'Look out' for Kalyn Ponga with a game under his belt, says Andrew Johns

After a dogfight that went down to the wire, the Cowboys prevailed 18-16 and the Knights, for the first time this season, were left pondering back-to-back defeats.

The result left them 11^th on the ladder, a point adrift of the top eight.

Ponga had missed the previous five games after he was concussed in Newcastle's round-two win against Wests Tigers, prompting an extended break that included a flight to Canada for state-of-the-art neurological scans and assessment.

In his 100th NRL game, the Queensland Origin representative was eased into action off the interchange bench, entering the match in the 27th minute and staying on the field until the full-time siren.

In that time, he gained 88 metres from 10 runs, made seven tackles, missing one, and threw the final pass to set up a try for winger Dominic Young.

Given his history of multiple head knocks over the past 12 months, there were concerns when a towering Chad Townsend bomb bounced directly on Ponga's head, but the 25-year-old shrugged it off with a sheepish grin.

Afterwards, Ponga told Fox League he tired quickly and was "just happy to get through the game", after sitting out the final six rounds last year, followed by rounds three to seven of this season.

"It's good to be back, to be honest," Ponga said.

"To be back out there competing ... it's just a good feeling.

"Unfortunately we didn't ice it at the end there."

Knights coach Adam O'Brien said Ponga looked "very busy" and would only improve with game time.

"I thought he looked dangerous," O'Brien said. "Our connections with him will get better.

"There's some timing stuff there with [Lachlan Fitzgibbon], but obviously the more times he touched it, the better we were looking, so that's exciting for us."

Speaking on Channel Nine's Sunday Footy Show, Knights legend and coaching consultant Andrew Johns said he held his breath during some of the collisions involving Ponga.

But Johns added: "I think we'll see the best of Kalyn next week ... look out."

O'Brien explained that starting Ponga from the bench was a logical option.

"As soon as we knew we were going to play him, I anticipated a pretty big response from the Cowboys," O'Brien said.

"I knew the week that they would've had, and I thought it's going to go down to the wire and we wanted him out there in the clutch moments of the game. And I thought it was a big ask for how long he's been out to come in and play 80 minutes up here.

"So we thought we'd delay the start and have him at the back end."

Cowboys coach Todd Payten acknowledged the impact Ponga had when he came on at five-eighth, prompting Tyson Gamble to switch to lock.

"I thought he had some classy moments, which is no surprise," Payten said. "He's an elite player. He made his tackles and he was a real handful for us defensively."

The Cowboys led 12-6 at half-time after Reece Robson and Kyle Feldt scored for the home team and Greg Marzhew crossed for the Knights.

After Cowboys winger Murray Taulagi was sin-binned in the 47th minute, tries by Young and Fitzgibbon gave Newcastle the lead midway through the second half.

But North Queensland edged back ahead in the 65th minute when Tom Dearden scored and they clung to their lead until full-time.

O'Brien was left ruing Newcastle's 66 per cent completion rate.

"There's way too many errors in our game at the moment," O'Brien said.

"It's good getting pats on the back for effort and they were still fighting hard at the end, but it can't be enough.

"We've got to want more. We've got to execute a lot better. I thought we were really sloppy with the ball in the first half.

"We didn't mount any pressure. I thought they gave us enough opportunities in the first half, but there was just a lack of discipline with the footy. Our ball-handling has got to improve."

Payten was relieved his side held on in the dying stages after missing 47 tackles.

"It wasn't always pretty but the effort, sacrifice is still there and we got away with a much-needed win," he said.

Tualagi will escape suspension for his late hit on Knights centre Dane Gagai but Payten was far from impressed with his lack of discipline.

"It's really hard to play with 12 men, and the decision by Muzz wasn't the smartest one," Payten said.

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