Shaun Johnson is the first to admit that he wasn’t having fun last year as football became a chore and life got tough, with the bubble forcing him to stay in Australia away from his young family.
It didn’t help that commentators and people on social media kept telling him to run the ball without knowing what he was going through, with some even suggesting he should retire after a glittering career in the NRL.
But a return to New Zealand and a new coach have seemingly saved his career, with Johnson playing his best footy in years to have the Warriors flying high in the top four after one of the gutsiest wins in club history when they came back from 20-0 down to beat the Sharks.
Johnson was the hero with a last-gasp penalty goal in driving rain against his former club, nailing a kick he’d practised “thousands of times” but never in a scenario like that with the game on the line.
“This is up there. These ones are special,” he said when asked if it was the best win of his career.
“Anytime you get in a position to either win a game or seal a game they are always memorable games, and obviously this one coming back here means a little bit more for me with my old club and having some really good friends across the hallway.
“It’s certainly a memorable one.”
The joy on his face and the emotion he showed in the interviews after the game highlight how happy he is right now and how content he is to be the senior playmaker after he burst onto the scene as a sidestepping superstar with speed to burn.
Fans didn’t get to see much of that last year, but time with his family and a new style under coach Andrew Webster have brought back his famous smile.
“I’m so happy, I love being happy, I love being content. I love winning and working hard for something and achieving it,” he said.
“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.
“Last year, I was not enjoying my football. I wasn’t enjoying my life outside of football.
“When you get judged on 80 minutes – we get judged on 80 minutes – so the happiness for me is that we’re showcasing and I’m showcasing the hard work I’ve done in that 80 minutes to start this year.
“That‘s ultimately what I’m happy about, you know, then the results come with it, teammates are happy, the club’s happy and fans are happy. You can’t pay for happiness.”
Teammate Wayde Egan was thrilled for Johnson after Sunday’s epic 32-30 win because he could see just how tough things got in 2022.
“He went through some really tough times last year away from his family,” the hooker said.
“I sort of watched his daughter grow up on the phone with him, so people didn’t really understand how much that was affecting him. He’d FaceTime his daughter and watched her grow up for three or four months.
“That took a massive toll on him, and then he was copping it in the media, so I can’t imagine what that would have been like. He’s back with his family now and he’s back with people he loves. I couldn’t be happier for him.”
That criticism from the media often focused on people wanting him to run the ball more, but it’s not as simple as that, with Johnson showing in round 4 that timing is everything as he ran it on the last to score the winner against the Bulldogs.
“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’,” he said.
“It’s the clarity around the positions Webby puts me in without structure where I can run the ball. It’s my choice if I want to run the ball, which fits our team. So my try last week, 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. I’ll run within our systems.”
