{"id":188106,"date":"2025-10-03T19:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T19:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/188106\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T19:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T19:29:08","slug":"shaun-johnson-the-burning-question-from-his-nrl-career-regrets-joy-and-moving-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/188106\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaun Johnson: The burning question from his NRL career, regrets, joy and moving on"},"content":{"rendered":"

But there were as many downs as ups, and after playing in the 2011 grand final<\/a> in just his 16th first-grade appearance, he never got to another one. As the book outlines, his first stint at the Warriors (2011-2018) coincided with constant flux.<\/p>\n

\"ShaunShaun Johnson celebrates as the Warriors qualify for the NRL grand final. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Ivan Cleary\u2019s exit. Brian McClennan was the answer, then 22 games later he wasn\u2019t. Matt Elliott lasted barely 18 months. Andrew McFadden had less than three seasons, before Stephen Kearney was introduced as the new solution. The coaching upheavals were backgrounded by player turnover and periods of ownership drama. All far from ideal.<\/p>\n

But Johnson is also brutally honest about his own shortcomings \u2013 refreshingly so for a sportsperson\u2019s autobiography \u2013 in terms of delivering what the club needed from a halfback and achieving the necessary growth and leadership. It begs the obvious question: Did Johnson fulfil his potential?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never answered this question,\u201d Johnson tells the Herald. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I can because there are so many ways I could skin it, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

As he points out, he was told as a youngster he would never make it in league, and even when he signed with the Warriors academy a few years later, he was a 68kg lightweight who felt completely out of his depth. But he persevered, becoming the face of the Warriors and playing 268 NRL games, with 30 tests, even if there were only five finals campaigns and the ultimate premiership success eluded him.<\/p>\n

\"ShaunShaun Johnson makes a run for the Warriors, in 2024. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a firm believer that everything played out as it was meant to,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cWhatever dark times there were, it was all a part of the story. So I\u2019m content.\u201d<\/p>\n

For all the debate about his career, Johnson finished as a Warriors legend, with his 2023 campaign one of the best individual seasons in club history<\/a>. As he points out, he also avoided any scandal or off-field headlines during his career \u2013 remarkable given his profile \u2013 which he credits to his support circle and which has enabled him to make an effortless transition into retirement, thanks to the strength of his brand.<\/p>\n

No sugar coating<\/p>\n

Co-written by Scotty Stevenson, Perspective is a cracking read. It details Johnson\u2019s journey from a Hibiscus Coast touch football prodigy to the Warriors, which was far from straightforward. The car fridge installed by his dad (for pre-and post-training fuelling), his under-20\u2019s success, his \u201cembarrassing\u201d defensive ability and the sharp words from early coaches that kept him on course.<\/p>\n

The surreal 2011 introduction, the regret over McClennan\u2019s departure, the anger over Elliott\u2019s exit<\/a>, the early clashes with McFadden, which he put down to immaturity. What makes the book is Johnson\u2019s candidness, with no sugar coating here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the halfback of the team,\u201d Johnson says now. \u201cI had responsibilities that come with it. I was entrusted by every coach that walked through the door to help deliver whatever it was they were presenting, you know? I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m the only reason it wasn\u2019t successful or we weren\u2019t successful. But I played my role in both sides of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" Mental skills coach Dan Haesler and Shaun Johnson. Photos \/ Supplied; Photosport<\/p>\n

In the book, Johnson admits that in the early years \u2013 2013 and 2014 \u2013 he had the \u201copposite of a growth mindset\u201d and that he wasn\u2019t a leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just a guy who had some talent and relied on that to get him to where he was,\u201d he writes. \u201dEverything good about my game was physical. There was nothing mental to go with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson is also honest about his struggles with social media criticism, given his career ran in parallel to Twitter\u2019s rise. In the book, he oscillates between using it to connect with fans and withdrawing completely when the negativity became too much. The abuse was horrible at times \u2013 \u201cwords carry weight\u201d \u2013 though there was always a sense that he allowed it to derail his passage more than it should have.<\/p>\n

But from a journalist\u2019s point of view, Johnson was generally great to deal with: available, honest and effusive. Over time, he would realise there was a \u201cdark side\u201d to the media \u2013 \u201csome things that were written were so inaccurate, just bullshit\u201d \u2013 but he embraced that side of the job.<\/p>\n

Exiting the Warriors<\/p>\n

One of the biggest flashpoints of his journey was his shock Warriors\u2019 exit at the end of the 2018 season<\/a>. Again, it is covered in rich detail, and Johnson doesn\u2019t try to paper over cracks or revise history. It becomes apparent how his relationship with Kearney began to break down at the start of that campaign, when he was left out of the leadership group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat snub stayed with me throughout most of the year,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

There were more twists and turns, before chief executive Cameron George\u2019s ill-timed comments<\/a> in a Herald story by David Skipwith, while Johnson was in England on tour with the Kiwis, which started the downward spiral between him and the club. The chapter makes for riveting reading, and even now, some elements are hard to believe.<\/p>\n

\"ShaunShaun Johnson’s new book, Perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow bizarre to think that in the space of a few short weeks, a lifetime\u2019s work was reduced to a brief media circus, and a short kiss goodbye,\u201d concludes Johnson in the book.<\/p>\n

But there was a happy ending. The time at the Sharks was beneficial \u2013 for personal growth, for the birth of his first child with wife Kayla and for the association with Morris and Haesler \u2013 before his return to the Warriors, the genesis of which is parlayed in fascinating detail, from the round of golf with owner Mark Robinson, the clandestine meeting with Phil Gould to the healing phone call with George, where both men confronted old scars and agreed to move on.<\/p>\n

At the end of Perspective, it\u2019s hard to view Johnson\u2019s career as anything but a triumph, despite the enduring frustrations and the what-ifs, from his internal struggles to the horrific 2015 ankle injury.<\/p>\n

Johnson may not have achieved everything he strived for \u2013 or everything that we hoped for \u2013 but the memories he made will live on for generations.<\/p>\n

Michael Burgess<\/a> has been a sports journalist for the New Zealand Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America\u2019s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But there were as many downs as ups, and after playing in the 2011 grand final in just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[617,64,63,1702,746,16379,3326,7781,5587,9703,19074,119584,28825,32482,46332,85795,761,762,158,2652,17025,18025,16380,119583,119582,85,119585,320],"class_list":["post-188106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-and","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beacon","tag-book","tag-burning","tag-career","tag-comment","tag-from","tag-his","tag-johnson","tag-johnsons","tag-joy","tag-last","tag-like","tag-moving","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-on","tag-page","tag-perspective","tag-question","tag-regrets","tag-shaun","tag-sports","tag-stands","tag-the"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}