ROSEMARY ABBOTT | Sport
HASN’T HEARD FROM THEM
Warriors playmaker Shaun Johnson is a caring man.
After tearing the Wayne Bennett coached Redcliffe Dolphins apart in a 30-8 victory at Mount Smart, Johnson worried that something horrible may have happened to a few certain journalists and keyboard warriors, all of whom had gone mysteriously quiet.
One of the five-eighth’s messages to people who had suddenly stopped chirping said: “You all goods my bro? Haven’t heard from you, just checking in”.
Despite being one of the best players in the NRL for the last 13 seasons, the Warriors legend has still had some dedicated critics over the years.
“Just worried about a few of these guys, eh. Usually I hear from them all the time, but suddenly – nothing. Hope everything’s alright and they haven’t got into any kind of trouble,” he said, knowing exactly why he hadn’t heard from them.
“Maybe they just went away for the long weekend and haven’t got any reception.
“With that said, I still need to make sure they’re okay, especially after a convincing win like that. You’d think they’d all be praising the victory of a New Zealand team that’s doing well this year” said Johnson, who’d rolled back the years with some vintage footwork to score the opening try last night.
Johnson has long been criticised by some journalists and many keyboard warriors online, who have often blamed him for his side’s losses, despite him obviously not being solely responsible for the performance of the whole team.
“It’s been quite weird to watch from afar. I mean you have these journalists and people I don’t even know who come across extremely concerned about my abilities to play professional sport. I mean, the coach of the team I play for keeps starting me every single week. I don’t pick myself!
“It’s a team game! I don’t know why they think I’m meant to try and win every game by myself.”
More to come.
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