‘Best place for me’: Shaun Johnson wants to make most of Warriors second chance

Shaun Johnson has pledged to make the most of his second chance at the Warriors, claiming the New Zealand club is “the best place” for him to potentially play out his rugby league career.

Next season will see Warriors talisman Shaun Johnson return to the Kiwi club for the first time since 2017, when they shipped him off to Cronulla and the blue-and-white of the then finals-regulars the Sharks.

Today marks the first day he’s been at training with his new teammates.

“It’s been really cool, I got my club kit bag when I left quarantine and the first thing I did is I went home and tried my playing kit on and looked at myself in the mirror for a while, like it was my first day of school. It was a bit of disbelief that I was actually back and being able to wear this kit again and represent this club again,” he said.

The NRL star admitted: “I got a little choked up just thinking about the journey I’ve been on and ending up right back here. Anyone that knows me knows there are no words that I can (use) to describe the way I feel and what the club means to me.”

For Johnson, the New Zealand Warriors feels like one big pile of “unfinished business.”

The 31-year-old first debuted for the Kiwi club in 2011, guiding the team all the way to a surprise grand final in his rookie season before losing to Manly at the final hurdle, 24–10.

He went on to play 162 games there, and would only return to the finals in his very last year, 2018. Despite the playoffs drought looming over the Mt Smart soldiers, Johnson stayed loyal to the team for eight years, only eventually exiting after a major and quite public falling out with the Warriors coach at the time, Stephen Kearney.

It was an ignominious end to his time with the Warriors, and one he’s regretted ever since.

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“How I left and not (being) able to say goodbye how I would’ve liked to, to the staff, the playing group and the fans that always turned out at Mt. Smart when I first entered the club, (was hard),” he said.

“I guess I never fully got closure on that but I’m not coming back here to seek closure for that, I’m coming back here because I think we can do something special with the group assembled here and I think this is the best place for me to be at this point in my career.

“I’m not hanging onto anything I’ve done at the club previously. It’s really exciting.”

Johnson returns to the club he called home for nearly a decade with a renewed sense of love for the greatest game too. Learning his trade at the Sharks, as well as navigating a horrendous injury crisis, and how to manage a team that was falling apart at the seams as the medical room dragged each one in nearly once a week, has turned Johnson into a “new man.”

“Three years ago is a little while ago now and the players I’ve rubbed shoulders with, the experiences and the coaches I’ve been able to work under, I feel like mentally I’ve grown leaps and bounds from where I was a few years back.

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“The application I’ve put into the mental side of the game and understanding who I am as a person and as a player and what my best performance looks like.”

“I’ve had some real clarity over that in the last few seasons,” he added.

“After a few seasons away that’s probably the biggest gain I’ve had. Physically I’ve had my struggles but I think mentally my application, detail, and understanding of what winning football looks like are pretty clear.”

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