{"id":333223,"date":"2023-09-22T21:15:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T21:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=333223"},"modified":"2023-09-23T01:03:58","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T01:03:58","slug":"the-day-the-blocks-omar-helped-johnson-conquer-reynolds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=333223","title":{"rendered":"The day The Block's Omar helped Johnson conquer Reynolds"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you're a fan of hit Nine show The Block<\/a>, chances are you know Omar Slaimankhel of Omar and Oz fame, the larrikin winners of last year's season.<\/p>\n

What you might not have picked up in Omar's backstory was his former life as \ufeffa professional rugby league player, having played five NRL<\/a> games for the Warriors<\/a> in 2012 before spending several seasons as a back up for the Sydney Roosters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Omar started out as a talented junior in the most talented junior rugby league team on the planet – the Warriors' under 20s team, which boasted the most prodigious young player in the game at the time, Shaun Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Out of his depth': Two Storm players badly exposed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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READ MORE:<\/strong> Bellamy's fury as Storm star bombs certain try<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

Johnson was the magician pulling the strings for the 2010 Warriors under 20s team at a time when that competition was televised every week.<\/p>\n

\"Adam<\/p>\n

Omar was one of the main benefactors of Johnson's extraordinary talents, scoring plenty of tries out wide on the back of the crafty halfback's ability to pull apart defences.<\/p>\n

He started on the wing in the 2010 grand final, which pitted Johnson against another special talent, Adam Reynolds<\/a>, who was wearing the No.7 for the Warriors' opponents, South Sydney.<\/p>\n

For those playing at home, the Warriors won that one 42-28, running away with a decider that also featured James Roberts, Josh Mansour, Nathan Peats and Josh Starling on the losing side.<\/p>\n

Joining Johnson and Omar were future NRL stars Glen Fisiiahi\ufeff, Sosaia Feki, Carlos Tuimavave, Elijah Taylor, Sebastine Ikahihifo, Charlie Gubb and Sam Lousi.<\/p>\n

Stream every game of the 2023 NRL finals series live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"It was such an arm wrestle for the first 30 minutes but I remember then Shaun pulled off some massive plays," Omar told Wide World of Sports this week.<\/p>\n

"We ran away with it with three or four tries in the last part of the game.<\/p>\n

"He can pull off something out of nothing. You could see that pretty early in his NRL career it didn't take him long to adapt."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Fast forward 13 years and Johnson is still capable of pulling something extraordinary out of the bag, which is why he's a leading contender to win the Dally M Medal this season and has put his team in position to contend for a premiership.<\/p>\n

Incredibly, standing across from him again on Saturday night will be Reynolds – this time in a leading role for the Broncos, not the Rabbitohs – another halfback who has stood the test of time and is well on the way to starring in a second career premiership victory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\ufeffReynolds and Johnson are the two players from that 2010 grand final who have fully realised their potential, going on to become two of the best players in the competition.<\/p>\n

There were others that put together excellent careers, but the way Omar remembers it, that Warriors team could have turned into something special at first grade level.<\/p>\n

"We had an amazing side that year\ufeff. There was so much skill. \ufeffIt was the best under 20 league players in the whole country," he said.<\/p>\n

"We had Elijah Taylor, Shaun Johnson, Siuatonga Likiliki, we have a few boys who currently play in the Super League. We had a lot of talent.<\/p>\n

"That year with Shaun I remember we went really well. We fell on the wrong side of the draw in the finals. We played the Dogs in the semi finals and they were stacked.<\/p>\n

"They had Sam Kasiano, Marty Taupau, Aidan Sezer, Josh Jackson, Chase Stanley, a couple of All Blacks, a lot of their guys went on to play NRL and Origin.<\/p>\n

"In the grand final we were pretty confident against \ufeffthe Rabbits. They were stacked as well – they had James Roberts, Adam Reynolds and a lot of future NRL players in there as well."\ufeff<\/p>\n

And only one year after winning that competition, the Warriors went close to cashing in with a fresh injection of young talent at NRL level.<\/p>\n

With Johnson pulling the strings in the No.7 and Ivan Cleary the head coach, the Warriors went on a special run to the NRL grand final, before being brought undone by a golden generation at Manly, with the likes of Jamie Lyon, Brett and Glenn Stewart and a young halves pairing of Daly Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran spoiling the New Zealand side's coronation.<\/p>\n

Success has largely dried up since. It's taken the resurgence of Johnson in 2023 to put them back in the picture and just as importantly, the injection of rookie head coach Andrew Webster, who is a frontrunner for Dally M Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n

\"Warriors<\/p>\n

Omar has been impressed at the Warriors' resurgence under Webster, particularly considering the difficult circumstances the club had to get through as COVID forced them from their home.<\/p>\n

"To be able to do that after the last few years they've had is incredible," he said.<\/p>\n

"They were hard done by during COVID I feel. Nobody could have done anything different during that time but I feel like it was tougher for the Warriors.<\/p>\n

"To be able to turn it around in just one year Webster has killed it.<\/p>\n

"On paper they're good, but he's got the best out of players who weren't playing their best footy. The one who stands out to me is Addin Fonua Blake. He and the other forwards have made it possible for Shaun to show his finesse.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Johnson is a different player now to the one that Omar remembers. When he first started playing with him the halfback struck him as a Benji Marshall clone – a freakish circus act who could do things others couldn't fathom.<\/p>\n

"They were both very skinny but you could tell he grew up with a rugby ball in his hands," Omar said.<\/p>\n

"They could do things that made you think 'this guy has been playing since he was 3-4 years old'. Benji and Shaun were touch players. Touch players are extremely skillful, they can pass a ball 20-30 metres without looking.<\/p>\n

"That's what Shaun had and it reminded me of Benji a lot. You ask any NRL player, they usually have a preference on which side they play. Guys like Benji and Shaun can play anywhere on the park and they'll be able to find a way through.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

\"Joey<\/p>\n

These days Johnson still has that rare ability to make something happen out of nothing. However, he's morphed into a more controlled game manager, capable of matching it with the likes of Reynolds in getting his team from Point A to Point B.<\/p>\n

In that sense it will be a different match up to the one Omar witnessed from close quarters back in 2010.<\/p>\n

But it'll be every bit as watchable.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you're a fan of hit Nine show The Block, chances are you know Omar Slaimankhel of Omar and Oz fame, the larrikin winners of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":333225,"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\/333223"}],"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=333223"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333229,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333223\/revisions\/333229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/333225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=333223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=333223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=333223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}