From ‘nervous’ debut chat to Wayne Bennett act that ‘saved him’: Inside Alex Johnston’s path to NRL history

Few things would adequately prepare you for the visceral overload of an NRL debut.

Let alone one at Suncorp Stadium, against the Brisbane Broncos on Anzac Day – in front of almost 45,000 raucous fans.

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But former Rabbitohs captain John Sutton can vividly remember trying to ready Alex Johnston for battle when the quiet, unassuming winger pulled on the cardinal and myrtle for the first time on April 25, 2014.

As Johnston prepares to make NRL try scoring history when the Rabbitohs take on the Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium on Friday, Sutton this week recalled the beginning of his journey, where the then 19-year-old stamped his mark on the NRL world almost immediately.

“I remember his debut game in Brisbane clearly,” Sutton told foxsports.com.au.

“Madge [then Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire] came up to me in the sheds before the game and said ‘you’ve got to give Alex a bit and make him feel good. Because he’s a bit nervous over there’.

“I went over and had a chat with him, asked him how he was going. He seemed a bit nervous for sure, but when he got out there, you knew he was something special.”

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Johnston was tasked with replacing Nathan Merritt on the South Sydney wing during the 2014 season; a Rabbitohs hero and at the time, top club try scorer.

It took Johnston only six minutes to make an impression in that pivotal debut match, deftly juggling an Adam Reynolds chip-kick to cross in the corner. He would go onto score 21 tries in 18 games through the 2014 season, including first points in South Sydney’s triumphant Grand Final victory over Canterbury.

Johnston eventually overtook Merritt’s own Souths try scoring club record of 146 in 2022, quietly reeling in each milestone in his own gentle, indomitable style.

This weekend against the Roosters, Johnston is tipped to become the greatest NRL try scorer of all time as he attempts to level and surpass Ken Irvine’s five-decade-old record of 212. He currently sits on 211, from 243 NRL appearances.

It’s a huge feat, but one that carries even more weight in Redfern circles because Johnston (a La Perouse junior) has done it all for the same club.

“It makes me very proud,” Sutton said.

“We always believe in our juniors and we try to prepare them through the grades so they can all play first grade. It’s so good to see.

“It just makes me proud that the boys from this area really want to play for the club. We’ve had some really good players over the years and AJ is one of them.”

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From his school years, Johnston showed razor-sharp focus on anything in front of him.

Teachers at Endeavour High School, where Johnston graduated his HSC with an ATAR score of 91.8, say he applied himself diligently and never forgot where he came from.

On the football field, Johnston stood out most: he played Harold Matthews a year young, and featured in every representative side, including Australian schoolboys.

“He was always a quiet kid and a special athlete who was good at everything. Anything he tried his hand to at a sports high school, he could do,” said Dave Howlepp, a coach with Endeavour’s rugby league program.

“And that included in the classroom where he was always in the top classes and always performing well in everything that he did.

“He was a gifted athlete first and foremost, but he also had a real game sense of how to create space, how to identify space. He just moved really well, you could see that straight away – and he had a real thirst for learning and wanted to be coached.”

Try scoring isn’t necessarily a taught skill, but an instinctive one, and Johnston’s knack for crossing the line was evident early on, according to those around him. He had great hands following a handy junior cricket career, plus a great read in attack, remarkable speed and, above all else, composure.

The winger has long spoken about his unwavering loyalty to South Sydney, even during a publicised contract saga in 2020 where he was all-but set to be pushed out due to salary cap pressures.

In fact, Johnston said at the time that the Tigers and Storm were the “main two” teams in the position to sign him and that he was “very close” to leaving South Sydney.

“The other clubs were very good to me, very tempting and I think I’d say 50/50 were the odds at the end of the day,” Johnston said, adding that in the end the Tigers deal was “not as high as other clubs”.

Rabbitohs fans vehemently objected, lodging an online petition fighting for Johnston’s inclusion.

