Johnston gets a statue at Heffron Park for breaking tryscoring record

Alex Johnston’s teammates, Souths officials, the local mayor, and the NRL chief executive were all on hand at the South Sydney training headquarters in Maroubra to witness the official unveiling of a statue for Alex Johnston, the game’s greatest tryscorer.

The statue was cooked up as a plan by Rabbitohs fan Danny Taibel, who took the idea to Souths chief Blake Solly in 2023. Three years later, after Johnston scored his 213th try in the NRL and thousands of fans stormed the Allianz Stadium field after his record-breaking moment, the statue has come to life and will forever commemorate the moment.

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“The majority of my footy career has been overwhelmingly positive, but along the way a few fans have shit on me,” Johnston joked at the unveiling. “There have been a few coaches who have shit on me, the media has shit on me… now the pigeons can shit on me.”

The new South Sydney record tryscorer continued: “A lot of effort went behind the scenes to get this done. It’s funny, you see some of the [statute] shockers around the world, but this one is pretty amazing. The work that’s been done behind the scenes by Danny Taibel and the club means a lot to me, and it’s a huge honour to be immortalised in such a way.”

“When I finally got time to myself and went through my phone, through the thousands of messages, thousands of videos of people rushing the field, literally all I did that first night was just didn’t sleep, just going through it all.

“I’m still buzzing; it still hasn’t sunk in. I’m sure it’ll be something I keep looking back on and have fond memories for sure.”

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Johnston said he was the start of the celebrations, before his emotions shifted in the middle of the huge crowd. “In the moment, it was awesome when I got picked up. I think ‘Stretch’ and Cam [Murray] picked me up on their shoulders, and that 10, 20 seconds, I was on top of the world. It was the best feeling ever. When I got put back down, and everyone was trying to get a piece, I legitimately was scared. I’m like, ‘I’ve got to get out of here. If I fall over, I’m gone.’ So I just told the security to get me out of here.”

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Calls have now started around the rugby league world for the Ken Irvine Medal (which is handed out on Dally M night for the season’s leading tryscorer) to be updated to include Johnston’s name. Johnston himself says he doesn’t mind either way, though if the NRL does decide to change the name to the Irvine-Johnston Medal, it would be “a massive honour.”

“But I think I’ve been spoiled enough, and more importantly, I’ve got this ring on,” he said.