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Outgoing Sharks playmaker Shaun Johnson has revealed he was all set to join the Bulldogs before then Warriors consultant Phil Gould convinced him to return to New Zealand.
Ironically Gould is now the Bulldogs general manager of football and pairing Johnson with Panthers premiership winner Matt Burton would have been a tantalising prospect for the club.
Johnson revealed on The Ice Project podcast that he was 95 per cent going to join the Bulldogs before Gould intervened.
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“That was the drawcard,” Johnson said of playing alongside Burton at the Bulldogs.
“I remember after playing the Panthers I pulled Matty Burton for a chat and said ‘what do you think bro?’ and he said ‘yes, please come’.
“At that time I was pretty much 95 per cent on the way (to the Bulldogs).
“I really loved what Trent Barret was doing there, loved the group he was assembling. The time he showed me, we had some really good chats.”
Johnson was all but convinced he was going to put pen to paper to switch from Cronulla to the Bulldogs, before a trip home to see family threw a spanner in the works.
“We had a game then we had a bye week, so the bubble was open and I said to Kayla let’s get home to NZ and see the family,” Johnson said.
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“At that point, there was no conversation with the Warriors, I had the contract with the Bulldogs just trying to iron out (some things).
“And then I got a call from (Warriors owner) Mark Robinson asking for a round of golf… we just had a good chat and that led to conversations with Phil Gould, who was at the club at the time.”
The 31-year-old who debuted at the Warriors in 2011 and has played 162 games for the club admitted he never thought a reunion was possible after the way his first stint ended.
Johnson revealed just how much influence Gould had on his decision to head home as he acted as a mediator of sorts between player and club.
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“I think without Phil’s influence I don’t know if this would’ve happened,” Johnson said.
“The way things ended, there was that sort of awkwardness, a bit of unease, and we’d never smoothed that over with Cameron George, the CEO.
“Once Phil got involved he said ‘you’re the best option for the club at this current time, do you think it can work?’
“I was pretty much like ‘of course it can work. I’m not going to be that guy that holds on to something for my whole life’.
“From that point on it happened like that…. It just flowed from there. It really felt right.”
Johnson is excited about the prospect of repaying the club in the twilight of his career and admitted money was not his motivating factor in returning home.
“Money is important but I’m at that age and point of my career where money wasn’t the priority,” Johnson said.
The priority was coming back to an organisation that I felt could do something special.
“That was the priority and what excited me most.”
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