Alex Johnston has never liked talking about the try-scoring record in case he jinxed it, but the reality of breaking Ken Irvine’s long-standing mark is starting to hit home for the Souths legend who narrowed the gap on Saturday with four tries against the Storm.

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The South Sydney winger is now up to 206 tries and is just six behind Irvine’s record which many people thought would never be broken.

But Johnston, 30, looks set to do it after grabbing a second-half hat-trick in the golden point loss to Melbourne, taking his tally to nine tries in his past four matches against teams that are all in the top four.

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He’s already scored 11 tries in just seven matches this season and could very well break the record as early as next month.

“If you told me a few weeks ago, I would have told you I was still a fair bit away,” he replied when asked about possibly becoming the greatest try-scorer in history.

“But I’ve scored a few tries in the past few games and I’m getting close now. I’ll try my best to get it this year.

“It will be very special.

“Hopefully it’s a payday, and a third party comes my way and wants to be a part of it.”

Johnston was on the receiving end of three glorious assists from Latrell Mitchell, with the winger paying tribute to Cody Walker and Greg Inglis for setting him up for the bulk of his tries.

“Trell was pretty much feeding me those tries, so it was pretty good,” he said.

“They are two special fullbacks that I’ve played with. Then you’ve got guys like Cody who probably has even more try assists to me.

“The centres I’ve had over the years as well, I’ve been lucky to be on the end of a pretty special backline.

“I’m getting closer to that record, but it’s bittersweet losing the way we did. We should have won the game.”

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The only question now is what the game will do to celebrate Johnston’s impending achievement, with fans likely to storm the field as we see in other sports like AFL when someone reaches the 1000-goal mark.

Johnston said he didn’t have the flair to do anything too crazy, with the winger just content to be back on the field after a serious Achilles injury last year had people wondering if his career – and the record chase – were over.

“I don’t want to harp on it too much, but I said when I scored 200 tries a few weeks ago how I wasn’t in the best place for a good while [last year], and it was special to go out there and get a standing ovation when I scored 200 tries,” he said.

“It’s now 206. I’ll keep ticking them over. Things are looking up.

“I was lucky because I’ve got a pretty good rock at home, and my family are always there for me.

“I’m still probably getting there to be honest. Once I finish this season, without getting injured, touch wood, signing a new contract will be nice, getting that record will be nice, and then I don’t know. Another four more years would be nice.”

The 2014 premiership winner is off contract at the end of the season but is hopeful that a deal will be struck soon.

“We’re still chatting,” he said.

“I don’t know if it’s locked in yet. I know my manager and Souths were in talks this week. We’ll see what happens. I think it’s very close.”