me and when it isn’t I’ll realise it’s time to finish.”

It had been so long since he was counted out but Tedesco still fought like a demon to prove himself one more time as he claimed last year’s Dally M medal and returned to Origin this season.

It has given him a second life but it’s still not enough. He is not satisfied and doubts he ever will be.

“I’ll never be happy with my game. I always want to improve and learn and get better,” said Tedesco.

“That’s a part of me, that’s been ingrained in me since I was a kid. It’s got me to where I am today.”

Tedesco has been in that place for many years and that is where Ponga now strides towards.

Right from those first days in Newcastle his raw star power, through no fault of his own, quickly made him bigger than the club he played for.

The adulation continued to flow like a river as the highlights and the Fox League spots stacked up as personal success came naturally to Ponga, but in terms of team success there were many lean winters.

The 29-year old didn’t play in a final until 2020, didn’t win one until 2023 and in the last three weeks the Knights have more finals victories than the rest of Ponga’s time with the club combined.

What seemed like a pre-destined journey to the top has not always been smooth. But if Ponga could speak to his younger self he wouldn’t ask him to change because if he did it might not have brought him to where he is right now.

“He’d have wanted it earlier, he was impatient. But it makes it sweeter, to go through those tough times — the adversity, injuries, bad years,” said Ponga.

“All the emotion came out when Sandon (Smith) took that intercept. But I wouldn’t trade any of it because I’m grateful to be here now.

“There was a lot of tension. I think everyone was riding that last minute with us. The relief — nine years I’ve been here and I’ve always dreamt of being in this position and it came true with that intercept.”

Ponga’s uncontainable passion as a leader has been vibrant and bustling and it’s come through in his football, which has perhaps been better but has never been tougher.

He has not scored a try or set one up in this finals series even as he’s been outstanding in all three matches, with his running game, defence and leadership coming to the fore.

“When you grow up, you mature — or you’d hope so. The environment I’m in has changed, it allows me to be the best version of myself and it allows me to be myself,” said Ponga.

“There’s no pressure on me to be someone I’m not, as a player or a person. Justin (Holbrook) has done that and this playing group has done that.”

The raw and bleeding edge Ponga has showed is a far cry from his younger days, when sometimes he could be a little too relaxed for his own good.

It helped him carry the weight of a city, a club and a game that expected so much of him, but other times it came to the surface in ways that did not befit a player of his stature — most notably when he said a strawberry thickshake lifted his spirits after coach Nathan Brown was sacked in 2019.

“Off the field, early in his career, he’d probably admit he was a bit lackadaisical. He was cruisy, he’d kick back,” said Bradman Best, who first played alongside him that season.

“Now he holds everyone accountable, he drives standards. He’s having an impact on other people.

“He’s found that balance between staying calm and firing up.”

Young prop Cody Hopwood, who was just 11 years old when Ponga first came to town and knows him only as he is now, puts it best.

“He doesn’t try and overdo the role, he doesn’t try to be someone he’s not,” said Hopwood.

“He’s Kalyn Ponga and that’s enough.”

The Roosters always expect to be in grand finals so on some level they knew they could be here but the Knights have known it as well, as long ago as the old days of about three weeks ago.

Plenty said they’d never get anywhere, but now we know that they knew better and while Ponga has envisioned lifting the premiership trophy plenty of times before it’s only in the last two weeks that it’s come into sharper focus.

“You do it nearly every day because it gives you a purpose. It’s why you wake up and train so hard, it’s why you dedicate yourself to this, it’s why you put your body through things you shouldn’t,” said Ponga.

“But it didn’t become a reality until after the Warriors, before that it was just a thought.”

Ponga’s love for his club and his town is palpable and that’s important because it hasn’t always been so.

Over the years there have been whispers of moves to Sydney — the Roosters were always meant to be in the mix, even with Tedesco — or of a possible move to rugby, plus a serious flirtation with the Dolphins when they were entering the competition.

But earlier this season he signed for another four years on a watertight contract with none of the clauses or flexibility he’s had in the past.

It was a show of faith that has been rewarded and since his transformation from a great player who plays for the Knights into a great Knight and now he is Newcastle, forever and always, no matter what.

“We’re in it and to see it, to feel it, it’s inspiring. It’s everything you ever dreamt of,” said Ponga.

“I’m proud to be a part of this club. I’m proud to lead these boys. I’m proud to be a part of this community.”

A grand final win will be a moment for ascension for Ponga’s nine years with the club and he has moved to the edge of paradise because he has been able to fuse the internal and external motivations as Tedesco has long done.

For Tedesco and his Roosters it’s a bit simpler. Having slayed the latest demons, he wants to take the feelings out of the grand final as best he can.

Their key is to keep this as a football game rather than a holy war, to be as calm in the face of overwhelming passion as Ponga once was.

“Just the other night I found myself thinking about the game almost too much, thinking about moments and what could happen,” said Tedesco.

“I had to get away from that, because I didn’t want to play too early. But it’s not about the result, it’s about the performance and the process.

“It’s easier to say that than it is to do it, but that’s something I have to instil into the boys.

“Be proud of where we are, but know the job isn’t finished.”