Alex Johnston’s record-breaking try was a moment of pure humanity

Source : ABC NEWS

In the end, after all the talk, they couldn’t keep them off the field because the will of the people would not be denied.

As South Sydney’s Alex Johnston raced away to score his record breaking try and become the greatest try-scorer Australian rugby league has ever known and maybe will ever know, the feet were already moving.

It was hard to tell which fan hit the pitch first, but it only took one. A Roosters fan got in the act before the Souths players had even got to Johnston and then a trickle became a flood before some gates swung open and any chance of stopping it was over.

As quickly as Johnston ran away from the Roosters cover defence following some excellent lead-up work from David Fifita and Latrell Mitchell, a writhing mass of delirious humanity engulfed him.

They held their phones out, because it’s 2026 and that’s how it goes, but in their efforts for content they were each reaching out to Johnston, desperate for a piece of him, a piece of this, that they could have all their own.

He vanished beneath them, then rose above as he was hoisted on the shoulders of the faithful like a hero returning from war and still they came, from all corners of the ground, Rabbitoh and Rooster alike, striding out like children running free, as rugby league met an occasion it will not see again for decades.

It was pure and joyful, a spontaneous and organic expression of togetherness. And in a world that feels more isolating and cynical every day, it felt like it meant something to be there and to see it and feel it, even if, when you really get down to it, it was just a guy putting a ball down on the ground for the 213th time.

But of course, it’s so much more than that. Johnston has broken a record that has stood since before most of the 41,000 strong crowd were born, and he is just the second man in the last 102 years to claim the title of top try-scorer of all time.

Given his lead on the competition, it might not be broken until all the fans who hit the SFS pitch have left is the grey in their hair and the memories of the time they jumped the fence to be a part of history.

Johnston rested above them, the people’s champion in this moment and now king of try-scorers, at such a height he must’ve never wanted to come down.

As he came back to Earth, Johnston’s teammates swarmed him and stayed tight, forming a cardinal and myrtle rock against the human tide.

Most of them looked more excited than he was as they slowly ushered him through the masses and up the tunnel, and it’s fitting that Cody Walker, who fought the red mist all night but for this moment and who has done more than any other player bar Johnston himself to make this record fall, was as happy as a man can be.

Everything felt worthy of the moment, but it had been far from guaranteed that it would be this way. Johnston himself had given it his tacit blessing last week but Wayne Bennett, decidedly, did not.

For all the comparisons to Lance Franklin’s 1,000th AFL goal, rugby league does not have the same kind of history of pitch invasions at major milestones.

There had been warnings against fans taking the field, which were roundly booed from the moment they were displayed on the big screen early in the match.

One fan with a tenuous grasp on both the situation and mathematics decided to go off early and invade the pitch before Johnston’s first try of the night, the record equaliser in the first half.

At the break you could feel the electricity. For reasons beyond knowing, it did not just seem like tonight would be the night, it was certain. It’s easy to say so after the fact, but it felt like forever was about to happen.

Some fans made a show of limbering up in the concourses, rolling the legs over so they were warmed up if they needed to dodge a few security guards.

Others worked the phones to put their hard earned down on Johnston to score — just in case, they said, they copped those big fines they were warned about.

No doubt a couple of them will, but when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese himself was spotted striding down the field with his Rabbitohs scarf on it’s hard to think there will be a mass condemnation.

After the 20 or so minute delay, Johnston returned to the field, fighting tears and got special attention from the crowd.

He’d changed his jersey to one with a golden number two on the back, which acted as a constant reminder of something that felt beyond the match itself, even as the Roosters eventually finished with a 26-18 victory after a fine contest.

Mark Nawaqanitawase, Johnston’s opposite number, came up with key plays on both sides of the ball after the resumption of play, including a corner finish where he got the better of the record-breaker.

Naufahu Whyte continued to press his claims as one of the best props going around and James Tedesco again showed why he’s still one of the best players in the league.

The Rabbitohs will be frustrated at the loss. Walker couldn’t get much going and the halfback situation remains uncertain after Bud Sullivan was hooked late with Jack Wighton moving into the halves.

But those are triumphs and concerns for today, tomorrow and next week. Under the weight of history, they seem small by comparison.

What Johnston has done and what the people shared with him is deeper and more lasting than even the latest fierce chapter of the Roosters and Rabbitohs eternal battle.

There will be other days for both sides, in this season and the years to come. There will be plenty of other tries for Johnston himself as well, especially if the South Sydney left edge stays so potent, as he turns from record breaker to record setter.

That is why it can never be like this again. A wait for another moment in rugby league, like Johnston’s, could be a wait that lasts forever.

This was not a moment of time, it was a moment in time and the people would not accept anything less than to be a part of it, to share it with Johnston and with one another and to absolutely lose their minds at how many times one man can put a ball down behind a line.