Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan: Fvck Shaun Johnson
Everyone was quietly going about their spring-time business, until some dramatic mainstream media went hunting for the clicks and rolled out the yarns about New Zealand Warriors 'set to dump Shaun Johnson'. Talk about a shit-storm, no not the kerfuffle that this information caused, but the journalism that drifted past considered, sensible reporting and into the clickbait realm of the interwebs.
What we do have though, is an incredibly nuanced situation that is far deeper than the Warriors dumping Johnson. Let me start with why this isn't as dramatic as the language used suggests, which centres around business and not the emotion (rational and the irrational) that tends to cloud everything regarding SJ7. It was a bit weird how Warriors boss dawg Cameron George was so eager to go public with this news, seemingly out of nowhere because George has effectively created a massive distraction and that can't be beneficial.
However, all George outlined to mainstream media was that the Warriors are open-minded about Johnson's future. Johnson is apparently the highest-payed Warriors player and as we have seen with the new Warriors regime; they are a wee bit more street smart with how they do business than previous regimes. To suss this out, I advise you to take Johnson's value out of this equation, push your emotions around Johnson aside because as Johnson is already the most polarizing Warrior, you can imagine the differing opinions as to whether Johnson is worth his salary.
Then and only then, can we attack this from an NRL business stand point. The Warriors have merely suggested that if Johnson wants more money and can attract more money from another club, happy days. To put out this narrative that the Warriors are 'dumping' Johnson, or could 'dump' Johnson is kinda irresponsible as that alludes to the Warriors kicking Johnson out. Instead, the Warriors are telling Johnson that they will be willing to pay 'X' and if Johnson wants more, he's happy to chase more.
The timing also points to being slightly dramatic. Mainstream journalists who cover the Warriors won't have much on their plates right now because they don't bother to dig into the full roster for interesting yarns, hence we have dramatic reporting that lured us all into clicking the headline. Johnson is under contract for 2019 and will continue to be under contract for 2019 until the 2019 season is finished, all of this centres around 2020.
As we saw with Issac Luke, contracts can be sorted out rather late in the year. Luke could have sussed out a contract for 2019, when the window opened on November 1st in 2017 and, instead, that all got sorted out in September 2018 - almost a year after the window opened. I'd suggest that any suitors for Johnson, including the Warriors, will wait to see how Johnson is performing in 2019 and thus I doubt any deal for Johnson will be done prior to May-June 2019.
That all boils down to none of this really mattering right now.
Why would George and the Warriors put this out into the universe? It's good business and they are laying their cards on the table early, allowing for clarity and transparency. The most interesting thing for me though, from the Warriors perspective, is the difference between this regime and the previous regime; the confidence and nous of NRL business in the current regime.
All those wise heads in the Warriors offices, have already completely flipped how the Warriors go about recruitment and development, so we'd expect them to flip how they deal with their high profile players. What I see, is that the Warriors now have immense confidence in their system and personnel to ensure that no player is irreplaceable. Plain and simple, in business terms, that's leverage.
In the past, in this specific example, Johnson had all the leverage because the Warriors were a bit of a mess. The lack of a consistently solid halves partner, gave Johnson the leverage. The lack of another Johnson-calibre half coming through, gave Johnson the leverage. The lack of a strong culture that bred strong on-field performances, gave Johnson the leverage. Regardless of how well Johnson was playing, or what you thought of Johnson, he always had the leverage in contract negotiations and it showed.
These days though, such leverage is with the Warriors. This goes back to the dramatic reporting, because the Warriors leverage won't be used to 'dump' Johnson, but it will be used to negotiate their position and get what they want; which I believe to be keeping Johnson at a lower salary ... like Luke.
The Warriors have this leverage because they have some of Aotearoa's best play-making prospects on their roster. The Warriors have the 2017 Aotearoa Under 18 halves combo in Paul Turner and Dylan Tavita, they have two-time Junior Kiwis half Chanel Harris-Tavita and with perennial Aotearoa representative Hayze Perham, the Warriors have a fullback who won't bump Roger Tuivasa-Sheck out of the NRL team, but could make a backline move, perhaps to the halves to push for NRL selection.
As the Warriors have sorted out their recruitment and development, stemming from recruiting Brian Smith, Peter O'Sullivan etc, their wave of play-making talent coming through is a beautiful swell. In the same week as this Johnson news, whispers came out of the Warriors signing Adam Keighran from Penrith Panthers for a couple years and while Keighran hasn't played NRL, he will likely slot into the reserve grade team and bolster the play-making stocks.
This is all about the recruitment moves though and if Keighran is signed by the Warriors, it's an example of how thorough the Warriors scouting and talent ID has become by signing the best staff for those roles. The Warriors have a full crew of kiwi play-making prospects and could also bring in a young Aussie half, seeking opportunity; to me that sounds like ticking all the boxes for a competitive roster, which will flow into all these prospects wanting to do their best and crack NRL.
If you have made such moves, moves the have a lovely smell of confidence, then you may not be so eager to invest as much money in Johnson as you previously had. The winds of change blew through Mt Smart and brought in structures, foundations for growth and sustained success, none of which was present when Johnson was previously off-contract. Now the Warriors have those systems in place, thus allowing them to use their salary cap in a wiser manner.
This isn't really about Johnson either, because all of the change has come on the Warriors side of things. Before they had no leverage, now they have leverage and Johnson can't really do much about that. The focus on Johnson, highlights another weird thing about mainstream media and how rugby league is perceived in Aotearoa because there is a whole lot more to #KiwiNRL than just the Warriors.
Every NRL team has #KiwiNRL players, Wests Tigers even rolled half a starting 13 of #KiwiNRL players. The champion Roosters team had four #KiwiNRL players and for many NRL teams, one or two of their best players came through junior rugby league in Aotearoa. Why does Tonga enjoy such fandom in Aotearoa? Because the majority of their squad are #KiwiNRL players, who grew up in Aotearoa and are now able to be leaders for their communities.
I say that, to throw up the idea of Johnson playing for an Aussie club, which I think would be low key awesome. I'd love to see Johnson being a star for an Aussie club, the same way the South Auckland Rhino Jason Taumalolo is a star for North Queensland Cowboys, or how the kid from Tokoroa Joseph Manu exploded this season to win a Premiership, or how Jamayne Isaako is showing kids from Canterbury that NRL footy is a legit pathway, or how Benji Marshall went from Whakatane to setting the NRL on fire and changed rugby league along with his Tigers team.
That's what I love as a kiwi rugby league fan. While there's not much better than watching SJ7 light up Mt Smart, watching SJ7 sparking a whole new buzz over in Australia would be a #KiwiNRL dream.
Hit an ad to support the Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan.
Or jump on Patreon and support the Niche Cache directly, we drop bonus stuff for the Patrons and take care of the homies.
Peace and love 27.