The New Zealand Warriors have started their 2016 NRL season 0-3 and there's one bloke who has been copping it the most, SJ6. For some reason people expect Johnson to do a whole lot more than he is and when the Warriors aren't traveling well, Johnson is the devil, it's Johnson (or Konrad Hurrell) who gets scorned by the public and/or media, despite 16 other blokes not exactly doing their jobs either.

Going back to last year, Johnson wasn't playing any better than he is now, at this stage of the season. After warming into his work, Johnson started to produce match-winning performances but they weren't built upon solid halves play, nah, far from it. Johnson was amazing last season because he won games by himself, he'd get the ball with not much time left on the clock and produce some magic. 

I remember one constant last season (among many) in my Warriors coverage was Johnson's rather confusing role within the Warriors. Johnson looked as though he was trying to do everything and apparently fans also expect Johnson to do everything, as I've pointed out many times though, there's no super duper NRL team that relies on one half. Johnathan Thurston has Michael Morgan, Ben Hunt and Anthony Milford are a great combo, as are Luke Brooks and Mitchell Moses, even the Storm rely heavily on Blake Green to operate the left side while Cooper Cronk goes about his business. 

Again, Johnson wasn't playing great footy at this stage last season and I don't think he ever really started to tick all the boxes as an NRL half at any stage last season. It's just that he's capable of magic on the footy field and can win games himself.

Last season though, Johnson's partner in the halves was mainly Chad Townsend who never really did anything of much praise. Hold that thought.

While I can't see any signature style of play in the Warriors this season, nor a clear, defined job for Johnson, I'm also confused by Johnson's need to speak out against fans and critics. I like Johnson and want the best for him, not too many other high profile athletes care enough about our (media/fans) opinions enough to react to them. Johnson has now repeatedly shot down criticism instead of ignoring it or blowing it off and that's really weird.

A key idea that could be influencing Johnson's play is obviously his injury from last season. As I said in my Defence Of Andrew McFadden, Johnson wouldn't have got back into full training until around December and when you consider that Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Issac Luke wouldn't have been required for Warriors duty after their Kiwis tour until possibly January and Jeff Robson wasn't exactly welcomed right after the end of the 2015 season; the Warriors were already behind the 8-ball compared to the NRL's best teams like Brisbane who had their spine working together for months.

Johnson's injury would have required a lot of work to get back to an NRL level and not only that but a SJ6 level where Johnson can rely on both legs to offer power, speed and agility to his unique standard. There is of course the possibility that Johnson, like other players who suffer similar leg injuries, simply might not be able to regain that same zip that he had before it. 

Regardless of what Johnson says or what people think, I reckon that for every four athletes who break/dislocate a bone in their leg, there's one athlete who can't fully recover. Every player is different, they recover differently and we (and Johnson) might just have to accept that he won't be the same player. We won't know this until at least the end of this season though or next season, just planting the seed of the idea.

I'm here to convince you to ease up on Johnson right? While the lack of preparation, the possibility of Johnson's injury influencing his play and the lack of any clearly defined role for Johnson do form part of my argument, the general lack of support from Johnson's comrades is my key point.

The Warriors gained less metres than both the Tigers (1405m vs 1378) and Broncos (1499m vs 1200m) and only just ran for more metres than Melbourne (1209m vs 1251m).

Only once this season has Jacob Lillyman ran for more than 100m (vs Broncos, 134m).

In three games, only five Warriors forwards have run for more than 100m. 

Against the Tigers (8 vs 5) and Broncos (5 vs 4) the Warriors were out-offloaded, no coincidence that they played their best game against the Storm with more offloads (15 vs 8)

It's the same trend with missed tackles: 40 vs 28, 28 vs 14 and 19 vs 27.

In two games, Issac Luke only ran the footy 6 times for a combined 40m, while last week Jazz Tevaga ran 7 times for 35m. The Warriors won't win anything if Luke isn't running the footy, that's what Luke was brought here to do and that's what Luke has built an NRL career on

When Benji Marshall was discussing the return of Robbie Farah this weekend for the Tigers, he highlighted that Farah's running game would straighten up the Tigers attack, keeping the defenders around the ruck busy instead of sliding off on to the halves. If Luke is running the footy, opposing teams must first and foremost worry about him darting out of dummy half before moving on to Johnson or Jeff Robson. Luke hasn't been running the footy and the Warriors have sucked on attack, the two are definitely related.

I kinda gave Johnson's confusing job last season a free-pass thank to Townsend's presence. This season Robson has come in and I was excited because Robson is good at just doing a basic, solid job as a halfback: kick accurately, pass long and short getting the right guy the ball at the right time and run every so often.

Robson hasn't done that in the first three games which is partly due to Luke being M.I.A and partly due to Robson just not playing as well as he'd want to. Robson and Johnson have shared touches rather evenly, what's extremely strange for me though is the disparity in kicks between the two. 

Johnson has kicked 40 times this season, Robson has kicked 6 times.

I get that Johnson is apparently a good kicker, but there's clearly no balance there. You need balance, you need to keep defenders guessing, keep them confused as to who's going to get the ball and when etc, etc. For example, if the Warriors are 40m out, you know that Johnson's going to put a bomb up and nothing will come of that.

This is an example of Johnson trying to do everything and the Warriors not making the most of Robson, who is there to take weight off of Johnson's shoulders/boot. If Johnson was Cooper Cronk then I'd be happy for him to take on that much of the kicking, but clearly Johnson has shown that he's not Cronk and it becomes a simply question of what would we prefer Johnson to do, run or kick? 

I don't know about you, but I Iove Johnson's running game much more than his kicking game. Robson hasn't exactly shown a solid kicking game just yet which hasn't helped matters, I'd just like to see Robson given more ball on the last tackle where he can get a repeat set or just put a kick into the mixer. Free up Johnson to run, take some attention away from Johnson and keep defenders honest.

The Warriors also have this bloke Tuimoala Lolohea who is blatantly a very talented footballer and isn't getting used as much as he should on the wing. Lolohea is a fine winger and it's the best place to put him when you consider that you've gotta find a place for him, such is his ability but he just needs to be used more, which is happening.

Lolohea had 5 runs for 61m and 1 tackle bust vs Tigers, 11 runs for 83m and 2 tackle busts vs Brisbane and 14 runs for 66m with 5 tackle busts vs Melbourne.

Lolohea is a freak of a talent and if he and Johnson (or Robson) can combine more through the middle of the field with Lolohea coming off his wing to get involved, then Johnson will have both Tuivasa-Sheck and Lolohea nearby, posing a threat. We saw last week against Melbourne that Johnson only has to give the ball to Tuivasa-Sheck with a little space in a basic 2nd-man play and a try was scored, coincidentally by Lolohea in the corner.

Johnson has struggled sure but more importantly the Warriors have struggled and it's clear that they are still working on bringing all the pieces of their puzzle together. It's incredibly silly to blame Johnson when other players like Luke have been far worse (Luke has actually made the Warriors worse in the two games he played) while others like Robson or the forwards haven't done their jobs. You'd expect experienced professionals like Robson or Lillyman to get better.

What confuses me is how Johnson is used and how the Warriors play, not getting blokes like Lolohea involved as often as they should. That falls on the coach Andrew McFadden, there's no need to be dramatic about anything though, regardless of what happens in the first five weeks, all that matters is how the Warriors are playing around State Of Origin time and beyond.