Watto pushed my head into the toilet: Johnson

While the weekday television program Neighbours was often an afterthought to millions of Australian teenagers following the regular 6pm screening of The Simpsons, to Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson, the gang at Ramsay Street was at the centre of their biggest run-in.

The likes of Toady, Harold and Lou weren’t the main cause of the juvenile stoush, but it was during an ad break in 2000 while Watson and Johnson were at the Centre of Excellence that things got heated after the left-arm tearaway had his head dunked in a nearby toilet.

“Every night we’d pile into the common room and watch Neighbours before dinner,” Johnson wrote in his autobiography Resilient.

“It was always a bit willing as every time there was an ad break there would be an all-in wrestle on the floor until the show started again.

“In one wrestle I was dragged through the door and into the bathroom by a heap of guys and somebody pushed my head into the toilet. I wasn’t impressed and the red mist descended.

“Somehow I managed to break free and I grabbed whoever it was by the front of the shirt as I got up and someone grabbed mine. I raised my right fist and he did the same. Then we looked at each other.

“It was Watto. I think we both looked at each other and thought: nah, I’m not going to hit him, he’s my mate, and put our fists down at the same time.

“I can’t say I wasn’t angry. It took me a few days to get over it. We eventually started to talk to each other again and Watto remains one of my best mates in cricket.”