Brown the $13m man breaks even but Ponga hits paydirt in Vegas

It was fitting rugby league’s $13 million man Dylan Brown made his debut for his new club in the United States – the land of hope and dreams, of hype and excess.

How Brown found himself the custodian of the largest contract, in overall dollars, in rugby league history is anyone’s guess.

And the best of those guesses is that a desperate Newcastle Knights, languishing in nowheresville, were simply hoping he would turn into the champion many thought he would be when a teenager.

Then they went to the land of excess and threw everything at him in an attempt to change the narrative in the rugby league mad town.

However it happened, it happened, so here we are and there he is in Knights colours, picking up more than a $50,000 a match to reinvent himself as a halfback.

It’s near impossible to win a premiership without a top halfback; during the past nine seasons, the premiership halfbacks have been Adam Reynolds, Nathan Cleary, Jahrome Hughes and Cooper Cronk.

Halfback is not a position you can drift in and out of like Brown did when he held down the No.6 jersey at Parramatta on a part-time basis.

Part-time in that he only ever played part of the time during games.

Going by Sunday in Vegas, and, OK, it’s only one game into a 250-game deal, it has the potential, maybe, to work. At least short term. It won’t last 10 years, but that’s for another day.

He was a bundle of energy early as the Knights forwards dominated, giving Brown, as well as five-eighth Fletcher Sharpe and fullback Kalyn Ponga, the room to play lightning-fast football, which had the Cowboys scrambling through the opening 20 minutes.

By the time Sharpe left the field with a knee injury (which needs scans) in the 26th minute, heavy pre-match favourites the Cowboys were getting on top and Brown had lost the halves partner he trained beside all summer.

On came Sandon Smith, who’s played all of his stop-start NRL career as a five-eighth and bench utility at the Roosters, and from there he and Brown split duties on the left and right. So much so it was difficult at times to know which of them was running the team.

When they did find themselves on the same half of the field, Brown was at first receiver and calling the plays.

At times he still looked like a five-eighth the way he moved, and that’s probably a good thing. There can be nothing more damaging than a running halfback who has speed when forward packs start to tire.

What he did have though was the enthusiasm the pay packet demands. You could see that in his defence. Showing enthusiasm on the field will save his skin if his form dips. If his form dips, and he drifts in and out of matches this year, the knives will be out.

Newcastle looked good after a pre-season under new coach Justin Holbrook, an old Knights halves understudy to Andrew and Matthew Johns back in the day.

While the Knights looked good, the Cowboys looked like they did last year when producing a full 80-minute effort was like extracting teeth.

At 12-12 at half-time, the Cowboys seemed like they might run away with it, but it was the Knights who bounced out of the break with two tries within minutes.

While Brown equipped himself well, Ponga played like a man inspired and for the 26 minutes he was on the field, Sharpe bamboozled the Cowboys.

After only 29 matches in the past two years, Ponga went away and looked after his body and has turned up in 2026 determined to have the season of his career.

You could see it in his face during the week at training and during public appearances. You could hear it in his words. Yesterday we saw it with his actions – he was brutal in defence and magic in attack.

Ponga’s contract matches Brown’s for money, but not in length, and he is worth every cent when right. Long may he stay healthy.

Brown leaves Las Vegas breaking even, which is difficult to do. He can only improve as he spends more time in the No.7 jersey. But as all good gamblers know in this town, you have to keep your head at all times, and Brown in the past has been guilty of letting his mind wander on the field.

Sharpe had a Vegas flame-out. He went hard early, but injury cruelled what might have been.

Ponga though hit the jackpot.