imported_Roopy4246
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This is an interview I took off the Knights site which will be in League week this week.
Thoughts of a champion - Monday, July 30, 2001 Andrew Johns is generally regarded as the world's best player. Newcastle Knights coach Michael Hagan says he's perhaps the best ever. "I just get so much enjoyment watching him play and being involved with him." Good mate Billy Peden says: "He still amazes me, even though I know what he is capable of. He's a freak of nature." Everyone inside the Knights comments on how focused Johns has been trying to inspire the side every week, with a burning desire to win a premiership. But in a frank interview with NEIL CADIGAN, Johns confesses he battles to handle the profile that comes with his standing in the game. He has a remarkable grasp of league and his on-field role but still hankers for times when he can get away on his surfboard, be silly over a few beers with his mates or spend time with family. As he watched the breaking waves at Newcastle's Dixon Beach, Johns provided an insight into not just his own make-up, but the life of any of our high-profile elite sportsmen. You've lost brother Matthew as a team-mate and taken on the captaincy, yet it is arguably your best season. How have you coped with the extra pressure? It's been a good challenge for me - in the past I have just played visually and Matthew has run the side. He'd call where we're going and call the patterns and I'd just sit back, watch and count the numbers, and if I saw something I'd go. This year is different. With me combining with Sean Rudder, I had to call everything to start with and also look for opportunities as well. There has been a lot more on my plate but I have enjoyed it. 'Ruddsy' is starting to feel more comfortable playing there and is calling things off his own bat. I knew it would be a tough year with a lot of pressure on. In the last trial I played, against Parramatta, I was a bit underdone. It was about three weeks out from the competition and Hages (coach Michael Hagan) said to me: "You're about a yard off the pace." No-one had said that to me before I suppose. I thought about it and he was right. I was seeing opportunities but didn't have the legs to get there, so for the next three weeks I really tore into the training and two or three weeks into the comp I really felt my fitness was better. When I saw opportunities I was on the mark to take advantage of it whereas before I might be just a metre away and think: "Oh well, next play". You've said it might have been a blessing that you missed 10 weeks and the Origin series. Are the demands too high on our elite players? I think we are playing too much football. There's two trial matches, 26 premiership games, three Origin matches, a one-off Test, the finals and then the Kangaroo tour. That's upwards of 30 games a year for the elite players. At best you have 10-12 years, but if you're playing 30 games a year your body is just not going to let you keep going. But most of all it is your mind - it won't let you stay motivated. How do you handle the 'world's best player' tag? I try not to think about it too much - I really don't need a handle like that. I probably don't handle the profile like blokes like Laurie Daley did, all the wraps and that sort of thing. If I think about it too much I go a bit cuckoo. When I was younger and people recognised me in the street and said: "Well done" it was a bit of fun, but now I don't handle it that well, I don't know how to respond to it, I get embarrassed by it. I don't know what to say to people. People might see me and think: "You must be the most confident bloke in the world", but put me in a room where I don't know anyone and I'm terrified. I think I'm getting better at it and Hages is helping me handle situations like that but I'd rather just play footy and let that be it. But I can't run away from responsibility all my life I suppose. Sometimes I have to stand up and face that these things come with being a high-profile footballer. I now realise the responsibilities that go with the position I've got myself into and I think I've become better at it, but it becomes too much sometimes. But you have to be careful. I've done things in the past I'm not proud of but if you grabbed 100 22-year-olds, 99 would have done things their not proud of. I suppose I have grown up in the spotlight and everything I do is judged, but it's cool - you just have to learn from it and be careful and know when is the right time to have a good time. It must be like everyone wants a piece of Andrew Johns all the time? I train hard with the side and do a lot extra by myself so when I get time to myself I want to spend it with my family or go surfing or hang with my mates. With Newcastle being so parochial and the team being so popular and people wanting so much information on us, you're constantly asked to go to functions, and this sort of thing becomes too demanding and takes the edge off you, too. That's why I think they made Billy (Peden) club captain to take the media and stuff away. And I don't like to be in the media all the time. I don't want people to think: 'Oh here he is again in the paper'. Generally you get asked the same questions and just start repeating