By Spiro Zavos
April 11th 2007 @ 11:01pm
Ave atque Vale, Andrew Johns
Ave atque Vale (Hail and Farewell), Catallus’ tribute to his brother ‘ripped away from me so cruelly,’ is an appropriate blessing to mark the end of the glittering playing career of the Rugby League Immortal, Andrew Johns.
There will be champions in the future. That is the wonderful way with sport. But no one will ever play league in the special way that Johns gifted to the game, to other players and to fans. Like the league legend, Dally Messenger, who history should find he most closely resembled for the dynamic impact he had on the way league is played, Johns has been a once in a lifetime player. A one-off. A legend for the ages.
Dally Messenger left rugby, where he was a crowd-pulling sensation, to be a foundation player in the new NSW rugby league in 1907, a move that virtually guaranteed the success of the new code. Among his many tricks was his tactic of heading high passes over opponents and racing through to gather the ball on the full. Andrew Johns was similarly inventive in the new tactics he devised to confuse, bewilder, out-position and ultimately defeat the toughest and best-organised of defences. He turned kicking, formerly a lacklustre ploy used to end a set of six tackles into a devastating attacking option. He would kick early on in the tackle count to un unmarked winger when the defence was still compressed. When the defence spread out to counter this invention of the long pass-kick he would stab through a banana kick from the midfield, with a runner coming through on the inside to regather and score. There were delicate chips over the top which he’d gather in himself. There were the prodigious 40/20 punts that turned the momentum of matches in favour of his side.
While he was doing and inventing these attacking ploys, he was a runner as good as any to play as a halfback. He was a ferocious defender. And he was a tremendous goal-kicker, especially under pressure. In his first run-on match in first grade for Newcastle against South Sydney on 13 March 1994 he immediately announced his quality by scoring two tries, seven conversions and a field goal to pull Newcastle to a 43-16 victory. A star was born.
Big time sport is often likened to the drama and melodrama of grand opera, opera with real blood one might add. But singers work from a script. The great players create their own script. Like great jazz musicians, they are masters of improvisation. When Andrew Johns had the ball in his hands on, say, the second play of a set, there were literally millions of probabilities on how the set could be played out. Like the master chess player, his genius allowed him to impose the outcome on the set he wanted. Unlike the chess master, though, he had also to cope with the fact that his ‘chess pieces’ and those of the opposition were not restricted to certain movements. And while he was making his moves he could be smashed, sometimes after the move by a frustrated opponent.
So he was a champion with vision and the skills and courage to convert the vision into winning performances for his team. A player with vision and skills but no great courage will never be a champion. Nor will a player of tremendous courage but deficient in high skills and vision to picture what will happen several moves on. This combination of vision, skills and courage is a package that only a handful of players in the long history of league in Australia have posessed.
Dally Messenger came into the game in 1907: 100 years later Andrew Johns leaves the league fields of play and dreams. The two larrikin champions, in a plagent sense, are now linked forever in a cycle of time and legend.
Ave atque Vale, Andrew Johns. When we will see your like again …
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(9)
sheek said | April 12th 2007 @ 12:35am | Report comment
Spiro,
Sorry to be picky, but I always thought, from my reading of the union-league split in Australia 1907-09, that the defection of 14 leading Wallabies from the 1908-09 tour to Great Britain had a far greater lasting effect on the fortunes of union & league, than the defection of Messenger in 1907.
Despite breathing life in 1908, as its second year (1909) ground to a close, league was on its knees, until it signed 14 Wallabies to play exhibition matches with the Kangaroos. And this despite having Messenger as its ‘marque’ player throughout 1908-09.
This block of 14 Wallabies being expelled from union as professionals, had a greater effect on the fortunes of the two codes, I believe, than the original defection of one man, Messenger.
On Andrew Johns, I agree he was a legend. the best of the past dozen years, & the best halfback I’ve seen since watching league from about 1970.
Rugby should have tried to get him the first time his contract came up for renewal, back in 2000-01, I think it was.
spiro said | April 12th 2007 @ 9:04am | Report comment
Sheek, you are not being picky. Your account is chronologically correct. The point about Dally Messenger is that there would have been no rugby league game in Sydney for the 1908 Wallabies – except for the captain Dr Herbert Moran and the team’s youngest player Dan Carroll who went to St anford University and won a second Olympic gold medal for rugby with its rugby team – to defect to. Victor Trumper and the other Sydney businessmen who started rugby league in Sydney in 1907 needed Messenger to get the league project off the ground. It was Messenger’s mother apparently who gave her son the go-ahead to switch codes. No Messenger, no rugby league. That is the point I tried to make.
