After all, the Knights lost the game 20-14 and the pair had travelled to Bankwest Stadium in Parramatta from Maitland.

An act of kindness, though, from Kalyn Ponga made the trip home much better than expected.

After the game, Ponga gave his headgear to Amber, thrilling the youngster and bringing a big smile to her face.

"It was an amazing gesture from Ponga and absolutely made my daughter's night. She is still in shock as he's her favourite player," Ben said.

"We now plan to try and arrange a meeting to have a nice photo of Amber, Kalyn and the headgear, as well as have him sign it. Then we will have it placed in a nice glass display box."

The loss to the Eels all but ended the Knights' finals hopes.

"That was kind of it for the season. Getting the headgear at the end of the game lifted our spirits," Ben said.

Ben had noticed Ponga give his headgear to kids at other games.

"I was in shock, too, that he picked her out. You could kind of tell about 10 metres away who he'd chosen. Being a little girl might have helped her, too," he said.

Ben and Amber, along with other family members, are Knights members.

"All year we've been trying to get a photo with him [Ponga] when the players walk around the edge of the ground after the game," he said.

They tried again for a photo at the Eels game. Ponga went one better with the headgear. It helped two loyal fans forget about the six-game losing streak and another season, barring some kind of miracle, without finals football.

While we can confirm that Kalyn Ponga consistently gives his headgear away to youngsters after games, footy pundit Phil Gould has questioned whether the Knights star is a consistent player.

"I've got some question marks about Kalyn Ponga in that while he's a brilliant young player and comes up with brilliant moments he is just not consistent enough over 80 minutes," Gould said on Channel 9's 100% Footy.

"He's not consistent enough week to week. He hasn't finished a year yet. He was missing at the back end of last season and he's not doing much at the moment.

"He's probably still got some maturing to do as a footballer and some developing to do to be the sort of player that can charge a team into a finals series."

We were thinking this was pretty harsh, given Ponga is only 21.

Gould redeemed himself when he cited star players James Tedesco, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Johnathan Thurston as evidence that Ponga needs time to develop into a consistent footballer at club level.

Gould then, it has to be said, is quite a consistent critic.