Alex Johnston: 2026 Year in Review
Alex Johnston produced a season for the ages in 2026, rewriting Rugby League history while remaining the heartbeat of South Sydney's attack. The La Perouse junior wore the red and green in 22 NRL appearances, crossing for 30 tries and finishing the regular season as joint leading try scorer across the competition.
The defining moment arrived early. In round two against the Sydney Roosters at a sold out Allianz Stadium, Johnston scored his 213th career try in the 41st minute, surpassing the 53 year record held by the late Ken Irvine. The one Club winger reached the milestone in his 245th NRL appearance, etching his name as the greatest try scorer in Australian Premiership history. Fans poured onto the field to celebrate, and Johnston was presented with the match ball and a commemorative display case marking the occasion.
That record was only the beginning. Johnston finished 2026 with 30 tries, seven try assists, 42 line breaks and 51 tackle breaks, while covering 3003 running metres at an average of 136 metres a game. His strike rate again placed him among the most damaging finishers in the competition, and he topped the Rabbitohs try scoring list for the tenth time in his 13 season career.
Milestones kept arriving. In round eight, Johnston played his 250th NRL match and his 250th first grade game for South Sydney against the Melbourne Storm on ANZAC Round away from home. Later he reached nine hundred first grade career points in round 12 against the North Queensland Cowboys, and he closed the regular season by becoming the fourth player to score one thousand points in all grades for South Sydney when he hit that mark in round 27 against the Sydney Roosters.
Club and NRL record books were rewritten again across the year. Johnston became the first player in history to score 20 tries in seven first grade seasons, and the first to score 30 tries in a season on three separate occasions. He already held the mark as the first player to score 30 tries in consecutive seasons in 2021 and 2022. He also sits as the Premiership's greatest scorer of hat tricks, with 19 to his name, and has scored multiple tries in a game more often than any other player in the history of the game. At Accor Stadium he remains the venue's leading try scorer, with 109 tries from 105 appearances.
When the regular season ended, Johnston sat level with Penrith Panthers winger Tom Jenkins on 30 tries, sharing the Ken Irvine Medal. It was a fourth Ken Irvine Medal for Johnston after outright wins in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The duel went to the wire, with Johnston leading 29 to 28 heading into round 27 before both men finished on 30.
Members had their own say. At the Red and Green Ball, Johnston claimed the Roy Asotasi Members Choice Award for 2026, recognising a year in which he again delivered for the Club and for the Membership that has watched him grow from a teenager into a South Sydney immortal. A statue already stands in his honour outside the USANA Rabbitohs Centre, a permanent reminder of a career built entirely in the red and green.
South Sydney's season carried into the NRL Finals. Johnston started on the wing in the Club's Elimination Final against the Newcastle Knights at Allianz Stadium. Campbell Graham and Jye Gray scored South Sydney's tries in a 20 to 10 defeat, with Latrell Mitchell adding a conversion. For Johnston, Finals football capped a year already defined by the Premiership try scoring record and another 30 try campaign in the red and green.
By season's end Johnston had played 265 first grade matches, all for South Sydney, and sat on 240 career tries. He remains second only to John Sutton on the Club's all time first grade games list among South Sydney players, and he continues to sit alone at the top of the Club and Premiership try scoring tables. For a one Club player who debuted as a 19 year old in 2014, 2026 will be remembered as the year Alex Johnston cemented his place in Rugby League history.
