IT IS one of the biggest milestones a player can reach, but celebrating Brad Johnson’s 300th AFL game has taken a back seat to snaring four premiership points as the Western Bulldogs prepare for their season-opener against Adelaide at Telstra Dome on Sunday.

And the man himself couldn’t be happier with the low-key approach.

“It’s great to be able to play so many games for this club, that’s for sure, but it’s round one, everyone’s up and ready to go, we’ve had a tremendous pre-season and we’re really looking forward to getting out there on Sunday,” Johnson said on Wednesday.

“As a player, all you want to do is win on the day; it’s about the four points. It’s not about who’s playing in a milestone; it’s about winning for the club and that’s the way we’ve always looked at things. If you win it just turns it into a positive experience.”

Johnson joins good friends and Bulldog legends Chris Grant, Scott West and Rohan Smith in the 300-game club.

“They’re the guys that taught me the trade basically,” Johnson said.

“Just following them around for years and being a bit of a pest at times, but they’re my best friends and they’ve certainly helped mould who I am today.”

Coach Rodney Eade was glowing his praise of the 31-year-old.

“He’s as good as anyone going around,” Eade said.

“I think the credit to Brad is to be able to play equally high quality football in a number of positions. Most [great] players dominate one spot, but he’s a quality midfielder on the wing and the centre square bounce and then to make himself as a forward. I think his last two years have really been close to his best seasons.

“He’s in the top three players I’ve coached.”

The Bulldogs will be desperate to get 2008 off to a winning start after losing their last six games of the 2007 season, but Eade maintained he had not used the Dogs’ fade out as a motivational tool.

“Last year we dropped off, so people say [is this year] a year of atonement, but I don’t think our focus has been to make up for last year; it’s about getting us back to where we think we should be which is playing finals football,” Eade said.

“For six weeks people actually throw the baby out with the bath water and we’re not doing that. There’s no panic, but there’s some things we needed to address and we think we’ve done that. We’ve worked extremely hard and we’re pretty confident we can do well.

“Two years before we won five of our last six and everyone was thinking if we’d got into the finals, we would have had a chance to win the Grand Final; people read too much into individuals and teams’ performances over a short period of time.

“But that’s fine, I think it’s a very fickle industry and people are very fickle with their assessments, but that’s fine, that’s not going to worry us.”

Eade’s tall defensive options have been limited by injuries to Tom Williams and Cameron Wight, but Ryan Griffen returns to bolster the side after knee surgery ended last season in round 11.

You’d certainly like to have your best team out there, there’s no doubt, but we’ve obviously lost a couple of talls down there and Brian [Lake] will have his game for three weeks,” he said.

“Most teams are going to have some injury concerns and you’ve just got to cope with those, but it’s not a real big issue for us.”