Bloke In A Bar
PONGA'S SEND OFF!? RIGHT OR WRONG? BLUES Down 20-0 into The MIRACLE ESCAPE!
28 May 2026
Chapter 1: What are the initial thoughts on Ponga's send-off?
Matty, I'm heading up to Brizzy for a big week of footy soon, you in?
Chapter 2: Was it a justified send-off for Ponga?
Of course. I'm super keen for the Friday matches, but I'll be there all weekend.
Yeah, same, massive games on. The whole week's going to be chaos. Actually, I was thinking, my place is just going to be sitting empty that whole time. And I'm thinking like, why wouldn't I just put it on Airbnb and make a bit of cash while I'm away? And you've been to my place too. Good spot, good location. I know people who do it every time they go away. They call it a cheat code.
A couple of nights while I'm away alone and I would make enough extra income to pay for our next trip to Queensland. That is actually a great shout. I'm telling you, it's a no-brainer. If your place is just sitting there, you may as well make it work for you. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com.au slash host. What is up, ladies and gentlemen?
Welcome to Back In My Day, and what a night of rugby league. I tell you what, the pessimist or the cynic in me is absolutely loving this. I just, I go, I open my phone, and I just scroll, and all there is is blokes yelling at each other. It is carnage out there.
Chapter 3: What insights were gained from the NSW review?
It is the Wild West, and I'm watching the world burn. Rugby league, state of origin, it brings out the best and worst of us. It has been chaos on the internet last night, and I've just been going, you know what? It was actually funny, a few years ago, I... when Origin, like a big moment happened in Origin, I was like, you know what, promise myself, me and Matty spoke about it.
Never read an Origin comments again. It is like, it is psychotic. Now I've gotten to the point where I just like, you know what, just embrace the chaos, embrace the chaos. How chaotic is this last, you know, 18, 16 hours been?
Mate, I live for it. And that's what Origin provides. Get your popcorn out. Do yourself a favor. Go down a rabbit hole and just pick a few of your favorite posts and just read the comments for the next three hours. It's entertainment.
It is chaos out there. Literally, my feed is just blokes yelling at each other. They're just yelling at each other. Rude, how you going, mate? I'm doing well, mate. It's just been a hectic 12 hours. So it's been wild. I think, mate, coming out of last night as a Blues fan, I'm stoked we got a win. We didn't play well. I think there's so many truths that can come out of this game.
I'm reading stuff on the internet, and yeah, you've got your proper cowboys out there that are losing their minds. But then I'm reading a lot of comments from Queensland and New South Wales fans, and I'm like, I don't think either of you are wrong. Yeah, there's so many different perspectives. It's a great win for us. We don't get many of them. It's a great fucking win.
The reality is we weren't the better team.
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Chapter 4: How did Queensland perform in their review?
We know that. I think most sensible Blues fans know that. So that's not for a great game too, though. You know, it's a weird, it's almost like a folklore moment for the Blues, but you can't really fully lean all the way into it because it's like, we played pretty good.
Yeah, it's like a bit of an asterisk. And respectfully, it does feel like it's like an origin Stephen Bradbury.
Yeah, it's got a bit of that feel to it.
Yeah, what it feels like. Let's be honest. Like, I'm so stoked. Aussie won the gold medal, but, like, fuck, everyone fell over. It's like, you know what I mean?
That's what it feels like. I like the analogy. I wouldn't go as far as to say it was a break. Probably not as extreme. I will say this. I really liked the Blues' patience. Like, they didn't panic. I know Queensland were dominating for when they had most players on, especially, you know, opening up that second half, Queensland's field position, like, you were literally camped in your own end.
But I do, me personally as a Queensland, I give a lot of respect to the fact that they didn't panic. Like I think the Blues of the past, if that happens at the same time, they start wigging out and trying to score all the time. There's a bunch of errors. They stayed patient, the Blues, they didn't get too crazy and eventually just got the win in the end.
All right, let's just get straight into it. Don't forget, guys, Bloke Spray Jackets.
