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Never the biggest. Often not even the fastest. And by many measures of a modern winger, which he freely acknowledges, not the best.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, Alex Johnston sits on the precipice of rugby league history.<\/a> Three four-pointers shy of equalling Ken Irvine\u2019s all-time Australian record of 212 tries, it is not a matter of if Johnston breaks new ground. Or even when, with two games against the Dragons and Roosters to come this season.<\/p>\n The Rabbitohs flyer turns 31 in January and is on South Sydney\u2019s books for another two years. His try-scoring feats are really a matter of just how far will he go \u2013 and how much further can he extend one of rugby league\u2019s more astounding numbers?<\/p>\n Particularly when you break down exactly how he\u2019s got to this very point \u2013 209 tries and counting.<\/p>\n Johnston makes no bones about playing outside the best left edge of the past five years. He knows Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell have put plenty of his tries on a platter, and told the\u00a0Herald\u00a0exactly that this week.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI love playing with \u2018T-Mitt\u2019 [Mitchell],\u201d Johnston said. \u201cCody Walker has given me most of my tries, but Trell would be the second most.\u201d<\/p>\n The boot of Adam Reynolds and the brute force of Greg Inglis are more than handy options to call upon as well. Burgess brothers Sam and George, Manly enforcer Nathan Brown and now-Rabbitohs staffer John Sutton have all leant a hand over the years as well.<\/p>\n Johnston\u2019s place atop rugby league\u2019s greatest try-scorers is assured. Immortals in waiting, premiership-winners, Origin and Kangaroos champions all lie in his wake.<\/p>\n Between them, the top 11 (Matt Sing and Hazem El Masri rank equal 10th on 159 tries) try-scorers in history have crossed the line no less than 1960 times.<\/p>\n And as to how far can Johnston go? Champion Data has pegged his average try-scoring haul at 17.2 tries per season, or almost nine tries from every 10 games he has played.<\/p>\n Injuries have curtailed that rate in the past two seasons. But Johnston has a new two-year deal with Souths that will see him through 2026 and 2027.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s hard to imagine the likes of Walker, Mitchell, Cameron Murray and the like playing any less than they have in the past 18 months \u2013 so a yearly haul of 12-14 tries to match his past two seasons seems a fair, if conservative, stab.<\/p>\n As reported by this masthead<\/a>, Johnston has a clause in his new Rabbitohs deal to negotiate at any time with the incoming PNG franchise for 2028, by which point Johnston will be 33. If he\u2019s still playing, the smart money is it will be for the NRL\u2019s newest side.<\/p>\n Adding another 20-30 tries by the time retirement calls feels like a reasonable estimate, so too a new high-water mark of 230-240 tries.<\/p>\n And as for who could eventually take the record from him? Daniel Tupou (182 tries and 34 years old) and Josh Addo-Carr (153 tries, 30) are his closest contemporaries, but time is against them.<\/p>\n Titans flyer Alofiana Khan-Pereira is the only current player who can trump Johnston\u2019s strike-rate. But he\u2019s struggled for a game this year at the wooden spooners too.<\/p>\n Ronaldo Mulitalo\u2019s record surprises a little, with both he and Xavier Coates in with a shot if they keep playing and scoring for another decade.<\/p>\n As we mention Tupou, the once baby giraffe who came to truly dominate the airways and left wing for the Roosters, he and Johnston have been the game\u2019s most consistent try-scorers of the past decade.<\/p>\n Tupou\u2019s hat-trick against Canterbury took him past Steve \u2018Beaver\u2019 Menzies into fourth on the all-time list just last week, and he will play on into his 15th season at Moore Park. The double century beckons.<\/p>\n Looking at Johnston\u2019s year-on-year record, it effectively boils down to this: if he\u2019s on the paddock, he\u2019s scoring tries.<\/p>\n The 2018 campaign \u2013 when Souths played a preliminary final under Anthony Seibold and Johnston played the entire year at fullback \u2013 is the only season when Johnston was fit and didn\u2019t finish with a bagful of tries.<\/p>\n The 2021 and 2022 seasons are particular, record-breaking outliers (no-one else scored 30 tries in back-to-back seasons) for Johnston thanks to the introduction of set restarts and attacking players like Walker and Mitchell running riot.<\/p>\n Lastly, spare a thought for the Tigers \u2013 who always seem to feature in these types of statistics from the past decade, for obvious reasons.<\/p>\n Johnston\u2019s 20 tries against the joint-venture make them his favourite rival, closely followed by Parramatta and the Roosters (18 apiece).<\/p>\n The Rabbitohs won\u2019t play finals this year, and are doing well to dodge the wooden spoon. But Johnston securing his share of rugby league history<\/a> against the Tricolours would go down a treat on the cardinal and myrtle side of Anzac Parade.<\/p>\n