yourself. I don't want to be over exposed. I don't want a situation where people pick up the paper and think: "Here's Andrew Johns again" and think there's nothing of substance to what I might be saying. Do you often feel that you're outside looking in at yourself as a public figure? A lot lately actually. In the last two years at least I've become more conscious of how people portray me. I wish I had done it a long time ago. It is difficult. Everywhere I go people look and point and I see them talking and sometimes I can't understand why. And then I look from the outside looking in and I realise most of the time it's only good that people enjoy seeing you and talking about football. People see me with my mates, and I do like to have a good time, but when I'm with people I'm really quiet, and people can mistake that for arrogance or that I'm up myself. It's a very fine line. A lot of people said they've never seen you more focused than this season. Football wise I feel more responsibility. I remember 'Chief' (Paul Harragon) saying to me when I came into the side, he said you don't want to blow this opportunity while we're making the finals because it won't happen every year. And now I'm starting to realise it, especially this year. I've spoken a lot to the team in the past month that I'm sick of coming fourth and fifth. I want to win it. I realise now how much hard work has to go in by your senior players to get you where you are and how much focus is required each week to turn up and play. This year with the comp so open, if we stay healthy and don't get to the final hurdle, it's just a wasted year. I feel I've wasted a lot of years one way or another by not getting myself ready to play in those big games, by letting myself down. Winning our first comp in 1997 was something special and it will be the highlight of my career. But to win a combined competition and to be captain of my home side would be something really special. There is no reason we can't win it. When (Broncos skipper) Gorden Tallis got injured, that's when I thought we're a big chance, and I think a few sides sense that. Last year against the Roosters, is that the one time in your career you thought you blew it? That game still hurts. I've never watched it on tele - I don't want to watch it. I suppose there was just so much at stake. 'Buttsy' (skipper Tony Butterfield) was leaving and he'd been good to me over the years - I used to room with him when I was younger - then Matty was leaving and David Fairleigh had never played in a grand final and, the way he played up here and helped our side, he really deserved one. We had that game won. For the life of me I don't know what happened, but before I knew it had slipped away and there was nothing I could do about it individually and nothing the side could do about it. If we got there I think we may have knocked the Broncos off (in the grand final). What did it teach you? I don't know, I just try to get it out of my mind. Because it just tortures me to think about it, it really hurts because ... the first half we tried so hard and were in a position to win it. I remember the first set after half-time and we went 100 metres and I thought: "We've got 'em, we've broken their back". But, especially against a class side, the game's never over, not the big games. There were probably only two players in the game who could have thrown those passes (bullet cut-out passes from Brad Fittler that led to tries) - 'Freddie' and 'Noddy' (Brett Kimmorley). For Freddie to throw three in a row and hit the target ... it was a moment that he really stood up and took control of the game. I wish he picked another game. How do you perceive Brad Fittler - you are alike in many ways? I have that much respect for Freddie. He has to deal with a lot more responsibility off the field and deals with it very well. In a way we're very similar - he'd rather just turn up and play footy, too, and not care less about other things. In the past three or four years he has become a great leader and I think it is something he has had to work really hard on. To his credit he has become a really inspiring leader but to his detriment it may have affected his individual form. Whenever there is a big question asked of Freddie he answers it in the right way and I think this year there have been a few games where people have doubted him and he has stood up and really lifted the Roosters, or NSW in game two as a great example. I've always thought Freddie is a better ball runner than a ball player because he is so hard to stop. What about captaining NSW or Australia when Freddie has retired, as some people have suggested. Is that an ambition? Maybe, I still have a lot of work to do to get there. Darren Lockyer would be a great captain for Australia. He's the next in line I think. If anything happened to 'Locky', I'd definitely put my hand up. When I first became captain up here people said: "You have to be like Chief or Butts", but I'll never be like them, I'm my own man and I'll do it my way. If I did captain my country - that would be really special. When you're playing you know it's a big thing but not how big, but when you retire I think when you sit back and see how proud your family and friends are you see how massively big it is. I certainly don't want