There is a sad postscript to this story. Dr Moran became a leading cancer specialist in Macquarie Street. He wrote a marvellous autobiography, one of the finest accounts of Sydney life in the first three decades of the 19th century we have. He tells the story of meeting Messenger in the street in the 1930s and the old champion taking out of his pocket faded clippings to show him of his glory days. Messenger, I believe, fell on hard times and lived in a room at the NSWRL club premises in the CBD. Champions often find it difficult to deal with the rest of their lives when their sporting life , what they believe is the real purpose of living for them, is over.
barry said | April 12th 2007 @ 9:44am | Report comment
You sure gave me a scare, Spiro. I saw the photo of Andrew Johns under the famous quote from Catallus’ funereal oration and I immediately thought that Andrew had passed away. So I instantly Googled “Andrew Johns” and found, to my great relief, that he’s not dead, merely retired. Then I read the rest of your stiring article and now I’m not so sure anymore – it reads like an obituary. I mean, everything’s in the past tense.
Adding further to my confusion is your conclusion: “When we will see your like again” followed by ellipsis (who, according to Lempriere, was also present at the funeral). I assume you meant “When will we see your like again?” Well, if he’s dead, never. But if he’s alive, you’ll probably see him in the stands at the next Knights’ game, which is indeed good news.
PS. Maybe what you meant to say at the end of your article was “When comes such another?” Antony’s apotheosis of Caesar. Good question.
Andrew Johns was a one off. I just hope he’s still with us.
sheek said | April 12th 2007 @ 11:48am | Report comment
Spiro,
Fair point what you say about Messenger. I know we’re getting off the topic, but until Zac or Zolton contact me to sort out the ‘contribute’ problem, this is my only access.
You mention Dr.Herbert ‘Paddy’ Moran. In his book on Wallaby captains, Max Howell relates the convoluted manner in which Moran ascended the Wallaby captaincy for the 1908-09 tour of Great Britain.
With your article elsewhere on this site, on the eqalitarian nature of Australians selecting their cricket captains, Moran’s ascendency provides a contrast.
This is my understanding of it.
At the beginning of 1906 Harry Judd (a backrower) was the captain of NSW, & captain-designate of the Wallabies. When he broke a leg in an interstate game, he retired. The captaincy passed mostly to Cecil Murnin (a lock), & several others, Wally Matthews for example.
In 1907, when the ABs toured, Murnin failed to make the Wallabies. Why, I don’t know – illness or form? Peter Burge (another lock) led the Wallabies in both Sydney tests, while Allen ‘Butcher’ Oxlade (a hooker) led the Wallabies in Brisbane.
For the tour of GB in 1908-09, it appears the NSWRU/MRU (underwriters of the tour) wanted a good public speaker to lead the team, also apparently one who seemed to be part of the establishment. Oh, & a New South Welshman to boot.
Several Sydney University players were unable to tour, including outstanding backrower brothers Jim & John Hughes, both medical students. Oxlade, a Queenslander, was also unable to tour.
Burge & Murnin, who had recently led Australia & NSW respectively, were chosen for the tour, but as working-class stock, were seen as unsuitable for the captaincy. Murnin took ill en-route, & never appeared in a tour match. And never played for the Wallabies in a test.
So during 1908, it appears the selectors manouvered Moran into a position to accept the captaincy. Moran was a useful backrower, but probably not top-drawer. He may have been among the top 6 backrowers in the country, but not among the top 3-4 backrowers.
So here we had a situation in 1908, where the Wallaby captain was selected for reasons other than strict ability. no doubt, Spiro, you can add more to the story.
Mitch said | April 12th 2007 @ 12:19pm | Report comment
So is that why you take extra care with punctuation and paragraphing sheek? You’re trying to get a gig contibuting? I think you do a fair bit of that without needing Zoltan or Zac to contact you!!hehe, And anyway, i think to officially contribute to this site, you need to have Spiros as a last name!! hehe…
sheek said | April 12th 2007 @ 1:24pm | Report comment
Ah Mitch,
I just love my Rugby, Cricket & sport in general.
I do get annoyed when I miss a punctuation in my writing, or missing a capital ‘I’, etc.
As for paragraph spacing, I find people can follow your arguments more easily if you space the paragraphs out, rather than present one large continuous blob.
And no, I’m not after a gig, although I’m probably a frustrated journo, truth be told!
I had good teachers back in my primary school days. Basic spelling, maths & comprehension, I reckon I’m okay. All I have to do now, is find a useful & productive outlet for my talent!!!!! Still searching…………………
Sione - Rugby Fobcast Show said | April 13th 2007 @ 2:39pm | Report comment
Well, I’ll just assume this blog was about the great memories that Andrew Johns has given us & an outlet for us to express our opinions about this champion, but yet I get this funny feeling its become more of a history lesson of the early 1900’s.
But back to the point of the Great Joey John’s, being a crazy All Blacks fan, I was forever grateful that he decided to stay with League.
Now that is the greatest compliment a die hard All Black supporter could give, because I believe he could of single handedly, changed the way Rugby Union would of been playd here in Australia & helped them dominate the game like in the late 90’s.
I also believe that he alone would of formulated a game plan to actually defeat the great All Blacks more often then not.
But seeing that he had competed in the most physical game of all & excelled to the point where all are convienced that he was the greatest of all time, we can now thank the boyz from youtube, for allowing us all the opportunity to forever remeber though the great medium of vid the achivements & acohlades this champion provided
As a kiwi, I am honored to have watched him destory my kiwis in test matches live & honoured to have seen a true legend play in the flesh, at times I watch great re-runs of past champions like Ali & foreman & wished I was thier to witness the magic, atleast now I can say I watched the greatest players of all time in the flesh!
God Bless you Joey!! even the kiwis are crying!!!
daniel said | August 11th 2007 @ 12:43pm | Report comment
I was lucky enough to be at the second game of SOO in 2005 to watch johns “controversially” take Kimmorley place in the side. I remember the immense hype about him coming back in from injury with so little game time, its almost a hard and fast rule you take a while to get back into top form in a normal NRL game, let alone the highest level of the game. I can honestly say I’ve never seen someone dominate a game so absolutely, it was incredible. From watching the first game on TV compared to that game, it was like night and day. If anyone wants to see a reference of his dominance of the game its the perfect example, NSW without him and with him.
Pundits always talk about how good Lockyer is, which is true, he is a fantastic player. However he’s not in the same league, in my opinion. Lockyer is a player who is at the top of the game and rarely, if ever, plays poorly, though no one I’ve ever watched play can control and dominate a game and bring out the best in those around him like joey. Does anyone know a team that would go from strong favorites to strong underdogs when one player is out of action? The knights would go from the whipping boys to the best team in the league when johns was on the ground.
He seemed to play his very best towards the end, perhaps the time away from the game fueled him? It was a bizarre scene to watch the wooden spoon knights be virtually unbeatable once johns came back in 2005.
The injuries add up and its probably a reflection of the game these days, the players are huge and very strong, people are just beaten to a pulp. If you are someone as dangerous as joey it puts a big sign on you saying “hit me”, I think sonny bill saw that sign
The powers that be are fantastic at enforcing new rules for about 6 weeks at time then changing it around so no one knows what is what anymore a few times through the year, but their partial crack down on the charge down was a good move. It seems to have dropped off now though, its stupid that you can smash someone to bits just because they are kicking, the tenuous justification that you are going for the ball is rubbish, everyone knows why they do it “hey, I’m not too far from this guy so I can just ram straight into him and the ref wont do anything, my coach will love that”. Compared to high tackles, which can very often just be bad timing, falling players,(,and hey, just happen so damn fast even if you see you are going high you are to tired to move in the 100ms you have) these parts of the game can be improved via suspensions. Most suspensions are for things that aren’t really intentional (or at least preventable). The difference between a lifting tackle and a non lifting tackle can be almost none, you have 3-4 strong guys pushing on 1 guy, a tiny push can turn someone face into the ground. Though I still think the rules regarding this are appropriate, . In comparison late hits, hits on “suspicion” can be reduced, its in the best interests of the game to keep our stars playing as long as possible. 32 is too young to be gone, and if he wasn’t the great player he was, I’m sure he would still be fit to play.
On a side note I’ve heard a few people saying making the fields wider (which would be impractical because of the existing grounds) or reducing the number of players by 1 or two would be a good idea. At first I thought it was stupid, but over the past couple of years its started to make sense. It would promote more ball play and curb the trend towards 120-130kg trucks that smash down the middle, its not as much fun to watch that play and it helps stop 200-300 kg of front rowers pushing on your knee as happens all too often with the style of football this favors. It hurts the starts of the games, which hurts the game and there is also the silent victims of forwards that get hired early for their size, get a career ending injury and are left with no skills and a bum knee for the rest of their lives. All for the about the kinda pay you would get working for the council.
Spiro Zavos said | August 11th 2007 @ 6:59pm | Report comment
I think the lawmakers in rugby league could look at the substitutes rules and limit the number of substitutions. This would have the effect of allowing the skilful players to take advantage, at some time in the game, of tired big monsters.