Why the Knights are going to pick and stick with Kalyn Ponga at five-eighth

Ponga's transition from fullback to pivot this year has come under scrutiny after suffering a concussion in round two that sidelined him for five weeks, followed by his flimsy defensive display in Newcastle's 43-12 trouncing by Parramatta in their last game.

High-profile commentators such as Andrew Johns, who works on Newcastle's coaching staff, Brad Fittler and Cameron Smith have since led calls for the 25-year-old to be reinstated as fullback, the position he has played for the vast majority of his career.

But Newcastle coach Adam O'Brien has faith in the enigmatic Queensland Origin representative and the club intends to back his judgement.

"Everyone has an opinion on what they believe is the best option, and the club understands that," Knights football director Peter Parr said.

"A player of Kalyn's stature is always going to attract attention, particularly given the circumstances.

"But Adam and the coaching staff believe the sample size is too small at the moment. The belief of everyone is that we need to give this time to work.

"We shouldn't just throw out the plan on the back of one sub-standard performance, from Kalyn and the team. We haven't really given it an opportunity to work."

Parr said Ponga would definitely start Sunday's crucial clash with Gold Coast at McDonald Jones Stadium, and not ease into action off the bench, as he did in his comeback game against North Queensland three weeks ago.

"He'll start," Parr said.

Newcastle had the bye last week, and while a number of their players went on holidays and had a complete break, Ponga remained in Newcastle to fine-tune his game.

In particular, he has worked overtime on his defence after missing eight tackles against the Eels.

"The defence is two parts," Parr said. "One is his tackle technique, and he's been doing some work on that.

"The other part is the organisation of our edge defence. So it's two-fold.

"I know he and the coaches have been working a lot on both and when he plays on Sunday, he can run out knowing that over the past fortnight he's done a hell of a lot of work to ensure he is well prepared."

Parr described Parr as a "brilliant player" who had proven his class at the highest level, particularly in last season's State of Origin series decider, when he was man of the match.

"None of us believe that the form he showed against Parramatta will be a long-term thing," Parr said. "There's no doubt within the club that he can become a very, very good five-eighth. That's not in question."

Parr said Ponga's switch to five-eighth was "always going to be under the microscope" because of his high profile.

"Kalyn had a big role to play in this change of position, and he's very determined to make it work," Parr said.

"He's had a couple of pretty extensive setbacks, and all the extra attention he gets probably adds a bit of pressure, but I've been really impressed with how he's handled himself.

"He doesn't appear to be fazed by any of this, and our job as a club is to support him, and that's what we've been doing."

Parr said Ponga was his own harshest critic but added that "he didn't have a lot of support" from his teammates against Parramatta.

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