It's just a hunch, but I reckon Kalyn Ponga will be the most-watched player in the NRL this weekend.
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If everything in the world was as we would like it, it would be purely because of his amazing skills and ability to change the course of a game with one play the opposition didn't see coming and couldn't react to in time.
That was what Newcastle Knights fans were hoping for last weekend, when their team trailed the Warriors by two points late in the game at Wellington and the situation was ripe for a bit of Ponga magic.
But, instead, Ponga was forced from the field for a HIA assessment on the advice of the NRL's independent doctor in the bunker after a collision with a Warriors player.
Ponga was incensed at the ruling and protested to the referee that he was OK, but subsequent replays of him clutching at his head on the ground supported the independent doctor's decision.
![Newcastle Knights skipper Kalyn Ponga will be under scrutiny each week after his spate of head knocks last season. Picture by Peter Lorimer Newcastle Knights skipper Kalyn Ponga will be under scrutiny each week after his spate of head knocks last season. Picture by Peter Lorimer](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/AFKkRPHwQbXhqFfb42nFTx/ff1baf5b-2ba0-415a-af48-0021848be37b.JPG/r71_1082_2236_3002_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The independent doctor presumably would have made that decision based on the evidence if Ponga had never previously taken a head knock.
Given that he had a significant history of head knocks and concussions, it was, for want of a better word, a no-brainer.
That's where rugby league is in 2023.
That's where all collision sports are, to varying degrees.
The NRL occasionally clamps down on things it considers negative for the game.
Remember the war on the flop tackle, going back a few years now, when there was just way too much of defenders joining in late - well after the tackle had been completed - to slow down the play-the-ball?
There are still examples of it, but the guts of the practice was penalised out of the game.
You don't need me to tell you the game's concentration on the concussion issue isn't one of those fads. What we don't know is how it is all going to end up.
Will the hysteria die down as everyone accepts that dealing responsibly with concussion is a necessary factor of the game and if the occasional result is likely affected and some playing careers are at first threatened and then shortened, then so be it?
Or, as Phil Gould says, will we eventually reach the stage where rugby league will no longer be played?
There's one thing for sure: the only way to eliminate head knocks and concussions from rugby league is to stop playing rugby league.
So the alternative is to treat the issue with absolute respect and regard player health and welfare as a priority, which is what the NRL is doing with its concussion protocols and with the on and off-field policing of games by match officials and medical experts.
Let's be realistic here: this is the only course the NRL can responsibly take.
We've already seen examples in recent years of playing careers being shortened because of repeated concussions.
So it's not a shock that it can and will happen.
By the time Ponga plays again, when the Knights take on Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday afternoon, six of the eight games in round two - starting with last night's clash between Penrith and South Sydney - will have been completed.
Who knows? Maybe it will have been relatively quiet on the head knock and concussion front compared to last weekend's drama.
But, either way, everyone will be watching to see how Ponga fares. That's just human nature.
Hopefully he'll be fine and - in the longer term - be able to realise his full potential and complete a great and rewarding career from here.
We all know how good Ponga is.
He's a poster boy for brilliance in rugby league, which is obviously a big reason there has been so much coverage of that first-round incident.
Wayne Bennett and the Dolphins went after him during their search for a marquee player to be the star turn in their first-year team in the NRL.
They were unable to sign Ponga, or Cameron Munster, or anyone else of that calibre, which left most people thinking they were in for a very difficult debut season.
The general view was that the forward pack looked solid enough, but that there weren't many points in the team and that they simply wouldn't be able to keep pace with many of the established sides.
But, already, Bennett has created good vibrations around the club by doing an outstanding job in preparing them to score a stunning upset win over Sydney Roosters in round one.
There was no fluke about it on the day.
No-one could say the Roosters were unlucky, or that they didn't at least receive full warning from what happened in the first half, which finished with the two teams locked at 12-12.
Whatever adjustments the Roosters presumably tried to make at half-time, tactically and mentally, didn't work and the Dolphins ran away with it in the end to win 28-18.
Can they keep it up? They've put themselves clearly on the radar now, so opposition teams can't say they weren't warned.
But, Bennett being Bennett, the master coach is going to keep saying all the right things to his players to keep them on track when they play Canberra at Redcliffe on Saturday.
He'll be making sure they're suitably enthused by their first-round win, but without getting carried away with it.
He'll encourage them to simply repeat their on-field approach, in a bid to get another.
Do your job.
Stick to the plan.
Enjoy your football.
It's still a pretty simple game, rugby league.
And, as has always been the case, you can get hurt playing it.
This is a difficult time for the game, but it's doing its best to navigate a path.
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