“The most common line I hear is, ‘You need to run the ball’. I’ll look at that and go, ‘What do you mean? I’m not a front-rower’.”
Through 13 years and 231 NRL games, Shaun Johnson has heard it all. Such is life when you’re the face of a struggling club for so much of your career, and finding the balance between brilliance and the basics yourself.
At 32, and still sky-high after nailing home a last-minute, 35-metre penalty goal to seal a 20-point comeback against a Cronulla club that showed him the door in 2021, Johnson is perhaps more comfortable in his own skin than he’s ever been.
“I’m so happy, bro, [and] I love being happy,” he gushed in the away sheds at Shark Park, earning roughly half the $800,000 he was on Cronulla’s books for.
“I love that I get to go home and see my wife and my daughter. The whole product is there for me right now, inside and outside of football. I haven’t had that in the past and people won’t get that.
“It’s just a good balance… You can’t pay for happiness.”
Three weeks in a row now, Johnson has steered the Warriors to wins the club so easily would have blown in seasons past – massive upsets against the Cowboys and Sharks away from home, and a tense two-point win over Canterbury.
That old Johnson magic delivered both the last try against the Bulldogs and the match-winner ex-Cronulla coach John Morris had him practice endlessly throughout his three seasons in the Shire.
Less eye-catching, but considerably more important for a second-placed Warriors side being steered by rookie coach Andrew Webster, has been Johnson’s rare composure and calm right throughout a contest – for so long the magic man’s greatest downfall.
“He doesn’t care what people say. He’s home with his family, he’s happy off the field – and when Shaun’s happy, he plays well.”
Warriors coach Andrew Webster
Webster, who won two premierships as Penrith assistant coach, was still giddy on Sunday evening when he ranked the rainy day revival as “one of the best wins I’ve ever been a part of”, thanks in no small part to Johnson.
“I feel like the criticism on Shaun is harsh,” Webster said. “If you think about what he’s achieved. [Johnson is] a Golden Boot winner, he’s won Four Nations, he’s won a World Cup.
“I know he hasn’t done it the way he would have liked at club level, but Shaun doesn’t care about that anymore.
“I feel like he’s so comfortable in his own skin that he doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone outside the club dressing room.
Shaun Johnson (right) and Marata Niukore celebrate his clutch penalty goal before fulltime against Cronulla.Credit:Getty
“He doesn’t care what people say. He’s home with his family, he’s happy off the field – and when Shaun’s happy, he plays well. He doesn’t care about the criticism or people saying he should retire, or he’s not good enough.”
Covid-19 enforced separation from his wife Kayla and baby daughter Millah – who he only saw for “five or six days” in six months last year – hit Johnson especially hard during the first season of his Warriors homecoming.
Reuniting with his family and combining with Webster’s understated approach have Johnson producing a new kind of best, when plenty wondered last year if he would return in 2023 at all.
“It’s no secret, last year, I was not enjoying my football,” Johnson said, referring back to the age-old ‘run the ball’ critique he says Webster has put an entirely different spin on.
“I wasn’t enjoying my life outside of football. I was in a difficult position, but I always knew we would get to come home. I always knew I had a contract to come home to.
“Certainly, the confidence that I get [is] from the top down. The positions Webby puts me in with our structure [are] where I can run the bull. It’s my choice if I want to run the ball, that fits our team.
“So my try [against the Bulldogs], I’ve run that shape a million times and that time I just decided to pull it. Webby’s putting me in positions where I have the option to run. I don’t know if people are still telling me to run. I don’t know, they might still be, but they probably have no idea about the game, so I’ll run within our systems.“
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