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Chapter 5: What were the key moments that defined the match?
They're already basically sold out. There's a few left. Go to bloke.shop to make sure to get them because once they're gone, they're gone. The send-off. The send-off. Okay, so... First, I'll ask you, was it a send-off?
And then we will talk about Ashley Klein's decision, it seems like, to over-call the bunker or at very least be told that bunker has a different opinion on what it should have been. And then we will also talk about the fact that KP only got charged. I'll go to you first, Roo. Was it a send-off? So many layers to this, isn't there? It's wild. For me personally, I thought live Sinbin.
I think you put it best all before we're talking that, you know, there's what we look at rugby league and what I grew up with as rugby league and what the punishment should be. Then there's 2026 and how we look at the game and how things have changed, all that sort of stuff. I thought Simbin Live, I don't think it's the end of the world that it was a send off.
I think people yelling and screaming that it was the worst call of all time. I've got a Queenslander next to me that thought it was a send off. I thought it was Simbin Live. I think it can go either way realistically. I don't think it's the end of the world. Without getting too far ahead, I think it's wild that he now doesn't have a punishment and that he went against the bunker. Yeah.
What, like, it's crazy. Yes. And you know what sucks the most, boys, is that I thought the refereeing up until that moment was fucking fantastic because we didn't notice him. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. I thought the refereeing was outstanding. I'll go to you, Dort, was it a send-off?
Yeah, bro, I'll be honest, at the time, I was like, and I think it's just my perception of the game and how much of an impact a send-off can make. Like, you lose a fullback in Origin, I'm not saying it's a gimme, but you're basically handing the win to the opposing team if they can get it done.
So, in the moment, I was like, Sinbin, but in reflection, right now in 2026, this is very reflective of where we are currently at with the rule set. There's many, many angles. Initially, it was like, he's got the arm folded for a shoulder charge, but he made contact with the head. Then the other angle clearly shows that there is some sort of shoulder to head contact. So I was happy with it.
I was just not happy with the unfortunate situation that arises from a player being sent off like that, which kind of sucks, but.
Yeah, it's unfortunate.
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Chapter 6: How did the send-off impact the game's outcome?
Listen, I'm okay with being a send off. And what the clincher for me was, and look, I'm similar to your boat. If it was a 10 in the bin, I could go either way. I genuinely could. But what cinched it for me was the tucking of the arm. Now, I know that you can make the argument he was bracing. I think, you know, we watch so much in slow motion that we forget how hard it is as a fullback.
You are screaming across. You've got to make a, you know, try saving tackle. But KP is a very experienced fullback, and he would know that you just cannot tuck that arm the way he did. And so that's where I go. Like, if he didn't tuck the arm he was wrapping, then I'd be like, that's got to be a sin bin. Like, Cole is falling.
You know, it looks like a head clash with, like, shoulder off his kind of neck into his draw a little bit. But I'm okay with the send-off. I really think in the modern era of rugby league, you know, In our biggest sport, you've got a guy that, whether he's bracing or not, it looked like a shoulder charge and Kohler was out completely. It's the crown jewel of our sport.
You know, it'd be very hard from a brand perspective to, you know, 10 in the bin would be, you know, okay, but a send-off does send a pretty strong message. I'll go to you, Matty. Now we've had some time. Was it a send-off?
Yeah, it's a tough one. Like two years ago when Su Li gets sent off and I just want to start right here. It is not even comparable, right? Su Li's send off was a reckless shoulder to the head, flush contact. He had him like this. Su Li's was so much worse.
However, I believe that was a line in the sand moment for the game because at the time my initial emotional reaction was that shouldn't be a send off because high contact hasn't really ever been a send off in origin. Now, as time's gone on, I've realized that was a stupid thing to say because it was horrendous, right?
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Chapter 7: What are the implications for future games after this match?
