diff --git a/pkg/controllers/netpol/pod.go b/pkg/controllers/netpol/pod.go
index 17f69de0..1f99560c 100644
--- a/pkg/controllers/netpol/pod.go
+++ b/pkg/controllers/netpol/pod.go
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ package netpol
 import (
 	"crypto/sha256"
 	"encoding/base32"
-	"reflect"
 	"strings"
 
 	api "k8s.io/api/core/v1"
@@ -23,12 +22,21 @@ func (npc *NetworkPolicyController) newPodEventHandler() cache.ResourceEventHand
 			}
 		},
 		UpdateFunc: func(oldObj, newObj interface{}) {
-			newPodObj := newObj.(*api.Pod)
-			oldPodObj := oldObj.(*api.Pod)
-			if newPodObj.Status.Phase != oldPodObj.Status.Phase ||
-				newPodObj.Status.PodIP != oldPodObj.Status.PodIP ||
-				!reflect.DeepEqual(newPodObj.Labels, oldPodObj.Labels) {
-				// for the network policies, we are only interested in pod status phase change or IP change
+			var newPodObj, oldPodObj *api.Pod
+			var ok bool
+
+			// If either of these objects are not pods, quit now
+			if newPodObj, ok = newObj.(*api.Pod); !ok {
+				return
+			}
+			if oldPodObj, ok = oldObj.(*api.Pod); !ok {
+				return
+			}
+
+			// We don't check isNetPolActionable here, because if it is transitioning in or out of the actionable state
+			// we want to run the full sync so that it can be added or removed from the existing network policy of the host
+			// For the network policies, we are only interested in some changes, most pod changes aren't relevant to network policy
+			if isPodUpdateNetPolRelevant(oldPodObj, newPodObj) {
 				npc.OnPodUpdate(newObj)
 			}
 		},
diff --git a/pkg/controllers/netpol/utils.go b/pkg/controllers/netpol/utils.go
index 9428bb67..1e685857 100644
--- a/pkg/controllers/netpol/utils.go
+++ b/pkg/controllers/netpol/utils.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package netpol
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"reflect"
 	"regexp"
 	"strconv"
 
@@ -12,6 +13,20 @@ const (
 	PodCompleted api.PodPhase = "Completed"
 )
 
+// isPodUpdateNetPolRelevant checks the attributes that we care about for building NetworkPolicies on the host and if it
+// finds a relevant change, it returns true otherwise it returns false. The things we care about for NetworkPolicies:
+// 1) Is the phase of the pod changing? (matters for catching completed, succeeded, or failed jobs)
+// 2) Is the pod IP changing? (changes how the network policy is applied to the host)
+// 3) Is the pod's host IP changing? (should be caught in the above, with the CNI kube-router runs with but we check this as well for sanity)
+// 4) Is a pod's label changing? (potentially changes which NetworkPolicies select this pod)
+func isPodUpdateNetPolRelevant(oldPod, newPod *api.Pod) bool {
+	return newPod.Status.Phase != oldPod.Status.Phase ||
+		newPod.Status.PodIP != oldPod.Status.PodIP ||
+		!reflect.DeepEqual(newPod.Status.PodIPs, oldPod.Status.PodIPs) ||
+		newPod.Status.HostIP != oldPod.Status.HostIP ||
+		!reflect.DeepEqual(newPod.Labels, oldPod.Labels)
+}
+
 func isNetPolActionable(pod *api.Pod) bool {
 	return !isFinished(pod) && pod.Status.PodIP != "" && !pod.Spec.HostNetwork
 }
diff --git a/pkg/controllers/netpol/utils_test.go b/pkg/controllers/netpol/utils_test.go
index 1bfb0748..834c975b 100644
--- a/pkg/controllers/netpol/utils_test.go
+++ b/pkg/controllers/netpol/utils_test.go
@@ -38,6 +38,44 @@ var (
 	}
 )
 
+func Test_isPodUpdateNetPolRelevant(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Run("Pod phase change should be detected as NetworkPolicy relevant", func(t *testing.T) {
+		newPod := fakePod.DeepCopy()
+		newPod.Status.Phase = api.PodFailed
+		assert.True(t, isPodUpdateNetPolRelevant(&fakePod, newPod))
+	})
+	t.Run("Pod IP change should be detected as NetworkPolicy relevant", func(t *testing.T) {
+		newPod := fakePod.DeepCopy()
+		newPod.Status.PodIP = "172.16.0.2"
+		assert.True(t, isPodUpdateNetPolRelevant(&fakePod, newPod))
+	})
+	t.Run("Pod IPs change should be detected as NetworkPolicy relevant", func(t *testing.T) {
+		newPod := fakePod.DeepCopy()
+		newPod.Status.PodIPs = []api.PodIP{{IP: "172.16.0.2"}}
+		assert.True(t, isPodUpdateNetPolRelevant(&fakePod, newPod))
+	})
+	t.Run("Pod Label change should be detected as NetworkPolicy relevant", func(t *testing.T) {
+		newPod := fakePod.DeepCopy()
+		newPod.ObjectMeta.Labels = map[string]string{"bar": "foo"}
+		assert.True(t, isPodUpdateNetPolRelevant(&fakePod, newPod))
+	})
+	t.Run("Pod Host IP change should be detected as NetworkPolicy relevant", func(t *testing.T) {
+		newPod := fakePod.DeepCopy()
+		newPod.Status.HostIP = "10.0.0.2"
+		assert.True(t, isPodUpdateNetPolRelevant(&fakePod, newPod))
+	})
+	t.Run("Pod Image change should NOT be detected as NetworkPolicy relevant", func(t *testing.T) {
+		newPod := fakePod.DeepCopy()
+		newPod.Spec.Containers[0].Image = "k8s.gcr.io/otherimage"
+		assert.False(t, isPodUpdateNetPolRelevant(&fakePod, newPod))
+	})
+	t.Run("Pod Name change should NOT be detected as NetworkPolicy relevant", func(t *testing.T) {
+		newPod := fakePod.DeepCopy()
+		newPod.ObjectMeta.Name = "otherpod"
+		assert.False(t, isPodUpdateNetPolRelevant(&fakePod, newPod))
+	})
+}
+
 func Test_isPodFinished(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Run("Failed pod should be detected as finished", func(t *testing.T) {
 		fakePod.Status.Phase = api.PodFailed