Shaun Johnson says he entered ‘the touch-footy zone’ before turning on his magic and using his last play in the NRL to lead the Warriors to a 30-28 win over Cronulla.
With the Warriors down 28-26 and Johnson in the final minute of his 268-game NRL career on Saturday, the Warriors halfback threw a perfect two-man cut-out ball for Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to score.
The play sealed the a memorable win, ending the Warriors’ nightmare season in style and finishing off a comeback that began with them down 22-4 at half time.
The result means Cronulla appear unlikely to claim a home final, and could mathematically still miss the top four if they are beaten by Manly next week.
But the story of Saturday night at PointsBet Stadium was Johnson against his former club.
The retiring halfback began the game with a piece of old-school Johnson magic, before ending a personal nine-match losing streak in the final minute.
He helped open the scoring when he dummied twice to his outside, stepped through the defence on halfway and passed back inside for Luke Metcalf.
And when that 4-0 lead became a 22-4 deficit at the break, Johnson was heavily involved in the comeback.
With Taine Tuaupiki a threat on the right edge and setting up two tries himself, Johnson continually found ways to chip in.
He grubber-kicked early for one of Watene-Zelezniak’s three tries, giving the flying winger room to run on to the ball and score.
Retiring Kiwi champion Shaun Johnson is chaired off the field by teammates after engineering a great escape against Cronulla
Johnson’s teammates performed the Haka to honour their retiring captain and halfback
Johnson also nailed two kicks from the sideline, helping give the Warriors a 26-22 advantage with 13 minutes to play.
And when the fairytale finish looked dead after Sam Stonestreet put the Sharks back ahead with nine minutes to play, Johnson refused to give up.
A Sharks error offered the Warriors one last attacking opportunity, before Johnson touched the ball on almost every play of the set for the visitors.
Eventually he came up with the decisive one for Watene-Zelezniak’s third, capping off a magical career.
‘It feels good. It feels very good to finish that way,’ Johnson said.
‘A couple of the boys just said you can’t finish with touch highlight. That was the zone I was in, it was as simple as enjoying what we were doing.’
With the game seemingly lost, Johnson came up with one last trick shot to seal victory for the Warriors against his former club Cronulla
Johnson and his family got to say farewell to the home fans in Auckland last week
Johnson was then carried off by teammates, before being given a farewell haka by Warriors and Cronulla players.
‘That feeling of being in the zone, where you know why you’re doing something and the look you want to create,’ Johnson continued.
‘For me to able to finish my career on that moment is probably why I am content.
‘It wasn’t just a one cut-out ball. There were things that lead into that play to create that look.
‘These are all just moments I know I am going to cherish. I can’t believe I played a small role in it all.’
It was an emotional night for Johnson who spent many years wearing the jerseys of both clubs
For Cronulla, this loss could prove costly.
There were good signs for their attack in Nicho Hynes’ return game from a fractured ankle, and he and Braydon Trindall combined nicely.
Trindall played a role in the Sharks’ first two tries with perfectly timed passes for Teig Wilton and Kayal Iro.
Hynes was also able to send Tom Hazleton over for a four-pointer as the Sharks crossed three times in a five-minute period before the break.
Trindall too proved influential late, helping Will Kennedy put Stonestreet over late before nailing a crucial conversion from the sideline.
But ultimately the Johnson magic won out, meaning Cronulla are now likely to have to head to Melbourne to face the minor premiers in the first week of the finals.
‘We had some good footy, but the period that mattered we didn’t handle well,’ Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said.