Less than a week out from the season kick-off, Ponga opened up about leading the Knights, saying he wants to set standards "day to day" to help address the side's consistency across the season, which he labelled their downfall in recent years.

As the Knights' marquee, Ponga has always strived to be a leader but he feels the captaincy has taken his leadership to "another level".

"In terms of how focussed I am, committed I am and professional I am, in a sense of preparation," Ponga said.

"I want to set the example around the place, and being captain, that is what you have to do.

"And now that I am captain the boys look to me for those sorts of things, and I'm really enjoying that side of things.

"To captain the Newcastle Knights, you look at the captains before me, I'm feeling very honoured."

Ponga played only nine games with North Queensland before joining Newcastle, but Thurston and Cowboys co-captain, Matt Scott, are two leaders he is drawing inspiration from as captain.

"JT was the first example of a leader in professional sport for me. He and Matt Scott, they led from the front and no stone was left unturned," Ponga, 23, said.

"JT didn't talk all that much, apart from on the field.

"He was that hard-working [player], made sure he performed and just led from the front."

Thurston's effort and consistency most relate to the type of leader Ponga plans to be.

"I want to worry about, I think first and foremost, my performances before sort of looking elsewhere and pointing the finger," Ponga said.

"I have to look inwards in that sense.

"I want to play good footy and lead on the field. I think 'Brails' will help me with the more off-field stuff."

The Knights made hooker Jayden Brailey club captain this season and he is expected to assume many of the off-field responsibilities that come with being the side's leader, particularly while he recovers from a torn Achilles in the first half of the season.

This has already been evident with Brailey, rather than Ponga, attending the NRL's season launch in Sydney last week.

But Knights coach Adam O'Brien has indicated Brailey will form a key part of the club's on-field leadership contingent once he returns.

LISTEN: Adam O'Brien joins the Toohey's News podcast

Ponga, who turns 24 at the end of this month, has become captain at a stage of his career similar to when the Knights' longest-serving captain Kurt Gidley took on the role at the end of 2008.

Gidley, who along with Andrew Johns endorsed Ponga for the captaincy before it was announced, said recently one of the best first steps he took as captain was to put more experienced heads around him to help implement what he wanted from the playing group.

Ponga intends to do the same but said those types of players were already defined natural leaders at the club.

"Within our group, we do have distinguished leaders. You look at Tyson, what he has done in the game already; Klemmer, in his own right; Gags has just come on board, so I have got leaders around me," Ponga said.

"It's not about me always talking or expressing my opinion.

"I'm lucky enough that I have people that know what they're talking about as well."

Asked what the Knights need to do to improve on their consecutive seventh-place finishes the past two years, Ponga said his side had to be more consistent.

"Both years at some point in the season, our form [has dipped]," he said.

"[What caused that] I don't really know.

"But we just have to maintain our standards around the place, our standards during training, what we do day to day.

"Consistency has been our downfall the last two years. If we maintain that and keep building we're only going to be better."

The Knights play the Sydney Roosters at the SCG on Saturday at 3pm.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: