Alex Johnston (rugby league)

Alex Johnston

Personal information
Nickname	AJ[1]
Born	(1995-01-14) 14 January 1995 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Height	185 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	95 kg (14 st 13 lb)
Playing information
Position	Wing, Fullback
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
2014–	South Sydney Rabbitohs	61	49	0	0	196
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
2015	Indigenous All Stars	1	0	0	0	0
2015	Australia	1	0	0	0	0
2015	Prime Minister's XIII	1	1	0	0	4
As of 6 March 2016
Source: [2]

Alex Johnston (born 14 January 1995) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who currently plays for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the National Rugby League. He plays at fullback and wing and won the 2014 NRL Premiership with the Rabbitohs.

Background

Born in Sydney, New South Wales, Johnston is of Indigenous Australian and Papua New Guinean descent. He played his junior rugby league for La Perouse United and attended Endeavour Sports High School before being signed by the South Sydney Rabbitohs. As a youngster, Johnston played for the New South Wales Under 16s and 18s teams and Australian Schoolboys team. In 2013, Johnston played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs' S. G. Ball Cup and NYC teams before moving on to the Rabbitohs' New South Wales Cup team, North Sydney Bears in 2014.^[3]

Playing career

2014

In Round 8 of the 2014 NRL season, Johnston was selected to make his NRL debut for the South Sydney Rabbitohs over dumped Rabbitohs winger Nathan Merritt against the Brisbane Broncos on the wing, scoring a try in the 28-26 win at Suncorp Stadium on Anzac Day.^[4] On 5 October 2014, in the Rabbitohs 2014 NRL Grand Final match against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Johnston played on the wing and scored the first try of the match to lead the South Sydney Rabbitohs 30-6 victory.^[5][6] Johnston finished his brilliant debut year in the NRL as being the competitions highest tryscorer of the 2014 NRL season with 21 tries in 18 matches. In September 2014, it was revealed that the Papua New Guinea national rugby league team were attempting to have Johnston pledge his allegiance to Papua New Guinea as his grandmother is from a village in Lumi, a place in the West Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea.^[7] On 14 October 2014, Johnston was selected for the Australia Kangaroos 2014 Four Nations squad but didn't make an appearance in any of Australia's four matches.^[8]

2015

On 13 February 2015, Johnston played on the wing for the Indigenous All Stars against the NRL All Stars in the 2015 All Stars match at Cbus Super Stadium, the Indigenous side winning 20-6.^[9] On 23 February, he played for the Rabbitohs in the 2015 World Club Challenge match against 2014 Super League Grand Final premiers St Helens, playing on the wing in the Rabbitohs' 39-0 win at Langtree Park.^[10] For the 2015 Anzac Test, he was selected to make his debut for Australia against New Zealand, playing on the wing in the Kangaroos' 12-26 loss at Suncorp Stadium.^[11][12] On 13 May, he re-signed with the Rabbitohs on a 2-year contract to the end of the 2017 season.^[13][14] On 8 July, he was selected to be 18th man for the New South Wales team for Game 3 of the 2015 State of Origin series.^[15] He finished off the 2015 season as the Rabbitohs' highest try-scorer with 17 tries in 25 matches.^[16] On 26 September, he played for the Prime Minister's XIII against Papua New Guinea, playing on the wing and scoring a try in his team's 40-12 win at Port Moresby.^[17][18] On 15 December, he was named on the wing for the Indigenous All Stars team to play the World All Stars on 13 February 2016.^[19]

2016

On 13 January, Johnston was named in the emerging New South Wales Blues squad.^[20] In February, he played for the Rabbitohs in the 2016 NRL Auckland Nines, scoring the opening try of the competition.^[21] He was selected on the wing and scored four tries in the Rabbitohs' first three matches of the season before suffering a hamstring injury that saw him sit out for several weeks. In his return game in Round 10 against the Parramatta Eels, he played in his preferred position at fullback in the Rabbitohs' 22-20 win. He was renamed in the fullback position in Round 15, once again against the Eels.^[22]

References

External links

• South Sydney Rabbitohs profile