to have any regrets when I finish, I don't want to have any regrets when I finish, I don't want to be saying: "If I'd only done that differently, I could have achieved this". I realise now I can see the end whereas when I was younger I thought I could go on forever and didn't really care what happened - it was just enjoy the moment sort of thing. But now I really care how people are going to perceive me when I'm finished. In my own heart I know I have a gift and I think if you stick at something long enough and put enough into it you'll become good at it. I know my way around the football field backwards now, it's become second nature to me and I know what I can do out there and I just don't want to blow it. You said you can see the end to your career. What about that? I have three years to go at Newcastle and I want to play all my career at one club here but I have always wanted to play with Wigan and I'm so proud that Matty is there. I remember as a kid watching Brett Kenny and Peter Sterling play in that Challenge Cup final (1985). I'd love to go to Wigan, knowing Matty has made an impact there. But after three more years with the Knights, if I'm still playing well enough I'll go around again. The big thing now is I can see it all finishing and I have to start planning for what I want to do afterwards. Some days I think I'd like to get into coaching, more individual sort of coaching where I just float between grades and grab blokes and say: "Hey, I was watching you out there, if you put this and that into your game you'll be a whole lot better" and some days I just think: "That'll do me, I'll just go and kick back and enjoy the simple things in life". What about going into coaching? Sometimes I sit with Hages during a game and he's the loveliest bloke you could meet but to see how wound up he gets is incredible. Then I see 'Sharpy' (Eagles coach Peter Sharp) on the tele and he looks awful. I think I know a little about the game but I don't think I'd have the planning to coach a whole side. But today, like I'll do some individual stuff with younger blokes like Clint Newtown and Matt Gidley's brother Kurt, young blokes who just want to do some footwork stuff and that comes easy to me. When I see them on the field getting success out of doing it I get a kick out of it. I know the Knights were looking at Manchester United - (coach) Alex Ferguson looks at the game and says: "I think our defence needs some work" and he has Brian Kidd and some other ex-players who go out on the field and look at the individual skill things. I think our game might go more that way. I'd love to play a part up here. We have such good juniors and I think I have an eye for talent and an ability to help bring kids on.
Thoughts of a champion - Monday, July 30, 2001 Andrew Johns is generally regarded as the world's best player. Newcastle Knights coach Michael Hagan says he's perhaps the best ever. "I just get so much enjoyment watching him play and being involved with him." Good mate Billy Peden says: "He still amazes me, even though I know what he is capable of. He's a freak of nature." Everyone inside the Knights comments on how focused Johns has been trying to inspire the side every week, with a burning desire to win a premiership. But in a frank interview with NEIL CADIGAN, Johns confesses he battles to handle the profile that comes with his standing in the game. He has a remarkable grasp of league and his on-field role but still hankers for times when he can get away on his surfboard, be silly over a few beers with his mates or spend time with family. As he watched the breaking waves at Newcastle's Dixon Beach, Johns provided an insight into not just his own make-up, but the life of any of our high-profile elite sportsmen. You've lost brother Matthew as a team-mate and taken on the captaincy, yet it is arguably your best season. How have you coped with the extra pressure? It's been a good challenge for me - in the past I have just played visually and Matthew has run the side. He'd call where we're going and call the patterns and I'd just sit back, watch and count the numbers, and if I saw something I'd go. This year is different. With me combining with Sean Rudder, I had to call everything to start with and also look for opportunities as well. There has been a lot more on my plate but I have enjoyed it. 'Ruddsy' is starting to feel more comfortable playing there and is calling things off his own bat. I knew it would be a tough year with a lot of pressure on. In the last trial I played, against Parramatta, I was a bit underdone. It was about three weeks out from the competition and Hages (coach Michael Hagan) said to me: "You're about a yard off the pace." No-one had said that to me before I suppose. I thought about it and he was right. I was seeing opportunities but didn't have the legs to get there, so for the next three weeks I really tore into the training and two or three weeks into the comp I really felt my fitness was better. When I saw opportunities I was on the mark to take advantage of it whereas before I might be just a metre away and think: "Oh well, next play". You've said it might have been a blessing that you missed 10 weeks and the Origin series. Are the demands too high on our elite players? I think we are playing too much