He is almost certainly my favourite Warrior – and there have been a few contenders. I liked Ruben Wiki and Steve Price for their hardman leadership.Stacey, obviously. Mathew Ridge because he could actually kick at a time when the sport hadn’t worked out the extra two points might be important.
I could probably come up with about 20, such is my undying obsession with a side that – let’s be honest as we sit here this week with Shaun’s retirement news – is looking pretty bloody ordinary.
There were a few versions of the story to be seen: the Johnson who could change direction when running in a way we all dreamed we once could in a backyard – except he brought it to the highest level of the NRL. Touch rugby on a league field.
Shaun Johnson on the attack for the Warriors. Photo / Photosport
And in changing direction the way he did, he often changed the game.
But then we had the Johnson who would inexplicably fail to show up. The game sheet would show he was on the field, but the evidence was lacking.
Perhaps that’s because, on the best of days, he was so mesmerising that the days on which he wasn’t looked a bit more ordinary than they actually were.
I have a long-held theory about Johnson: he was never the same after the season-ending ankle injury he picked up while scoring a try against Manly at Mt Smart in 2015.
What made him special, apart from his agility, was the ability to attack the line, to get behind it. After a lengthy injury layoff, that quality seemed, if not missing, certainly not as deployable as it once was.
He has also been a lightning rod of sorts and – like all big names in the public eye in this country – that has led to a barrage of unfair criticism.
People love him or they hate him, which always seemed odd given he never really gave them any reason to dislike him. All players have bad days, but his were highlighted.
It could have been the fact he was good-looking, married a netballer, Kayla Cullen (also good-looking), and became a bit of a poster boy with his head just a bit above that parapet where the haters could all see it for a good chopping down.
It could be that he left for Cronulla and, if I was being really sensitive, almost seemed to lord it over us for a bit.
Shaun Johnson and Kayla Cullen. Photo / @kaylamalvinacullen
I always remember the first photos of him at the beach in the sun – looking tanned, relaxed and happy. He didn’t say: “Sucked in good, New Zealand!” – but his departure hurt.
The good news is he came back and like all great stories, this one had a full-circle vibe about it.
The news of the retirement has been coming. All Warriors fans who watch every minute of every game can tell you about his injuries – by the second beer they’ll also tell you tell you how he isn’t quite what he was.
Not as fast, not as creative, not as impactful.
For Johnson fans, Te Maire Martin hasn’t helped. He has helped the team, but not the Johnson story.
But we must view these things in totality.
Fourteen years is a sensational run. Shaun Johnson has a highlights reel any professional would be proud to show.
He genuinely seemed to love the club and returned to it a more mature and better man.
I think he has timed his retirement about right. Yes, it had to be coming and had been talked about for some time, but it’s not so late as to look sad.
He leaves on a high, as one of the team’s and the game’s greats. He has lived his dream.
Fans will hope that the players have Johnson in the sort of regard whereby they might want to go out and win – let’s say – four in a row, then have a bye then make the final eight, and go on to make it our year.
Over the next month or so, we should relish a bloke who has given so much joy and chiselled his name and reputation into the walls of Mt Smart.
Johnson has allowed us the privilege of knowing that one of league’s greats is one of ours.
