{"id":142479,"date":"2021-10-11T05:54:22","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T05:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=142479"},"modified":"2021-10-11T10:01:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T10:01:03","slug":"the-rival-nrl-club-johnson-pulled-the-pin-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=142479","title":{"rendered":"The rival NRL club Johnson pulled the pin on"},"content":{"rendered":"

Incoming Warrior Shaun Johnson<\/a> has revealed how he was "95 per cent on the way" to joining the Canterbury Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

The classy 31-year-old will suit up for the Warriors next season<\/a>, after signing on for a two-year deal that reunites him with the club where he became a star.<\/p>\n

Prior to signing that deal in late June, Johnson's future was the source of constant speculation, with suggestions incoming coach Craig Fitzgibbon didn't see Johnson as part of Cronulla's future.<\/p>\n

Now Johnson has revealed that during that time he was on the verge of signing with the Bulldogs, where he would've formed a halves pairing alongside Dally M Centre of the Year, Matt Burton, who will go back to the No.6 jersey when he joins the Bulldogs in 2022.<\/p>\n

\"Shaun<\/p>\n

"That was the drawcard," Johnson said on The Ice Project Podcast.<\/em><\/p>\n

"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'.<\/p>\n

"At that time I was pretty much 95 per cent on the way (to the Bulldogs).<\/p>\n

"I really loved what [Bulldogs coach] Trent Barret was doing there, loved the group he was assembling.<\/p>\n

"The time he showed me, we had some really good chats."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Deontay Wilder broke his hand during KO loss to Tyson Fury<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Daniel Ricciardo struggles in Turkish Grand Prix<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Johnson\u00a0opens\u00a0up\u00a0on\u00a0Warriors\u00a0return\"<\/p>\n

While Johnson's first exit out of New Zealand was a highly publicised and messy fallout<\/a>, he revealed it was the influence of Phil Gould, who was with the Warriors as a consultant at the time, that enabled the incoming return.<\/p>\n

"I think without Phil's influence I don't know if this would've happened," Johnson added.<\/p>\n

"The way things ended [at the end of 2018], there was that sort of awkwardness, a bit of unease, and we'd never smoothed that over with Cameron George, the CEO.<\/p>\n

"Once Phil got involved he said 'you're the best option for the club at this current time, do you think it can work?'<\/p>\n

"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'."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Incoming Warrior Shaun Johnson has revealed how he was "95 per cent on the way" to joining the Canterbury Bulldogs. The classy 31-year-old will suit […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142479"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142479"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142481,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142479\/revisions\/142481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}