football. There's two trial matches, 26 premiership games, three Origin matches, a one-off Test, the finals and then the Kangaroo tour. That's upwards of 30 games a year for the elite players. At best you have 10-12 years, but if you're playing 30 games a year your body is just not going to let you keep going. But most of all it is your mind - it won't let you stay motivated. How do you handle the 'world's best player' tag? I try not to think about it too much - I really don't need a handle like that. I probably don't handle the profile like blokes like Laurie Daley did, all the wraps and that sort of thing. If I think about it too much I go a bit cuckoo. When I was younger and people recognised me in the street and said: "Well done" it was a bit of fun, but now I don't handle it that well, I don't know how to respond to it, I get embarrassed by it. I don't know what to say to people. People might see me and think: "You must be the most confident bloke in the world", but put me in a room where I don't know anyone and I'm terrified. I think I'm getting better at it and Hages is helping me handle situations like that but I'd rather just play footy and let that be it. But I can't run away from responsibility all my life I suppose. Sometimes I have to stand up and face that these things come with being a high-profile footballer. I now realise the responsibilities that go with the position I've got myself into and I think I've become better at it, but it becomes too much sometimes. But you have to be careful. I've done things in the past I'm not proud of but if you grabbed 100 22-year-olds, 99 would have done things their not proud of. I suppose I have grown up in the spotlight and everything I do is judged, but it's cool - you just have to learn from it and be careful and know when is the right time to have a good time. It must be like everyone wants a piece of Andrew Johns all the time? I train hard with the side and do a lot extra by myself so when I get time to myself I want to spend it with my family or go surfing or hang with my mates. With Newcastle being so parochial and the team being so popular and people wanting so much information on us, you're constantly asked to go to functions, and this sort of thing becomes too demanding and takes the edge off you, too. That's why I think they made Billy (Peden) club captain to take the media and stuff away. And I don't like to be in the media all the time. I don't want people to think: 'Oh here he is again in the paper'. Generally you get asked the same questions and just start repeating yourself. I don't want to be over exposed. I don't want a situation where people pick up the paper and think: "Here's Andrew Johns again" and think there's nothing of substance to what I might be saying. Do you often feel that you're outside looking in at yourself as a public figure? A lot lately actually. In the last two years at least I've become more conscious of how people portray me. I wish I had done it a long time ago. It is difficult. Everywhere I go people look and point and I see them talking and sometimes I can't understand why. And then I look from the outside looking in and I realise most of the time it's only good that people enjoy seeing you and talking about football. People see me with my mates, and I do like to have a good time, but when I'm with people I'm really quiet, and people can mistake that for arrogance or that I'm up myself. It's a very fine line. A lot of people said they've never seen you more focused than this season. Football wise I feel more responsibility. I remember 'Chief' (Paul Harragon) saying to me when I came into the side, he said you don't want to blow this opportunity while we're making the finals because it won't happen every year. And now I'm starting to realise it, especially this year. I've spoken a lot to the team in the past month that I'm sick of coming fourth and fifth. I want to win it. I realise now how much hard work has to go in by your senior players to get you where you are and how much focus is required each week to turn up and play. This year with the comp so open, if we stay healthy and don't get to the final hurdle, it's just a wasted year. I feel I've wasted a lot of years one way or another by not getting myself ready to play in those big games, by letting myself down. Winning our first comp in 1997 was something special and it will be the highlight of my career. But to win a combined competition and to be captain of my home side would be something really special. There is no reason we can't win it. When (Broncos skipper) Gorden Tallis got injured, that's when I thought we're a big chance, and I think a few sides sense that. Last year against the Roosters, is that the one time in your career you thought you blew it? That game still hurts. I've never watched it on tele - I don't want to watch it. I suppose there was just so much at stake. 