By Dan Walsh
Shaun Johnson, stopped, paused and thought briefly, longingly, of a beer 267 games and 13 years in the making, before skipping one way, then the other – just as he has for 267 games and 13 years.
“I’ll run you straight through it. I’mma break this bad boy down for you,” the retiring Kiwi champion told a small throng of reporters in the smaller still press conference room at Shark Park.
With coach Andrew Webster next to him jokingly begging not to give away the Warriors game plan, Johnson broke down his final act of NRL brilliance: one last 80th-minute match-winner for the road.
Thankfully, Johnson’s grand post-playing plan is to keep breaking down rugby league’s most seductive art.
As Webster hailed an influence in rugby-mad New Zealand that extends to single-name only status – “If you’ve had a big impact on kids wanting to participate and play rugby league, particularly in New Zealand … that’s Stacey, Benji and Shaun” – Johnson spoke of establishing his very own halves academy.
“I’m passionate about helping younger spine members develop their game,” Johnson said.
Warriors and Sharks players perform a haka for retiring star Shaun Johnson.Credit: Getty Images
“I’m passionate about building a program around giving them access to knowledge that I wish I had access to coming through.
“I would’ve loved some sort of mentor to give me an insight into what it takes to be a first-grade halfback with pressures, time, space, tempo and detail on what it takes to be a week-in, week-out first grade player with pressure on your shoulders.”
In the meantime, the soon-to-be 34-year-old kept his retirement beer on ice for a few minutes longer to talk through the final moments of a glittering career.
Johnson was the architect of Luke Metcalf’s opening try – “lying with his eyes” as Mick Ennis aptly described his midfield show and go – and a second-half revival from 22-4 down against high-flying Cronulla.
With a minute left the Warriors trailed 26-28, and Johnson channelled those touch footy highlights that first put him on the map before he was too scrawny to be considered skin and bones.
“A couple of the boys just said, ‘You can’t finish with a touch highlight’,” Johnson laughed. “That was the zone I was in, it was as simple as enjoying what we were doing.
“That feeling of being in the zone, where you know why you’re doing something and the look you want to create.
“We got that ball back and I said to Walks [Dylan Walker] to get us in the right strip [of the field].
Shaun Johnson sets up the Warriors for his match-winning play.Credit: Sky Sports
“It was a three-play sequence where I wanted to get momentum around the spots I knew we could. Walks took control of the footy. We spoke about fading in certain spots. Barney [Mitch Barnett] got a quick play-the-ball, and then we just doubled up on it.”
With Walker playing first receiver, the Warriors shortened up Cronulla’s left-edge defence in the third tackle to give Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad some space, but not enough, as the Sharks scrambled in cover.
One tackle later and working from Barnett’s quick play-the-ball, Walker’s surge to the line has three Cronulla defenders spaced tightly together.
Johnson is out the back with an overlap and one last highlight – if he has the stones and the skill to nail a 15-metre cut-out across two of his teammates and onto Dallin Watene-Zelezniak’s chest.
Johnson’s final act in the NRL.Credit: Sky Sports
Never in doubt.
“That feeling of being in the zone, where you know why you’re doing something and the look you want to create, for me to be able to finish my career on that moment is probably why I am so content,” Johnson said.
“That’s the bit I’m talking to. It wasn’t just one cut-out ball. There’s things that lead into that play to create that look. These are all just moments I know I am going to cherish.”
So too, his own development from outlandishly talented teen through the NRL’s ups, downs and considering early retirement, to his career-best form driving the Warriors’ revival of 2023.
Like his teammates, Johnson has struggled for form and fitness this season. But with an eye to playmakers of the future, he hopes to help marry the beginning and end of one of rugby league’s greatest entertainers.
“The early version of me, I probably didn’t realise the scope of what I was able to do,” he said. “I’m certainly more invested in the version of myself now and how you see the game and even playing plays ahead of the game and manipulating defences, which is extremely satisfying. That last sequence out there tonight, lord.
“That’s the version where I feel I can help these 16 or 17-year-old players. Not expecting them to be that, but start giving them tools to start thinking that way.”
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