Given everything, if that’s the case then yet another huge question over the Warriors coaching and development processes?
Inferior junior and club leagues not withstanding SJ being from touch footy....it is a real problem.
Jones was the last organiser the Warriors developed in house, however he was special, played that way from the craddle.
This problem of organizing halves is not just restricted to the NZ situation, look at this era of NRL footy, even the Aussies have a distinct lack of serious depth in the organizing department, which is why someone like Chad can ask for 800K.
The Benji Marshall effect, few kids are interested in organising skills and field kicking.
But just looking at the Johnson situation, going to the Sharks forced him to adapt his game, because they were not happy with his skip sideways efforts when he arrived.
Bit harder for the Warriors to force a local marquee to do anything, and that is partly coaching, mostly culture imo.
Problem is, most guys cannot just learn what Johnson has, he is an exceptional talent, so he could learn pretty much anything including drop goals.
It takes time though, and if you look at his progression, he used to have an ineffective bomb and nothing else.
Last few years at the Warriors he developed an in goal kick and is really pretty good with it.
But at the Sharks, he stopped just lobbing it for ten meters for a touch finder and started building a long game.
And it is that long game that we need.
The art of running a team is a dying Art.