‘Plan my weekend around him’: The one player Andrew Johns can’t wait to watch

You only have to watch any of Andrew Johns’ post-game panel show appearances in recent years to realise what the champion playmaker thinks of Dolphins NRL halfback Isaiya Katoa.

The eighth Immortal loves him.

When he returns to work this week for his TV commitments with Nine, owners of this masthead, Johns said he’ll be counting the days until Katoa plays.

“If he’s playing, I’ll plan my weekend around him just so I can watch,” Johns said.

“The best thing is we get to watch him for the next 10 years. If you go back through all the playmakers from the last 30 years, he’s got the qualities of all the great ones.

“When I bump into young halves, when I bump into Nathan Cleary or Mitch Moses, we generally end up talking about Isaiya.”

Johns has told the story how he entered the CommBank Stadium sheds after the Dolphins lost to South Sydney in round one last year.

The man known as Joey asked Katoa if he was keen to represent NSW, and if he said otherwise, “I would have stood up and walked out of the sheds”.

Johns and Katoa spoke for 15 minutes about his game and the benefits of being a run threat.

Katoa is humble and laughs when asked about the consistent public praise from arguably the game’s greatest No.7 of all time.

Now entering his fourth season in the NRL, and with the bonus of playing behind a couple of returning big boys in Tom Gilbert and Tom Flegler, Katoa is setting his bar high.

He wants to play finals. He wants to push for a NSW Origin bench spot. This week’s decision to extend benches to six players will benefit Blues No.19 hopefuls such as Katoa and Canberra’s Ethan Strange. Katoa also wants to lead Tonga to World Cup glory.

But back to Johns and that chit-chat in the Parramatta sheds last March.

“That was the first time I had actually met him. I was actually shocked when he walked into the room,” Katoa said.

“I was like, ‘that’s Andrew Johns over there, that’s cool’. I was taking my gear off, then he sat next to me, put his arm around me, and said, ‘you’re eligible for NSW, aren’t you?’

“I said, ‘yeah, I moved to Sydney when I was nine’. He was like, ‘perfect’. Then he started to talk about some of the best halfbacks in the game, what their strengths were, and gave me pointers about my running game.

“He said you become so much harder to defend when you’re a run threat and ball-playing threat.

“I was actually starstruck he sat next to me and introduced himself to me. It was an awesome interaction.”

Katoa said his family regularly let him know whenever Johns praised him on TV.

“You have to appreciate it when it comes from a guy like Joey, it’s very flattering – I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t listening to that stuff,” he said.

When you drill down a little deeper to unearth what it is Katoa does that well that blows his mind, Johns talks about the “invincible line”.

“There’s that invincible line, which is all to do with how far you dig into the defence,” Johns said.

“You want to dig deep enough to attract defenders, but you don’t want to go too deep where you give a dump [pass] to the man on your outside, and cut out their time with the ball.

“He gets it right nearly every time.

“There are all these buzzwords in rugby league, and one of them is ‘tempo’ when it comes to halves. If you watch him play, when the defence rushes him, he stops, he won’t go into the line – he understands space. You can’t coach that.”

Katoa nods and knows exactly what you are talking about when you mention Johns’ reference to “invincible lines” and “tempo”.

He also appreciates that ability is no fluke and comes from hours of practice.

The 21-year-old has worked out which teams have tried to be the most aggressive with him in defence, and those who are prepared to hold back and give him a bit more time.

Katoa came through the Panthers’ system and played junior football with Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii. He was too young to recall watching Johns in his prime and idolised former Penrith pair Jamie Soward and Jimmy Maloney.

Maloney’s best asset was his ability to flush a mistake and keep going. If he threw a ball into the fourth row of the grandstand, he would back up and attempt the same pass the next set.

Katoa said one thing he had struggled with was dwelling on an error in the middle of a game.

“It’s me naturally as a person, where if I make a mistake, or I do something I’m not happy with, I feel like I’ve let the team down – it’s a battle I’ve had to deal with and improve in the middle of a game,” Katoa said.

“I actually spoke to [Dolphins coach] Kristian Woolf about Jimmy Maloney, and ‘Woolfy’ said Jimmy had the mindset of a goldfish. He’d throw an intercept, but go back the next set, throw the same pass and nail it.

“I thought if that’s something I can take out of his game, it would help me stay present in games. If I make an error, I start to drift off. I was even guilty of it at times last year, but definitely not as bad as previous years; I’m gradually getting better at flushing mistakes and focusing on the next job.

“It’s been a cool learning curve.”

Katoa wants more consistency and an improvement in his diet. He does not drink – he has never touched a drop of alcohol – but says his diet can improve.

When he burst on to the scene, Katoa was regularly asked about a potential return to rugby. He was an Australian Schoolboy representative, graduated from Barker College and attracted interest from the ACT Brumbies before he agreed to join NRL newcomers Redcliffe.

Katoa is signed until the end of 2028 with the Dolphins, but a couple of decent NRL players – Angus Crichton and Mark Nawaqanitawase – are headed back to the 15-man code, while Suaalii is also a Wallabies regular.

For the record, Katoa revealed to this masthead in 2023 that even if he did entertain paying rugby professionally, his dream would be to represent the All Blacks.

Katoa says he will never close the door on rugby, but you sense it is the furthest thing from his mind.

“I still watch rugby, but I’m big on staying present, and understand everything happens for a reason,” he says.

“I’m literally focused on 2026, and what we can do for the Dolphins. There’s the World Cup at the end of the year. There’s State of Origin.

“You have to be ambitious to be one of the best players in the competition. I think I’m definitely heading along the right path, I just have to control the things I can control, which are my performances. If I keep performing on the field and being consistent, those things weill fall into place.”

Dolphins fans are counting down the sleeps to watch Katoa play. So is Joey.