Johnson was forced to miss the game against the Magpies after failing to recover from the knock to the calf that he suffered during the Cats' win over Essendon in round seven.
As a result, he spent the evening sitting behind Chris Scott in the coaches' box.
"He's pretty good," was Scott's summation of Johnson's input. "He makes some really astute observations.
"My strong preference is to have him on the field, though, and hopefully he'll be back this week.
"It's a pretty minor issue with his calf, but I said that about Paul Chapman didn't I? So we're wary."
Chapman has now missed four matches with a hamstring injury that the club initially believed was so minor that it would not sideline him for any games.
His presence, along with that of Johnson and suspended onballer James Kelly, was missed by Geelong, which struggled to cope with some ferocious pressure from Collingwood during the first half.
"Was their pressure really good or did we just not handle the pressure?" Scott pondered.
"The obvious answer to that is it was a bit of both.
"We thought that there was a clear way to play the game and we didn’t do that.
"They tackled really well and pressured really well and we allowed them to do that."
The Cats were their own worst enemies at times as they slipped 28 points behind late in the second term.
Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel personified his team's sloppy start, committing four clangers in the first 10 minutes, one of which led directly to an opposition goal.
"Something like that happening is as bad a sign as you're ever going to see, because it doesn't happen to often," Scott said.
"We accept there are going to be skill errors, but when they come from a player that's made so few across a 10 or 12-year period it surprises you a bit more.
"Those sorts of things contributed to us giving up some easy goals, but it wasn't the main reason that we lost."
Scott refused to pin-point an exact reason for why his team's seven-game winning run was broken.
But a lack of rotations, caused by Billie Smedts having to be subbed out with an ankle injury in the second quarter, certainly didn't help.
Smedts is almost certain to miss the clash with the Power next Saturday, and the Cats will again be without Kelly who has another week of his suspension to serve.
Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol
