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Shaun Johnson belongs in rugby league’s business class of halfbacks after Saturday night’s mesmeriser for New Zealand in their 22-18 win over Australia.
Amid attention from the Kangaroo forwards that sometimes was the stuff of Kings Cross doormen, the Warriors playmaker steered his team to a much-deserved Four Nations title with a man of the match shift at a blowy Westpac Stadium.
Operating behind a monster truck show from his forwards led by the blue-chip Jesse Bromwich, Johnson teased the Roos defence all freakin’ night with the hot stepping and sleight of hand of a schmoozing Sinatra.
Fervour red-lined inside the arena in the 58th minute when the immaculately coiffed seven scored a slashing try with a pocket-picking show-and-go from 37 metres out that was mistaken by some for a Stacey Jones hologram.
In the process of setting alight the 25,000-strong Cake Tin outer, he also levelled two legends with his raw toe by skinning up Greg Inglis and rendering Andrew Johns a foaming mess in the box.
Despite some late sweat, it was a bossing of the Australians in the decider that was a performance fitting of a dominant tournament for Johnson and the Kiwis.
The eventual champions finished undefeated for the campaign, while the 23-year-old Warrior bellowed from the rooftops that he’s to be considered a serious baller for his generation.
The former touch footy whippet has always had the excitement machine tag, starring regularly for the Kiwis and his paymaster Warriors club with an honour roll of schoolyard-style highlights, the kind that have left opposition defences bereft and seriously considering brutish subterfuge.
However, he has yet to secure the sleeve patch proving he can haul a side to silverware when the whips are whipping, falling just short with grandstand efforts in the 2011 NRL grand final and 2013 World Cup campaign.
While success with an NRL premiership ring or a call-up to the All Blacks would really cap a coronation for the kid, there’s no doubt after Saturday night that he can now make serious overtures for the top table of the sport’s elite generals.
In February this year, the Auckland youngster extended his contract with the Warriors until 2017, a show of faith from both parties that they were in this journey together for the long haul until an alcohol-related mishap or more superior offer came along.
However, had Johnson spent his pennies on a crystal ball and foresaw his cinnamon-sprinkled Four Nations returns later in the year, he could’ve known he had the potential to print money on the open market when his original term expired.
With his marketability as a clean-cut babe magnet combined with his crowd-pleasing style, goal-kicking and leadership qualities, there’s no doubt he could’ve wheeled and dealed to be the game’s next million dollar baby had the time been right.
It’s a sizeable call, but in a bizarre economy bent by the thirst for talented playmakers and fluctuated by the minute evidence of a singular performance, Johnson could easily be in the Gucci-branded caviar bracket with blokes like Johnathan Thurston and the entire Melbourne Storm roster of the late noughties.
In the glitzy world of footy, he’s the kind of guy that you build a club around to coax crowds and flog jerseys. You lash out a million to make more back, and if he was on the table right now, it’s hard to deny he would be a sound portfolio addition.
Nevertheless, right now this is all ifs, ands and buts.
The Warriors are content knowing they have a splendid gun for a few more years, while Johnson is probably on his fifteenth frosty and thinking of something completely different while he does a shirtless Haka somewhere in a tiny Wellingtonian boozer – and good on him. He deserves it.
He might not be pulling the ridiculously stratospheric money he could possibly command right now, but he’s basking in the warmth of a million dollar showing that’s underpinned the latest legendary Kiwi league yarn.