The 16-year-old son of rugby league legend Andrew Johns has signed a pathways deal with the Sydney Roosters ahead of the 2026 season.
Louis Johns, who is a halfback like his father, will link up with the Roosters and is set to feature in the club’s under 17s Harold Matthews side this year as per Zero Tackle.
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Louis, the second of Johns’ three children, played his junior footy at the Paddington Colts in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Johns is considered one of the greatest to ever lace up the boots, becoming the eighth Immortal in 2012.
Johns played all of his 249 NRL games at the Knights, so seeing one of their favourite son’s progeny potentially playing for another team might be a hard pill for Newcastle fans for swallow.
KNIGHTS HINT AT HYBRID SPINE AMID PONGA INJURY UPDATE
The Newcastle Knights are reportedly weighing up a hybrid spine approach that will see players interchange positions, as the club provided an update on Kalyn Ponga.
The Knights have brought in Dylan Brown and Sandon Smith to compete for spots in a spine that already features Ponga, Fletcher Sharpe and Phoenix Crossland, but there remains doubts about where every player fits in.
Knights Head of Football Chris James told SEN radio that the players are training in multiple positions in the pre-season under new coach Justin Holbrook, which will allow the club to be flexible with their selections and during games.
“Everyone keeps asking the question, but Justin’s (Holbrook) playing them in all different positions, he’s trialling them on different sides of the field and everybody’s really caught up with what number they’re going to wear,” James told SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“I think you’ll see a style of footy where they’ll just play in different positions in different parts of the field.
“History will tell you injuries and different things go on throughout the year where you need 28 players to play for you in an NRL season, so we’re just fortunate now that we’ve got depth in our halves, we’ve got depth in our spine, and that’s a real difference here than what we’ve had over the last previous years.”
James has been impressed by Brown’s performance at training so far, but warned the Knights forwards will need to set the platform for their spine to click.
“(Dylan Brown’s) great with the ball, he’ll straighten attacks, but he played behind a great New Zealand pack as well (in the Pacific Championships),” James said.
“That’s what the message at training for us has been. Our middles and our forwards, they’ve got a responsibility to make sure that the likes of Dyl (Brown), Sandon (Smith), Fletcher Sharpe and Kalyn are playing on the back of the pack going forward.
“That’s been a real focus for us as well.
“(I’m) so happy for Dyl. He’s come up here; he’s had a new baby. I think we’ll definitely see the best of Dylan Brown here in Newcastle.”
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There were also fears that Ponga’s return from a Lisfranc injury that required surgery had been delayed amid reports he was still required to wear a moon boot at times.
However, James explained that the club was taking a cautious approach with Ponga’s second Lisfranc injury to ensure not only that he will be ready for Round 1 in Las Vegas, but that he won’t suffer a reoccurrence of the injury.
“We need to take a conservative approach with Kalyn,” James said.
“The Lisfranc’s a really serious injury. It’s the ACL of the foot and this is now his second one.
“I think previously we’ve had to rush Kalyn back from injuries because of how important he’s been to this footy team, and we’ve got a bit of time on our side now during this off-season where we can actually make sure that we go through the rehab process really slowly and get his foot ready.
“He’s been doing a lot of work out of the boot and then he gets back into the boot to sort of deload it for a period of time, so we just wanted to make sure that we’re really conservative, so that in round one he’s ready to go.
“(The plan is) ready for Vegas… get him fit and firing for Vegas which is really exciting for our footy club.”
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