Scott Gullan’s book GREATNESS, the inside story of the Cats 2011 premiership season can be pre-ordered now. This exclusive excerpt details the dramatic decision that Steve Johnson will play on the morning of the grand final. Beware of imitations, this book has the full inside story. GREATNESS is now available for pre-order here.
GRAND FINAL MORNING
‘Where are you?’
Steve Johnson was lying on his hotel bed with an ice machine attached to his leg when Chris Scott rang.
‘Room 727.’
‘I’ve left this as long as I can. Can I come up?’ his coach asked.
‘No worries,’ Johnson said, although in reality he was feeling precisely the opposite. His left knee had pulled up sore from the captain’s run and he had been icing it for hours. He couldn’t let his coach know that, so he bolted off the bed, ripped the ice machine off and hid it in the corner.
Scott had been putting off making the phone call, but eventually it had got the better of him.
‘It was about 10am and I remember thinking, “I can’t leave this any longer.” I’d been waiting, waiting and waiting so I just rang him.’
Now it was Johnson who was anxiously waiting for the knock on the door.
‘I didn’t know whether he was coming up to tell me that he couldn’t risk me or whether he wanted to leave it in my hands to make the decision.’
He opened the door with a big smile on his face, which caught the coach by surprise.
‘How are you feeling?’ Scott said.
All week, communication between the pair had been honest and Johnson wasn’t about to change that, even if his spot in the Grand Final could hinge on the next couple of minutes.
‘Look, it’s sore now,’ he said. ‘I can’t guarantee it yet but it was sore yesterday morning as well and then I felt great when I did the fitness test. If that happens again and the jabs work, I’ll be fine.’
Scott then went over what they’d spoken about at the start of the week and how important it was that his star forward made the right decision for the right reasons.
‘We talked a little about all the pessimistic scenarios. “What if this is the wrong decision? What if you’re not quite right? How would you feel then?”’ he said. ‘He convinced me that he understood all that and he would be honest with me and I never doubted that.’
As he got to the door to leave, Scott turned back and said: ‘At the end of the day, if you can do all of the things I need you to do and you tell me you’re right, I believe you.’
Johnson was a relieved man as the door closed. His dream was still alive; now it was over to the doctors and their needles to make it happen.
