The question that made Kalyn Ponga storm out of press conference

Newcastle Knights superstar Kalyn Ponga and coach Adam O'Brien stormed out of their press conference on Thursday night after a persistent line of questioning about the fullback's commitment to the club.

The Knights slumped to a third straight defeat courtesy of a 30-6 hiding by Manly at McDonald Jones Stadium on Thursday night.

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Already thoroughly disappointed by the team's performance, the Newcastle coach and his star player were then made to answer a string of questions about Ponga's future with the Knights, following a highly publicised recent meeting with Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett.

Ponga continually insisted that he's not distracted in the slightest by master coach Bennett's plan to entice him north to the NRL's newest club.

The Knights captain has an option in his favour for 2023 and 2024 in his current deal.

The possibility of exercising that option grew last weekend when it was revealed Bennett and Ponga had lunch the day after Newcastle's 18-0 loss to the Sharks.

Ponga, the Queensland fullback, would be the big fish Bennett is trying to land in his roster for 2023.

But after his side's third straight defeat on Thursday night, Ponga said he was not about to divulge his future in a media conference after continually being asked about the interest from the Dolphins.

He insisted, however, that he was able to put his off-field life to one side when it came to training and playing with Newcastle.

"I don't know if you notice, but every time you ask me I don't give you an answer. So stay patient, I've got people working on it. My focus is always here," said the 24 year-old, who is into his fifth year with the Knights after joining them in 2018 from the Cowboys.

"It (the Bennett lunch) obviously happened but once it happened, I moved on and worried about the game.

"It was disappointing the effort we put in at the end because we'd almost got ourselves back in a position to win," added Ponga, who had scored a try early in the second half only for a 10-6 scoreline to balloon with Manly pouring on three late tries.

"So my focus now is reviewing the game, recovering and then moving to next week."

Knights bristle over Kalyn Ponga questions

When more questions about Ponga's commitment to Newcastle came firing in from reporters, the Newcastle coach jumped in to show his backing to the superstar fullback.

"It wasn't a lunch date .... look, it's his right, it's in his contract - a contract that we wrote," O'Brien said.

"I'm comfortable because I don't see a dip in any of his preparation, his hunger at training. That hasn't wavered and usually I've got a radar out for that stuff," he said.

"I want him to make the best decision with all the information on the table, then there's no regrets. If he chooses to stay then he's made the choice with all the facts.

"I'm really comfortable with all of that and so are his teammates.

“I will get the answer, he is worth waiting for from my perspective so tonight should be talking about that performance which wasn’t great for us.”

However, it was one final question about Ponga's commitment to Newcastle that proved the final straw for the player and his coach.

"With each loss does it make it harder to stay here," one reporter asked Ponga.

The Knights captain had a chuckle to himself before glancing over to a clearly miffed O'Brien, who decided he'd heard enough and promptly walked out of the press conference with his star player.

with AAP

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