Warriors slammed for letting go of ‘hero’
A prominent rugby league identity has slammed the Warriors for letting Shaun Johnson walk away from the club.
Former radio commentator and Manly official Peter Peters launched a scathing attack on Warriors management for letting the pinup boy of the club walk free.
The Warriors announced on Wednesday that the star halfback had been granted his wish for an immediate release from the Auckland-based club.
Johnson was contracted with the Warriors for the upcoming 2019 season.
Peters said the Warriors have stolen thousands of young New Zealand league fans’ hero and labelled the move ‘‘stunning, undignified, unnecessary, and overreactive’’.
‘‘Thousands of kids must be waking up in New Zealand today with the No 7 jersey, wondering what the heck is going on. They’ve had their hero stolen from them – virtually kicked out of the club he’s been so much a part of,’’ Peters told Radio Sport.
‘‘He’s a special player. He’s the highest point scorer in the history of the club. He is to New Zealand rugby league what JT [Johnathan Thurston] was to Australian rugby league.’’
Peters’ outburst comes on the back of a mixed reaction from former Warriors players where some told Stuff Johnson’s exit should have come ‘‘years ago’’.
Some former team-mates, who wished to remain anonymous, were scathing in their opinions and felt the move should have been made years ago.
Peters questioned the lack of public comment from Warriors coach Stephen Kearney and reserved special criticism for Warriors chief executive Cameron George.
‘‘The coach has been significant in his absence in all this.
‘‘He hasn’t said a word. It’s all come back to a bloke who was running the races there in Auckland just 12 months ago. It doesn’t add up,’’ Peters said.
But George has had a not-too-subtle farewell dig at Johnson over his lack of consistency.
Peters, an outspoken figure in Australian rugby league circles, blamed the influx of Australian influences at the Warriors for allowing Johnson to walk. The Cronulla Sharks won’t be treated like a ‘‘transit lounge’’ by Shaun Johnson, who had a request to sign a short-term contract knocked back by the club.
That’s the word from veteran Daily Telegraph journalist Phil Rothfield, who expects the discarded Warrior to sign a three-year deal with the Sydney-based club NRL.
‘‘He’s heading to Cronulla, a great signing for the club. I know him and his agent were originally keen on only doing a one-year deal to see how he settles in, but there’s a feeling at Cronulla that the club is not going to be used as a transit lounge that would open the door for a club like the Sydney Roosters to grab him in 2020,’’ Rothfield told Radio Sport.
Johnson has been linked to the Roosters, who will lose playmaker Cooper Cronk to retirement at the end of the 2019 season.
Should the 28-year-old land in Cronulla, his greatest challenge would be to adapt to the club’s structured game plan, Rothfield claimed.
After releasing Johnson, Warriors chief executive Cameron George said the move would ensure the club’s culture wouldn’t be compromised moving forward.
‘‘From this side of the ditch, it seems the Aussie influence of Brian Smith [the Warriors’ general manager football], Todd Payton [new assistant coach], Peter O’Sullivan [recruitment manager], and a wet-behind-the-ears in terms of being a rugby league CEO shoving the face of the game in New Zealand [in it] and Shaun Johnson out the door.
‘‘There’s no other way to look at it. They virtually did it while he [Johnson] was on tour in the UK with the Kiwis. That makes it worse, it appears the Warriors have fallen in the old trap of having too many influential people,’’ Peters said. Weidler said.
‘‘Later representatives of Crews’ charity and Khoder Nassar tore strips off promoter Max Markson.’’
Williams told Nine that Nasser was right to give Markson orders to send the women away.
‘‘So he should have,’’ he said. Williams said it was not something he would have organised.
‘‘It is what it is and that’s the business we’re in, but for myself I don’t think it was necessary bringing them here.’’
Laundy is well known in Australia as a contestant on the third season of Australia’s The Bachelorette and he has no background in boxing.
Williams, 33, is unbeaten in seven bouts, winning three of them by knockout.
His return for the bout, his first since 2015, has raised eyebrows as he is on rehab for a shoulder injury suffered during the All Blacks’ recent European tour.
Williams confirmed that he has a gentlemen’s agreement with Laundy not to cause excessive injury during their exhibition fight.
‘‘I think like we said before that the underlying cause outweighs that, we’ve got a gentlemen’s agreement,’’ he said.
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