NRL: Rookie halves to contest final

Shaun Johnson of the Warriors. Photo / Getty Images

The NRL infancy of grand final halfbacks Shaun Johnson and Daly Cherry-Evans is borne out in the fact they'll become the first pair of No.7 rookies in more than 60 years to battle it out in a premiership decider.

They've been earmarked for greatness, but not since Des Bryan and Bruce Hopkins went head to head for Balmain and Canterbury in 1947 have two first-year playmakers led their team into the decider.

Warriors 21-year-old Johnson and Manly 22-year-old Cherry Evans are set to play pivotal roles in determining the result at ANZ Stadium next Sunday.

Despite the presence of more experienced men around them, Johnson and Cherry-Evans took it upon themselves to help overcome preliminary final foes - and it took little time for the plaudits to start rolling in.

Australia halfback Johnathan Thurston hailed Cherry-Evans as his eventual successor in the green and gold, while Johnson's effort to set-up the match-clinching try against Melbourne only added fuel to the comparisons with countryman Benji Marshall.

"You watch the last try, it's not hard to work out why," Warriors coach Ivan Cleary said of the comparisons.

"He's probably the only guy in the comp other than Benji that can do that play, but he's obviously got a long way to go to get to Benji and he knows that."

Given the composed nature of his performance against the Storm, it's staggering to think it was just Johnson's 15th game of NRL football.

Only five halfbacks in the history of the game have played fewer games and got their side to a grand final, with St George's Eric Laurence in 1942 and South Sydney's Ray Mason in 1951 both playing just three top grade games before running out for the big one.

Johnson may well have played more had it not been a for a back injury cruelling his pre-season, but it was ultimately an injury to journeyman halfback Brett Seymour which gave him his shot at the Warriors No.7 jumper.

"I just didn't think he was ready, simple as that," Cleary says of the delayed debut.

"I always banked on him playing a few games this year, but he was injured during the pre-season ... he basically couldn't do anything for two months.

"I think that in a way probably fuelled his fire a little bit, sitting around not being able to do anything.

"He played the first few games for the Vulcans in the NSW Cup and he was obviously too good for that.

"He got an opportunity when Buster Seymour got injured, played a few games, learned a fair bit in that, Buster came back in and he got injured again so Shauny came back in and he's really just got better and better.

"Every time he's taken a little dip, he's learned from that and he's come back better again."

While frustrated by his early-season setback, Johnson said he was happy to finally get a crack.

"I thought it might keep me out for the whole year," Johnson said.

"I was pretty much prepping myself for next pre-season. It slowly started to turn and I worked hard to get to where I needed to be."

And what of the comparisons - is he another coming of Marshall, or is he more of an Andrew Johns or Stacey Jones?

"None of them," he said.

"They are obviously all great players in their own right. I'd like to create my own path.

"Hopefully I'll pick out a little bit from each of their games and add it to mine."

Not only is taking on Manly in a grand final a first, but so too is taking on Manly full stop.

"It is going to be a big challenge but I have got 12 other players on the field around me who are going to help me out," he said of his duel with Cherry-Evans who has played 26 games.

"You can't really say it is one player against one player.

"It is us against them."

- AAP