'Buttsy' (skipper Tony Butterfield) was leaving and he'd been good to me over the years - I used to room with him when I was younger - then Matty was leaving and David Fairleigh had never played in a grand final and, the way he played up here and helped our side, he really deserved one. We had that game won. For the life of me I don't know what happened, but before I knew it had slipped away and there was nothing I could do about it individually and nothing the side could do about it. If we got there I think we may have knocked the Broncos off (in the grand final). What did it teach you? I don't know, I just try to get it out of my mind. Because it just tortures me to think about it, it really hurts because ... the first half we tried so hard and were in a position to win it. I remember the first set after half-time and we went 100 metres and I thought: "We've got 'em, we've broken their back". But, especially against a class side, the game's never over, not the big games. There were probably only two players in the game who could have thrown those passes (bullet cut-out passes from Brad Fittler that led to tries) - 'Freddie' and 'Noddy' (Brett Kimmorley). For Freddie to throw three in a row and hit the target ... it was a moment that he really stood up and took control of the game. I wish he picked another game. How do you perceive Brad Fittler - you are alike in many ways? I have that much respect for Freddie. He has to deal with a lot more responsibility off the field and deals with it very well. In a way we're very similar - he'd rather just turn up and play footy, too, and not care less about other things. In the past three or four years he has become a great leader and I think it is something he has had to work really hard on. To his credit he has become a really inspiring leader but to his detriment it may have affected his individual form. Whenever there is a big question asked of Freddie he answers it in the right way and I think this year there have been a few games where people have doubted him and he has stood up and really lifted the Roosters, or NSW in game two as a great example. I've always thought Freddie is a better ball runner than a ball player because he is so hard to stop. What about captaining NSW or Australia when Freddie has retired, as some people have suggested. Is that an ambition? Maybe, I still have a lot of work to do to get there. Darren Lockyer would be a great captain for Australia. He's the next in line I think. If anything happened to 'Locky', I'd definitely put my hand up. When I first became captain up here people said: "You have to be like Chief or Butts", but I'll never be like them, I'm my own man and I'll do it my way. If I did captain my country - that would be really special. When you're playing you know it's a big thing but not how big, but when you retire I think when you sit back and see how proud your family and friends are you see how massively big it is. I certainly don't want to have any regrets when I finish, I don't want to have any regrets when I finish, I don't want to be saying: "If I'd only done that differently, I could have achieved this". I realise now I can see the end whereas when I was younger I thought I could go on forever and didn't really care what happened - it was just enjoy the moment sort of thing. But now I really care how people are going to perceive me when I'm finished. In my own heart I know I have a gift and I think if you stick at something long enough and put enough into it you'll become good at it. I know my way around the football field backwards now, it's become second nature to me and I know what I can do out there and I just don't want to blow it. You said you can see the end to your career. What about that? I have three years to go at Newcastle and I want to play all my career at one club here but I have always wanted to play with Wigan and I'm so proud that Matty is there. I remember as a kid watching Brett Kenny and Peter Sterling play in that Challenge Cup final (1985). I'd love to go to Wigan, knowing Matty has made an impact there. But after three more years with the Knights, if I'm still playing well enough I'll go around again. The big thing now is I can see it all finishing and I have to start planning for what I want to do afterwards. Some days I think I'd like to get into coaching, more individual sort of coaching where I just float between grades and grab blokes and say: "Hey, I was watching you out there, if you put this and that into your game you'll be a whole lot better" and some days I just think: "That'll do me, I'll just go and kick back and enjoy the simple things in life". What about going into coaching? Sometimes I sit with Hages during a game and he's the loveliest bloke you could meet but to see how wound up he gets is incredible. Then I see 'Sharpy' (Eagles coach Peter Sharp) on the tele and he looks awful. I think I know a little about the game but I don't think I'd have the planning to coach a whole side. But today, like I'll do some individual stuff with younger blokes like Clint Newtown and Matt Gidley's brother Kurt, young blokes who just want to do some footwork stuff and that comes easy to me. When I see them on the field getting success out of doing it I get a kick out of it. I know the Knights were looking at Manchester United - (coach) Alex Ferguson looks at the game and says: "I think our defence needs some work" and he has Brian Kidd and some other ex-players who go out on the field and look at the individual skill things. I think our game might go more that way. I'd love to play a part up here. We have such good juniors and I think I have an eye for talent and an ability to help bring kids on.
