Keary starred for the Bondi club last night in their 20-6 drubbing of South Sydney, the 25-year-old’s former club.

The Rabbitohs let him go at the end of last season and he has played a huge part in the Roosters’ unbeaten four-game start to 2017.

He helped South Sydney to their historic 2014 premiership, but it was an honest meeting with Johns that solidified Keary’s desire to become a great of the game.  

“When Michael Maguire first got the job at Souths, he brought him over to my place a few times, he was playing (under) 20s at that stage,” Johns told Thursday Night League in the lead up to Keary’s first game against Souths.

“He’s just a great bloke. Old-fashioned sort of kid.

“He tore his pec in the Nines and I remember I rung him and I said come over to the house.

“He was really down in the dumps and he felt his career was in the balance — he hadn’t quite cracked it in first grade at that point.

“I said we’ll go down to the park, walk around, have a bit of a talk.

“I remember walking along just chatting away, and I looked, he wasn’t alongside me, he was about 10 yards behind.

“I turned around and he had his head down, he had his arm in his sling and he said ‘Matty, I just want to tell you something. I’m scared I’m not going to make it’.

“When someone says that to you, you know they’ll do anything. That hunger and desire he’s got, that fire in the belly is rare.”