What's stood out about Kalyn Ponga's build-up to Origin is how quiet the whole thing has been. 

That's not usually the way with Ponga. Normally, nobody can seem to stop talking about him. The noise is constant and loudly hyperbolic and recently it's become harsher than it used to be.

Will he go and try and play for the All Blacks? Why doesn't he make the Knights better? Does he touch the ball enough? Should the Knights re-sign him? Should the Dolphins sign him? Should the Knights have re-signed him for that long? Is there enough talent around him? Is he REALLY worth a million dollars a season?

On and on and on it goes, because Kalyn Ponga sells papers and pulls in viewers and induces clicks and provides grist for the rugby league opinion mill like few other players in the sport.

It's always been this way for Ponga, ever since he was a multi-sport phenom coming through the grades at North Queensland. He's been famous since he was 16 years old and the noise hasn't really stopped since.

The same hype machine that made Ponga such a highly-touted youngster and helped him become one of the game's biggest names upon joining the Knights has now turned against him and the talk is no longer about his brilliant step or his wicked cut-out passes, but whether he was actually any good to begin with and if his breathless coronation as the next big thing was worship of a false idol.

We are so quick to anoint new heroes and cast down the old because it's easier to dream on the fantasy of the next big thing than make do with the cold reality of what's actually in front of us.

Ponga is still just 24, which is far too young to only be the guy who used to be Kalyn Ponga. So much has already happened to him but his best football should all still be in front of him.

So it's a rare change of pace to have a game like this, where Ponga is out of sight and a little out of mind. He has never been able to fly under the radar before, so he's never had the chance to surprise us.

This is unfamiliar territory for him, but it's also why he has the most to gain from this series of any player from either state.

Given Ponga has been counted as an elite player for so long, his Origin career is surprisingly sparse. He's worn the Maroon jersey just four times since his debut back in 2018 and is yet to fully impose himself on the interstate arena.

There's been flashes of his best – like his debut, when he played 60 minutes in the middle of the field, and near man-of-the-match displays in Game I of the 2019 series and Game III last year — but it hasn't been sustained.

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That's not entirely Ponga's fault. He's been Queensland's best fullback option since Billy Slater retired, and only injury has stopped him from notching more Origin appearances.

It's been a rough season at the Knights, and Ponga has only had brief flashes of the player his talent promises he can be.

But that same talent also means Ponga has the ability to be one of Queensland's best and in Origin, things can be different – he won't be the beginning and the end of everything as he is in Newcastle, which could unlock his best football.

So Ponga has the whole world in his hands heading into this series. He can silence the doubters and prove he's as good as they used to say he was by leading Queensland to victory, something he's got the talent and the teammates to do.

But if Queensland is to down the Blues, it need's the very best of Kalyn Ponga.

Cameron Munster is not just the swaggering pride of the north, he's the state's best player and he's long been in search of a running mate for the Maroons.

When the two were able to combine on occasions in last year's dead-rubber victory, Queensland looked as dangerous as they had all series.

Working in conjunction with one another is the only way the Maroons can match New South Wales's attacking arsenal, which is both well-drilled and battle-tested. If victory can be delivered, it will be through Munster and Ponga.

And if that does happen, things will change for Ponga.

Origin is the great colossus that stands over rugby league, the fiery crucible in which true heroes are forged.

If you make memories there, you can make them anywhere and you'll live forever because no matter what happens next, you always have those times in the blue or maroon jersey and people don't forget.

Ponga is a good enough player to do these things. Talent has never been his issue.

But he's at the point of his career where it's no good talking about what a fine player he'll be one day. If he does dazzle at Stadium Australia, there's a fair chance he'll still wear some heat given his struggles for Newcastle this year.

But that's part of the price one pays for accepting the big money and being the big star, because a point arrives where being the champion of tomorrow isn't enough anymore.

Once you reach that point, and the future is upon us and it's not as glorious as everyone hoped and once you've been built up like Ponga was, the next step is usually getting knocked back down.

But it's important to remember why he was built up in the first place. Remember what he can do and has done. Remember how he can play.

Ponga is here for a reason. He was thrown into Origin in his first full season in first grade for a reason. He has that million-dollar contract for a reason. Wayne Bennett did what he could to lure him up to Redcliffe for a reason.

And if you add up all those reasons, if we see the best of him even though he's been out of the spotlight for the lead-up, don't be surprised if we all wake up on Thursday morning and curse ourselves as damn fools for forgetting why everyone used to go crazy about Kalyn Ponga.