PONGA FLICKS SWITCH

mer North Queensland teammate Thurston.

Ponga made his NRL debut at the Cowboys and trained alongside Thurston in 2016 and 2017 before hismove to the Knights.

Ponga missed a chance to play Origin with his idol Thurston, who retired last year, but said he remains an inspiration.

“I would love to be the next JT. That would be cool,” he said.

“JT is one of the those blokes who doesn’t know what he is going to do, he just does it.

“As someone learning I was just watching what he was doing more than him telling me (at the Cowboys) because he is just a freak, and does things off the cuff. It was inspiring.”

Ponga hopes to take his first step toward emulating his hero in Origin II – just his second game starting at the back for the Maroons.

“The first 10-20 minutes was the fastest footy I had played but I felt comfortable,” he said of of Queensland’s 18-14Origin I win.

“I want to build on my last performance and get better. And winning the last game, the feeling is something you can’t describe but I want to feel it again.” on Melbourne’s Jahrome Hughes at the weekend. If the ARLC sign off on the harsher penalty, it would mean Barnett would have been referred straight to the judiciary for a potentially harsher penalty. Andrew Fifita was also hit with a crusher tackle charge.

The committee, which includes Panthers coach

Ivan Cleary, also recommended to the ARLC that no changes to the current interchange system be made.

“On the evidence presented, there is simply not enough reason to change the number of interchanges now,” Cleary (pictured) said.

– Michael Carayannis