Warriors halfback Shaun Johnson retired at the end of last NRL season. Photo: David Neilson
Shaun Johnson has one message for young league players who want to emulate him.
"Go play touch.
"Seriously go play touch."
The Warriors halfback retired at the end of last season, after 268 games in the NRL as well as 35 international appearances for the Kiwis.
The league star, probably among the most gifted Kiwi players ever, has written a book with journalist Scotty Stevenson recounting his early life, how he broke into the Warriors first team and some of the highs and lows of a career that included an NRL grand final - and a small stint leaving Auckland to play for the Cronulla Sharks.
The book Perspective hits the shelves on Tuesday.
On Monday morning he sat down with Kathryn Ryan to talk league, growing up north of Auckland and waxing lyrical on the joys of playing touch young.
"I got a head start on everyone else. Stuff that you'd go along to a Junior Warriors, or first grade training, and talk about like manipulation and subtleties of tempo, and I'd watch other halves doing their best to pick it up.
"I felt like I had already trained it. I got to take it a step further under a professional umbrella and that all came from playing touch.
"Subconsciously I was doing things like preserving space, giving space to other people, syncing defenders in, making people turn their hips. All these things - option taking, split second decision making close to the line - when I got on a league field, it just transferred.
"Touch played such a massive role. If there was one message I could give to any young halfback or young playmaker it would be go play touch. Seriously go play touch. It'll do things for your game you can't even describe."
Johnson spoke of his memories of years playing in Auckland.
He believed, put a blindfold on him on the field at Mt Smart Stadium, and he would know immediately he was at home.
He told Nine to Noon it was the smells of the panel beaters, the recyclers, the laminate factories and the steel and pipe warehouses in the streets around the stadium that stood out most to him.
And he recalled the highs and lows of his first game at Mt Smart; against his childhood idol Benji Marshall of the Wests Tigers.
It encapsulated all the exultation and defeat of sport.
Johnson made his Warriors NRL debut in 2011 in Round 13 against the Sydney Roosters. But his first home game was the next week against Marshall's Tigers.
Johnson scored a try.
"I was thinking how good is this; it was like I had dreamed of in the backyard.
"But it is scary how fast things can change. We were blowing out the tigers. Then Benji Marshall put in a master class and I had a front row seat of trying to stop the avalanche. I ended up being pulled from the field and we lost the match (22-26)."
He said it was the first of many times of big rises and sudden falls in sport.
These days he was enjoying reliving the moments of his career - and being a big part of his family.
Shaun Johnson and wife Kayla wave to the crowd at Go Media Mt Smart Stadium in 2024. Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images
Now 35, he was enjoying his stint working for Fox and Sky as a broadcaster and picking up and dropping off his two daughters from school.
"My wife, Kayla, has made sacrifices for my career, and I can put energy into my young kids. One thing has stopped, but I have got so much more than just league.
"When I was playing, whatever feeling you had after a big game or however you felt after a long training, I would walk through the front door and they would only ever know me as Dad.
"Now I am able to be more present and front load, raise our girls with Kayla."
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