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Kalyn Ponga’s leadership at the Knights is safe, but two other players have been stood down as the club attempts to tackle a culture crisis head on.
Newcastle have stood-down outside backs Enari Tuala and Bradman Best as the Knights continue to revamp the club’s under-fire culture.
Tuala and Best will play NSW Cup this weekend after being late for the team bus on Sunday. The club’s new head of football Peter Parr said the duo were axed for “not meeting team standards”.
“They were late for the team bus on Sunday morning,” Parr said. “They weren’t late by a long-period of time. They didn’t meet the standards necessary that are best for the thing to do.”
It comes as the Knights investigate the toilet cubicle incident involving Kurt Mann and Kalyn Ponga.
Ponga will retain the Knights captaincy despite calls for the Queensland Origin star to be sacked as Newcastle skipper in the wake of his pub saga.
News Corp can reveal the Knights will not strip Ponga of the captaincy and will back the Maroons custodian to lead Newcastle out of their season of woe, which suffered another ruction with the toilet-cubicle revelations on Monday.
It can also be revealed newly-appointed Newcastle football boss Peter Parr will read the riot act to the entire NRL squad following revelations players are turning up to training late and not wearing appropriate club uniform at all times.
Parr’s three non-negotiables during his time as Cowboys football boss were punctuality, dress standards and off-field conduct and the new Knights head of football will ram home that message following the Ponga-Kurt Mann bathroom fiasco.
There has been a push for Ponga to be stripped of the captaincy for drinking while sidelined following three concussions in six weeks, but Newcastle hierarchy believe a penalty that involves sacking him as skipper is too drastic.
Parr will front the media on Tuesday to address the Ponga situation, which comes just a month after the Maroons fullback produced one of the greatest games of his career to inspire Queensland’s defeat of NSW in the Origin decider.
The Knights launched an investigation on Monday morning after a video showing Ponga and teammate Kurt Mann were filmed leaving a toilet cubicle together at the weekend. – which had been in circulation since late on Sunday – was obtained by News Corp.
Various sources close to Ponga and the club confirmed that the Newcastle superstar had told officials he was celebrating the purchase of a new home, had consumed too much alcohol and had become sick, prompting Mann to accompany him to the toilet.
The video shows the pair leaving the cubicle as a security guard from the venue reacts with surprise when he realises that one of the two men is Ponga.
It is understood the incident took place on Saturday night – Ponga purchased a home in the Newcastle beachside suburb of Merewether on Saturday afternoon after bidding $2.4 million at auction.
Later that night, the Knights were in Brisbane to play the Broncos. Ponga and Mann were not part of the travelling party because both are currently sidelined – Mann has been dealing with a quad injury.
