EXCLUSIVE: Andrew Johns blasts 'incompetent' Knights over 'amateur hour' Ponga saga

Club legend Andrew Johns has described Knights management as "incompetent" after the club released a statement revealing Kalyn Ponga was withdrawing from Kangaroos selection.

After the Knights finished eighth this season and were bundled out of finals in week one, Ponga said in the statement his priority is to win a competition.

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However, Ponga now faces a ban from the NRL for breaching his contract which states he must be available for Kangaroos selection unless he gets an exemption.

Ponga's decision predominantly comes down to fitness and ensuring he can commit to a full pre-season with the Knights.

If the Kangaroos were to reach the final of the Pacific Championships, they'd play that on November 10.

Last year, after CBA negotiations ended, RLPA president Daly Cherry-Evans confirmed to Wide World of Sports that players who have completed four pre-seasons or fewer can have seven weeks off while players above that bracket have nine.

With that considered, Ponga wouldn't be back until mid January.

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Speaking on Wide World of Sports' Freddy & The Eighth, Johns said he had "no problem" with players being reluctant to play end of season Tests due to the amount of games they play every year.

League legend Brad Fittler added that there needed to be a long-term plan to create a proper framework around rep football but described the Ponga boycott as "sad".

"I think if you don't want to play for Australia that's sad, at his age where he is at the moment, he should be chewing at the bit to play for Australia," he said.

"Club footy's so hard and dominates. Then Origin takes a huge toll, in the old days ... if there was a Kangaroo tour at the end, that's all everyone thought about ... I don't agree with it (the boycott)."

Fittler also explained the agreement between the NRL, players, clubs and broadcast rightsholders to ensure the best players are playing, while adding the Pacific Championships is part of a greater cause to promote rugby league outside Australia.

Despite that argument, Johns described a potential ban for Ponga as "ridiculous" and "absolutely laughable", comparing the often light suspensions for poor off-field behaviour to Ponga's decision.

"If he doesn't want to play, he doesn't have to play. Who cares? Let him go to rugby union then, it's his decision ... you can't make people play. If he doesn't want to play for Australia, so be it," he said.

While supporting Ponga, Johns did not offer the same backing for his old club, slamming management for mishandling the situation.

"It's not on Kalyn, it's on the Knights for being incompetent ... where's someone within the Knights saying 'hang on, just think about it for a second, what about we just say you need a cleanout of your ankle or something like that?'," he said.

"Who has let him come out and put himself up for criticism like that? Someone within the organisation, put your hand up."

"Someone within the organisation has to put their hand up at the Knights and say 'you know what I absolutely screwed this up', because someone within there should've said 'we need to sort this out because this won't pass the pub test and you're going to get hammered' ... absolute amateur hour," he added later.

"You've put your star player under so much pressure, it's ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous."

While Ponga's call around the Kangaroos is currently an outlier, Fittler feared other players could follow suit due to the growing demands put on the game's biggest stars.

The former NSW coach pointed to a wider problem within the code.

"This is one of the big problems of the game, we formed a commission to make decisions for the game but then anytime they want to make a decision it gets questioned so much and people go rogue and say I don't want to do that ... no one wants to abide by all the rules," he said.

"There's media rules where players have to speak after games and if players don't want to do it, no one is held accountable."

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