In the end, coach Wayne Bennett was a key figurehead in Johnston being retained at the club after the winger wrote a letter to Rabbitohs bosses pleading to stay at the club.

“The letter saved him. I kept the letter because I thought it was such a great letter. I didn’t know him and his contract was up,” Bennett told Code Sports this week.

“After I read the letter I said you have to find a way to keep this guy - and we did. It was a beautiful letter of what the club meant to him.”

According to Bennett, Johnston’s team mates responded to his re-signing with rapturous applause.

“It was certainly the most cheering and clapping I’ve heard for a long time in the change room,” the master coach said at the time.

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Now 31, Johnston has been the NRL’s leading try-scorer on four occasions: in 2014, 2020, 2021 and 2022. His career also includes representative honours for Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Indigenous All Stars.

While there are no guarantees Johnston will equal or break Irvine’s long-standing mark on Friday, Sutton – the most-capped Rabbitohs player in history, at 336 games – has already anointed him as a Souths legend either way.

Sutton said that from the first pep talk deep in the bowels of Suncorp Stadium, the pair’s relationship strengthened through South’s 2014 premiership season – and continues today.

“AJ’s a quiet, laidback sort of guy. It was amazing what he did in that first year, he was just freakish when he came into grade,” Sutton remembered.

“I knew we could count on Alex pretty quickly during that premiership season, because he held his position all year, even with Nathan Merritt there and Lote Tuqiri coming into the squad.

“He’s one of the smartest wingers there is. Defensively, he makes some really good reads. And in attack, he knows where to be. He’s a really smart winger and he knows where to put himself.

“He’s already a legend at Souths.”

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This season, Johnston continues as a key member of South Sydney’s attack, teaming with Cody Walker, Latrell Mitchell and Campbell Graham to offer what is being billed the league’s ‘most lethal left edge’.

Johnston is doing his best to avoid the limelight around surpassing Irvine’s record. The 31-year-old declined an opportunity to speak with foxsports.com.au this week, and has watered down any hype in recent interviews, including during an appearance on Sunday Night with Matty Johns.

Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett isn’t exactly fanning the promotional flame, either. Following Sunday’s 40-30 victory over the Dolphins, Bennett urged fans not to invade the field if and when Johnston surpasses Irvine’s record.

“I don’t see why it should happen, no comprehension of why it should happen,” Bennett told reporters.

“It’s the respect of the game that’s the important thing here. We play for 80 minutes, you stay off the field regardless and I believe in that. The end of the game, no problems.”

Ironically, Johnston could break the record right next door to the stadium which saw nearly 40,000 AFL fans invade the pitch to celebrate Swans superstar Lance Franklin kicking his 1000th goal.

With the Roosters already under the microscope over their lacklustre defence in Round 1, Friday’s match offers a great opportunity for Johnston. If he doesn’t, he’ll get another go at Gosford against the Wests Tigers in Round 3, before a Rabbitohs bye in Round 4.

The man himself has quietly conceded “it’ll be pretty cool if everyone jumped on” the field in celebration. After all, it’s not every day you see an all-time try scoring record surpassed.

Even Sutton admitted he never anticipated Irvine’s record being broken.

“When I was coming into grade, and I saw Ken Irvine’s 212-try record, I was like ‘no one is ever going to beat that!’. For years I thought that,” Sutton said.

“But when AJ’s putting 30 tries on each year for two or three season, he has quickly chipped away at it.”

While the rest of the NRL world ponders on whether fans should storm the field or not, Sutton believes the milestone could provoke a rare moment of emotion from Johnston himself. A visceral overload if ever there was one.

“He’s a quiet fella, AJ. But I think he might show a bit of emotion because it’s a massive achievement,” Sutton said.

“It’s only a matter of time before he gets it. Either way I’m just very proud of AJ and what he’s done with his career so far. It’s an amazing accomplishment.”

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