But even if it wasn't horrendous, right? That was a line in the sand moment for the game, I believe, in State of Origin specifically, where, okay, these things do get punished now. Now, again, Pongas wasn't anywhere near as bad as Sulikis, but he has come in, he hasn't tried to make a tackle, and it was probably a 95% head clash, which is unfortunate.
If you go in recklessly and you don't try and make a tackle and you injure a player and you knock them out, you're going to get in trouble. And I would have been fine with a Sinbin. Like, I... I'm kind of like in between, I can hear this and I can hear send-off and I can hear Sinbin, but I just think with the way the game's gone and the 2026, I think it had to be a send-off.
Yeah, as I said, I'm okay with the send-off. And I think even in the game, the stand that was set, so for example, Max Plath challenges get a penalty, like he got touched on the head. He got touched on the head. If that's a penalty, then you weigh it up and you go, okay, how much worse was Caelan Palmer? It was like a million times worse than that little touch on Plath's head.
So yeah, I'm gonna go with the send off.
I think- It's black and white now. That's where we're at. It's not like, oh, what's the grade of it? How did it play out? It's black or white. If you make contact with the head, you know that you're getting a penalty.
Yeah, at the very least.
And you know, at the end of the day, he got knocked out. One thing I will say that's different to the Suoli'i, which we spoke about at length is it's an eye for an eye. You lost Reese Walsh, but now you get a replacement player. So like, I don't factor that in as much to how disappointed I am with the decision of someone getting sent off.
Cause you know, another player comes in, they get replaced. So that kind of removes that. But yeah, At the end of the day, like it was a shoulder charge to the head and a player got lost. Sin bin or send off, both are fine, I reckon.
Yep. I will say, and you know, maybe that's my Queensland bias, I really did like how Billy handled it, how Munster handled it, how KP handled it. There was no whinging. And I'm of the same mind. Like, let's say the call was just abysmal, abysmal. you know what, in origin, over the last 20 years, there's been a multiple abysmal call. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't get them.
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Chapter 8: What are the predictions for the next Origin match?
Every time he went up for a bomb, he sort of like tipped himself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a penalty, right? Well, no, not to get a penalty. You put that out. So it's harder to, to, for people running to catch. Cause I get boot first. You protect yourself. You don't think it had anything to do with that if someone touches that boot, it would almost be tackled in the air? Well, maybe.
I didn't think of it from a penalty perspective. I thought it was more from a protection perspective. It definitely would be. As soon as you touch that boot, it's tackled in the air, essentially, is what the penalty would be, I would say. Yeah, maybe.
I was thinking of it more like KP, if he goes up straight sometimes, he has a tendency to people come underneath him and fucking, he lands on his head. So I was thinking it was more a protection because I know that we used to get taught, you know, turn your body, try to catch a lot of that with your knee up. It was no better than Billy at doing this either.
I never got taught to put foot out, but I definitely got taught to put the knee up to protect your body from that hard clash that comes in.
Billy was the first guy that turned really well though on those catches. He used to end up facing the opposing way.
Yeah, and obviously as well, the other thing with that is if you do turn your body and it comes through your hands, it's less chance of being a knock on. But yeah, it's a good point. Maybe it was to fully protect KP where if you just touch him, you're going to get a penalty. So you can't even get close to touch him.
Controversial take also, there's rumours that Kalen Pong went to the judiciary and said that he actually was going for the shoulder charge and deliberately at the last second changed it to a head charge to protect Kola because he had a headgear on. That's how good he is. That's how good he is.
Mate, that is good. And it worked. Head and shoulders. Here's a scoop for you. Okay, let's talk about... So I've just said that I'm okay with a send-off. The process though, Ashley Klein, it seems like the bunker has said to him that there's mitigating circumstances, that there was a head clash involved, all that.
And it seems like Ashley Klein has said, no, this is basically, this is a send off and it's an illegal play. What concerns me here is in what world is Ashley Klein's perspective better than the bunkers, a million cameras, a million different angles, a million slo-mos. Ashley Klein gets to see it once in fast motion from 30 meters away.
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