Just two years after leaving the Knights, Jack Johns has returned to a club he hardly recognises.
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New staff, plenty of new personnel - a whole different feel. And for him personally, no guarantees other than the potential to be rewarded if he works hard and earns it.
"All Adam [coach O'Brien] said to me when I was weighing up coming back was to expect to work hard and not to expect to be handed anything I hadn't worked for and earned," Johns said.
"I guess the challenge back here is what's really motivating me. I'm just so excited about the move back."
![Second coming: After two years at the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Jack Johns is back at the Knights on a development deal. Picture: Simone De Peak. Second coming: After two years at the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Jack Johns is back at the Knights on a development deal. Picture: Simone De Peak.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/barry.toohey/0edc9cef-efc1-4449-94c6-25dd2d7ef918.jpg/r123_503_3227_3272_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
If the club has changed since he was last here in 2018, the difference is not as pronounced as the change in Johns himself.
In person, he is noticeably much bigger. Piling on 10kgs of muscle while he was at South Sydney has transformed him physically from a lanky half or five-eighth when he left, into the backrower he was probably always destined to become.
"I always had the frame for it," he said. "And probably my best trait as a half was my defence. It was never really my attack.
"Toddy Lowrie [former Knights Under 20's coach] was the first to chuck me in the backrow when I was here before and that's what I went down to Souths to become."
Johns says the experience of playing under Wayne Bennett and alongside the likes of Souths legends Sam Burgess and John Sutton has also changed him mentally.
"I can't credit blokes like Johnny Sutton and Sammy Burgess enough for what they gave me when I was there," he said.
"They were so good to me and really pushed me so hard. Johnny Sutton is one of the smartest footy brains I've met and I learned so much off him about backrow play. Sammy is just an unbelievable leader and the standards they set, I can't speak more highly of the influence they had on me.
"I'm glad I went to Souths and spent the couple of years there because it was such a good environment with Wayne [coach Bennett] as well to learn and make me a better player and a better person as well I reckon."
With the Rabbitohs not committing to offering Johns a new deal for 2021 until it was too late, he mulled over a couple of offers before accepting a development contract at the Knights.
While his father, Knights legend Matt, stayed right out of the decision-making process, younger brother Cooper weighed in with his thoughts.
"A lot of it had to do with my brother and what he said to me about Adam O'Brien," he said.
"He really wrapped him to me about how smart he is as a coach from their time together in Melbourne. That played a big part.
"Dad sort of stayed right out of it and left it to me. He didn't want to sway things to be honest."
At 23, Johns knows he must make the most of this latest opportunity.
"Yeah, it's all up to me now but I'm confident in what I can bring to the playing group here," he said.
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