Fast forward to 2010 and a few things have changed. That fresh-faced kid now sports a scruffy beard, he plays for the Brisbane Lions and he's just racked up his 200th AFL game in a tight loss against the Sydney Swans.
The loss was a tough one to take. Milestone games are ones every player wants to win and 200 is a big number, especially when you're joining your grandad as just the second grandfather-grandson duo to do so.
Melbourne ruckman Jack Graham and former Geelong captain Ben Graham are the only other to have achieved the milestone.
"It's always nice to win these games, these milestones are good, but at the end of the day you need to be pumped up for the game anyway", said Johnstone.
The Lions onballer finished his milestone match well but was quiet in the first half as he watched former teammate Daniel Bradshaw run rampant for the Swans.
"We know he (Bradshaw) is a great player anyway, so we just had to try and stop him. It didn't help that Matty Maguire went off for a bit in the first quarter because Braddy really hurt us then," Johnstone said.
"He's a really strong player in one-on-one contests and he proved that again tonight."
While Bradshaw was unquestionably the dominant forward on the ground, the new-look Lions forward line did their job too. Jonathan Brown and Brendan Fevola had eight between them, with Todd Banfield adding another three.
According to Johnstone, these figures provide reason to be optimistic.
"Todd has been really good, a lot of the forwards have been really good, Browny and Fev keep doing their thing and if the other players can get under their feet and capitalise then that's what we need to see."
Johnstone was also impressed with the commitment of his teammates this week. They lacked it in last week's loss to Melbourne and will need it next week when they tackle a red-hot Fremantle side.
"We fought it out a lot better than we did last week; it was just a tough one I think," he said.
"We showed a lot more character and courage. We had some chances to win the game which we didn't take. They took theirs and that was the difference, but there were some positive signs."
Johnstone believes turnovers hurt the Lions, as the home team capitalised with cleaner ball use.
"If you're five per cent off your best it makes it a tough game to win," he said.
"We'll go out against Fremantle next week having gone through some things Vossy wants us to work on at training and part of that is working on our clean hands and being cleaner with the footy."
