{"id":542597,"date":"2026-03-15T20:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T20:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542597\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T20:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T20:22:11","slug":"alex-johnston-broke-the-try-scoring-record-now-he-will-get-a-statue-outside-south-sydney-rabbitohs-headquarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542597\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Johnston broke the try-scoring record. Now he will get a statue outside South Sydney Rabbitohs headquarters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt will be a lasting tribute to Alex\u2019s record, located in a sporting precinct that has a million visitors a year, and will hopefully inspire the kids who play any of their sport here at Heffron.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very proud it\u2019s going to be part of our home for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

There would have been a nervous wait for Taibel when Johnston suffered an Achilles injury during a game against Canberra in 2024 and was no certainty to play again, let alone pass Irvine\u2019s record.<\/p>\n

Johnston said he had confided in Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett during a difficult time in his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I was done, to be honest, and when it [the injury] first happened, all I could think about was, \u2018I\u2019m off contract, going on to 30 years old, and I\u2019ve just done my Achilles\u2019. I was in a bad place,\u201d Johnston said.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Alex Johnston after breaking Ken Irvine\u2019s try-scoring record.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cNot many people know that I messaged Wayne. I told him I was in a bad place, and he looked after me. There were some kind words, and it sort of got me back on track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Souths legends Greg Inglis and John Sutton have murals on Cleveland Street and at Kensington Oval, respectively, but Johnston will be the first current player to have a statue erected in his honour.<\/p>\n

Johnston still has a year to run on his contract with South Sydney, but he has been given permission to broker a lucrative, tax-free contract with the Papua New Guinea Chiefs in time for the 2028 season. The winger has already captained the Kumuls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt will be a lasting tribute to Alex\u2019s record, located in a sporting precinct that has a million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-542597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542597","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=542597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}