Nathan Merritt had just disappeared back down the tunnel when Alex Johnston’s hands brought the crowd’s attention back.
Well, his hands appeared first. After an unexpected aerial interception – on his own 10-metre line – his torso flashed in a neat pirouette, complete with a headbutt to look across the empty field between him and the Canterbury try line. Then his legs stole the show, running 90 meters untouched to open South Sydney’s account.
It was his 97th try at the Accor Stadium, from 99 games played at this ground. That statistic is ridiculous. But then, Johnston is leading scorer in NRL history. He has also been the Rabbitohs’ record top scorer since 2022. Before that, however, it was held by another winger. Another great club. The man who had just rung Souths’ Legacy Bell four minutes earlier. Who was the center of attention and the center of celebration and dealing with emotions before the game started. Who, in fact, was Alex Johnston before Alex Johnston.
Under Merritt’s eyes, it looked like Johnston had locked up his predecessor. A fellow First Nations player. His friend. Nani, at age 42, has 12 months to live.
Earlier this week, when Merritt revealed his final prognosis for stage four cancer of the liver and esophagus, he described feeling as if his soul had been taken out.
Part of it came back to haunt him on Good Friday when, in agony from chemotherapy, he attended his first NRL game in more than two years to watch his Rabbitohs dismantle the Bulldogs 32-24.
“It’s a good mess at the moment, so just take it as it comes and enjoy each day as it comes,” the father-of-five told Nine’s pre-match programme. “It’s a great day for me. I’ve got a box up there with 20 family and friends. It’s a great opportunity for me to have a little celebration about the South and what I’ve done here, and enjoy the moment as well.”
Merritt has admitted this match may be the last he can physically attend. So, the club appointed him to ring the bell – a tradition that began at his first game at Birchgrove Oval in 1908. As one of their champions, a back-rower, and an inside player.
“Bad news for Nath. Very sad news,” Cody Walker said on Fox Sports coverage. “He’s been a fixture of our club and our local Redfern community forever. It’s a tough road ahead of him. We’re all thinking of him here at the Rabbitohs.”
As he rang the bell and the players ran off him and onto the field, there were pats on the back from those who knew him well. There were also, of course, highlights from the blue and white section of the crowd of 49,813 to greet their longtime foes.
But there was something about the way Bulldogs fans joined Souths fans in a standing ovation moments before, when Merritt was introduced and the big screen played a tribute video that showed the most magical of his 154 career tries, including 135 for the Rabbitohs. How this man, in short, became the glue that unites two opposing fans on what is traditionally one of the most opposing fixtures.
Just like Merritt was, during his playing days, the glue during the Southerners’ years, scoring over and over again. And don’t forget his only goal of the game – the spectacular match-winner against the Wests Tigers at the Sydney Cricket Ground, in the 80th minute from 30 metres. Light in the dark. The soul that one had lost for a while.
Yesterday, he reminisced once again about one of his favorite memories playing against the Bulldogs. “There was one year, I think it was 2013,” he told Herald this week, “we came up with a trick play, and Adam Reynolds kicked it across the field for me.
And he wished aloud that he had been fit enough to attend Allianz Stadium last month and be part of the pitch invasion that accompanied Johnston’s record-breaking try against the Roosters.
“It was great to watch,” he told Nine. “I was watching at home. It just made you jump on the TV and jump on the field too. It would have been a great time to be there, out on the field.”
And so it seemed only right that Johnston had scored in the fourth minute. Deft hands and torso and legs, honoring all those things that came before.
