The Joey Johns prophecy and Kalyn Ponga shot heard around the NRL world

September 28, 2026 — 3:04am

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“Kalyn as the Knights captain and best player, he’s not just leading it. He’s living it,” Andrew Johns says.

“That’s why Newcastle are going to win a premiership sometime soon. It’s because of him.”

Johns, on this day, an emotional Immortal and the last Knights captain to win an NRL premiership, is all jangled nerves, non-stop jiggling legs and newfound optimism, five days before one of the greatest wins in Newcastle’s history.

That was last Wednesday. On Sunday afternoon, Kalyn Ponga played with the same glint in his eye that Johns and the rest of rugby league have seen right throughout 2026.

But rarely before, and never so consistently from one of the game’s most gifted individuals.

Moses Leota, a premier front-rower of the past six years and outweighing Ponga by 15 kilograms, certainly never saw the Newcastle No.1 coming either when he was pancaked by the Knights skipper, with a critical late Panthers error following the very next play.

Nathan Cleary’s........

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