Alex Johnston set to be celebrated by joining rugby league’s rarest club

There are plans for Alex Johnston to become one of the select few NRL players to be celebrated with a testimonial game to recognise his upcoming try-scoring record.

Johnston has a chance to inch closer to the magical mark of 212 set by Ken Irvine when South Sydney take on the Gold Coast on Sunday in a match that could well determine the wooden spoon.

The Rabbitohs winger is just five tries shy of a record that has stood since 1973, and the club and the NRL are considering how best to acknowledge the occasion when the mark is finally broken. While there have been calls for spectators to be able to flood the ground when the moment arrives, safety protocols will likely preclude that from happening.

Instead, there have been high-level talks about other ways to mark Johnston’s pending achievement. Sources not authorised to speak publicly have told this masthead that negotiations are under way to pay tribute to Johnston with a testimonial match, a tribute reserved for only a handful of players in the game’s history.

The last Rabbitoh to have had the honour bestowed upon him was John Sutton, at a pre-season fixture at Redfern in 2019. Other players to have been celebrated with a testimonial match are Cameron Smith and Johnathan Thurston, whose careers were jointly celebrated in a trial in 2018, and Brisbane stalwart Alex Glenn in 2021.

In the Super League, a testimonial game was held five years ago to honour the career of Rob Burrow and raise money for his fight against motor neurone disease.

The NRL has very strict criteria about testimonial matches: recipients must have spent more than a decade in the game, played all their matches for the one club and avoided any major scandals that have brought the game into disrepute. A charity aspect is usually also required, although the player normally keeps a significant portion of the proceeds.

The NRL is poised to look favourably on Johnston’s case, given he has ticked all the boxes. The details of the match are still being worked through, although given it is unlikely he will break the record until next season, the testimonial is expected to be staged early in 2027.

Johnston’s teammates are looking forward to the moment he surpasses Irvine’s legendary mark.

“He’s a good man; I don’t think anybody else deserves it more than him,” said Souths forward Sean Keppie.

“He’s a hard worker; he’s been putting in all the effort the whole year. He had a few setbacks at the start of the year, but I feel if anyone really deserves it, it’s Alex Johnston.

“[Being a one-club player] just shows the type of person he is. He probably did get offers from somewhere else, probably for more, but it just shows the person he is to stay true to the one club. He’s a great man.”

Johnston has twice scored five tries in a match, as well as bagging four against Melbourne in June. Rabbitohs forward Jacob Host suggested the record could come sooner than many people predict.

“He scored three at training [on Thursday], so it would be nice to see him cross over a couple of times this weekend,” Host said.

Asked if he felt Johnston was weighed down with the constant talk about the record, Host said: “Yes and no. It’s a massive achievement and everyone wants to celebrate him and what he’s been able to do in the game, but personally for him he doesn’t want to think about it too much.

“He just wants to play his game and do what’s best for the team. If it’s not scoring tries, then he’ll do what’s best for the team and if it is scoring tries, he will do that as well.

“He’s a very unselfish player and person, we love having him in the team. I can’t wait for him to break that record.”

Johnston is contracted to the Rabbitohs for the next two seasons, but his new contract extension has a clause that allows him to negotiate with the NRL’s new PNG franchise at any time.

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