Shaun Johnson and the Warriors: How the club has let down their star player – Opinion

THREE KEY FACTS:

Chris Rattue has been a journalist since 1980 and is one of the most respected opinion writers in New Zealand sports journalism.

Shaun Johnson will head into retirement after the 2024 season with the job half done.

The league halfback was a brilliant NRL success on one hand, and central to failure on another.

Vitally for a sport living in the All Blacks’ shadow, he cut through to the wider New Zealand public because there was sheer magic in the way he could shred defences. He polarised fans, and timid New Zealand sport desperately needs that.

But Johnson’s Warriors never properly escaped the mid-table quicksand. They still can’t.

Psychology 101 suggests that we can influence our environment, which in turn operates back on us.

Was Johnson a major contributor to an erratic and woefully underperforming club, or did a poorly run organisation unduly affect his career?

Plenty of both.

There have been too many owners, chief executives, coaches, recruitment strategies and players at the Warriors since they hit the ground both running and falling in 1995.

Johnson could rise above the mess on his magic days, but he couldn’t clean it up. It wasn’t in his DNA.

While he could pull opponents apart, he couldn’t pull the strings minute by minute, half by half, game by game, season by season.

The best half in Warriors history, in my opinion, has been James Maloney, if the priority is trying to win titles and influencing those around you in the same direction. Significantly, Maloney is Australian.

Sustained success is built around the mindset of players like Maloney and Cooper Cronk, the old Melbourne legend.

But it is very difficult for a player emerging out of New Zealand’s comparatively weak development system, and staying here, to take their game to that level.

You have to wonder what Johnson might have achieved had he started in the NRL under a coach like Melbourne maestro Craig Bellamy. The sky would have been the limit.

Wellington-raised Jahrome Hughes is playing incredible football under Bellamy at the Storm.

Benji Marshall, during a flash of stunning genius about two decades ago, led the Tigers to a title under veteran mentor Tim Sheens.

Neither player would have reached those heights had they been recruited into long-term Warriors careers.

Or as a coach once asked me rhetorically, would Sonny Bill Williams have been Sonny Bill Williams had he signed his first contract with the Warriors rather than the Bulldogs?

With international rugby league little more than a pretence, Johnson will be defined by his club career, spent almost entirely with the Auckland outfit.

He had a first-season grand final appearance but years in the wilderness. Critics had a go, but the reception he got towards the end of the Newcastle playoff game at Mt Smart last year will live long in many memories.

More than anyone, Johnson’s career screams that the Warriors still haven’t cracked the code.

And so it goes on.

With Johnson’s legs gone, the club offered him a new contract, which he has wisely turned down.

Johnson announced his retirement just days after one of the worst performances in the club’s history, during a season of collapsing dreams, yet with a playoff spot still a remote possibility.

Fittingly messy.

But give him this. His highlight reel, with the 2023 season providing plenty of content, is truly exceptional.