Asked by former State of Origin playmaker Jamie Soward whether he needed re-energising, Johnson told NRLTV: "I probably did to be fair, now looking back on it.
"When you are in the moment, you probably don't think you do. Obviously the Warriors saw me becoming a bit stale and maybe they were right.
"I took that on board and came over here."
Johnson had a brilliant debut year for the Warriors when they reached the 2011 grand final, but that was followed by six years out of the playoffs. Despite an often exciting year for player and club in 2018, he bombed in the playoff loss to the Panthers.
Making the grand final in the first year, you are thinking 'How good is this?". Then the next six years you don't make the finals - it can take it out of you.
"I came here and asked myself how do I get to the next level," he said.
"I didn't expect to come here and light the world on fire. I needed to find my feet.
"Cronulla have so many players with so much experience who I wanted to rub shoulders with. I didn't feel the pressure. I was more excited for change and a new challenge."
The at-times brilliant Johnson quit the Warriors in late 2018, with a year left on his contract, when it became clear the club was ambivalent about signing him again.
He was still loved by many fans and a high-profile panel put together by the NZ Herald this year ranked him the fifth best Warrior of all time, in a vote to mark the club's 25th season.
But there was also a lot of frustration over his erratic form.
"I've been there eight years and had six coaches. The sixth coach didn't like me," Johnson later said about coach Steve Kearney.
