Their NRL careers may be in its infancy but South Sydney speedsters Dylan Walker and Alex Johnston have been terrorising opponents together long before they took their place on the Rabbitohs right edge.
For so long, South Sydney have been crying out for dynamic outside backs. Now, local South Sydney products Walker and Johnston looked to have solved their backline woes with scintillating performances this year.
Already Johnston has bagged 11 tries from his nine games since making his NRL debut in round eight, while Walker has nine of his own plus five try assists.
The duo were in sparkling form against the Raiders last Monday where Walker created multiple headaches for opposite Jarrod Croker – just weeks after Croker was called into the NSW Origin camp as an emerging player. Walker said their combination was no fluke having progressed through the club’s junior representative systems alongside each other.
“He had nerves through pre-season because obviously Madge (coach Michael Maguire) was keeping a good close eye on him, and I just said to him 'look just play your natural game and your shot will come’,” Walker said. “When he got his shot I thought he took it with both hands and ever since then he's progressing, getting better and better each week, and that's him just working hard in the pre-season and training.
“Obviously the old boys like Sammy [Burgess] and I know Greggy's [Inglis] a big influence on myself and him as well so we're thankful to the senior players for helping us younger blokes out.”
Their form has seen the likes of veterans Lote Tuqiri, Nathan Merritt, Joel Reddy and Bryson Goodwin spend time in NSW Cup.
Remarkably, both players are still eligible for the under-20s. While Walker is the more “senior” of the pair – he turns 20 next month while Johnston is 19 – they’ve played against each other at schoolboy level but united in South Sydney’s Harold Matthews and SG Ball teams.
“We played all through junior footy in the Harold Matts and SG Ball,” Walker said. “I've known AJ for a good seven to eight years, so we have a pretty good understanding but that's from down at training and through the pre-season and the hard work that it's been built through.
“I remember watching him when we were younger, I was probably about 12. He always played up [an age group] with us as well, so probably my first game with him I was about 13-14 years of age. I was five-eighth he was fullback/wing. We had him at fullback in SG Ball so I had a pretty good combination back then. He's a humble kid and he's hungry as well.
“I came up against him [at schoolboys level] and he showed me up a couple of times when I played against him in 2012. He probably single-handedly won them that game. He did some freakish things in that game.”
While both noted speedsters, Walker said Johnston had him for pace.
“I'm only quick over 40 [metres] but he's a fast boy AJ,” Walker said. “He'd be one of the fastest at the club.”
