Shaun Johnson’s retirement will see NRL farewell player who seemed forever young
It was all right there, in glorious low definition, from the very first time we saw Shaun Johnson.
The video of the touch football highlights is so pixelated it’s hard to see his face. It’s from almost two decades ago, so he’s thin as a rail but there is no mistaking him.
The first highlight plays out in full before the strains of Fort Minor’s seminal 2005 hit Remember The Name — the anthem of choice for all footy mixtapes in YouTube’s early days — even gets started.
As the hapless defenders try to reach him, Johnson goes once off his left, then twice off his right, then fires a cut out pass to an unmarked teammate who swan dives over in the corner.
Before he’s even thrown it, you can hear people yelling his name. Once he does, the crowd loses it. Whoever is holding the camera starts chuckling.
All up, it takes about 12 seconds and even now it tells you just about everything you need to know about Johnson, a player who seems eternally young and full of possibility, even as he’s staring down the barrel of his 34th birthday and his NRL retirement.
The clip feels like a universe away from a rain-sodden Brookvale Oval, where Johnson made his return from injury in the Warriors’ 24-10 defeat to Manly.
The broadcast was clear enough you could see the lights shining off his all-white mouthguard when he grinned after his first-half try.
A combination of injuries and improvement of his all-around skill set meant his running game changed long ago — his only carry for the game was when he scored.
It was not a vintage display from Johnson, whose hands let him down more than once, but he seems determined to live as many moments as he can before the end.
He was booed as he left the field at half-time but you couldn’t get the grin off his face. He said Brookvale Oval was a great place to play footy and he sounded like he meant it.
He posed for photos with teammates, opponents and fans alike after the match. He looks like he’s at peace with his decision and set on enjoying his career’s final days as best he can.
Johnson seems to understand that part of the journey is the end. Perhaps he’s the only one who does because even though he is in the veteran class and the ravages of age have begun to show, it is strange to consider the idea of Shaun Johnson retiring.
He has never seemed old, even as the seasons have piled up, and ever since he debuted 14 years ago and helped the Warriors to a rollicking grand final berth, it has always felt like there has been more time — more time to get better teammates around him, more time for him to hone his craft, more time run like the wind blows and create beautiful tries and score a few himself, in whatever way he could, like he did in that old touch footy clip.
But now there are only two games left. The end which never seemed to be coming is upon us.
It’s fitting that Johnson had one last clash with Manly’s Daly Cherry-Evans before that end. The two are linked together forever after meeting as rookies in that 2011 decider.
The score on Friday was the exact same as it was 14 years ago and Cherry-Evans, as he always has been, was the more methodical of the two — his kicking game and attacking organisation went a long way to securing Manly’s win.
Johnson was always brilliant and had to learn to be methodical, a task he eventually mastered to the point he could manage a game with the best of them. But it was the brilliant things that came easy to Johnson, ever since he was a rookie.
Look back at his play from that season — look at them, don’t read about them because words aren’t enough — like the long-range try against Brisbane, the incredible assist in the preliminary victory over Melbourne, the fearless display in the grand final where he resurrected his side by putting on two tries in the space of a couple of minutes to give them hope of a miracle.
This is a player who could fly before he could walk and that made for some hard landings over the years, but when he soared there was nothing else like it.
