The Blues have named a squad that includes all eight of their rookie-listed players, two first-year players, and just two of the club's top 10 from last year's best and fairest count.
Johnson, 24, said the Blues had a plan all along to restrict the pre-season game time of some of their brightest stars.
"From the start of the pre-season, the fitness staff put in a structure and it doesn't matter who we're playing – Geelong has been the bench-mark for the past couple of years and we're a lower-level side – but it doesn't matter," he said on Friday.
"It's good to see where our young players are going to be at against one of the top sides of the competition."
Johnson said the Blues will enter the game with a "risk-free" attitude, having given Chris Judd, Brendan Fevola, Marc Murphy, Bryce Gibbs, Heath Scotland, Jarrad Waite, Kade Simpson and Ryan Houlihan the night off, while Andrew Carrazzo and Robert Warnock remain sidelined with injuries.
He added the prospect of facing a tough side like Geelong will be largely beneficial for the young Blues who are yet to play much senior football.
"It's very important. They're going to gain experience from it," he said.
"We haven't seen a lot of the guys play, like Chris Yarran and Rhys O'Keeffe, and a few of our rookies too, like Luke Stanton, so they're going to get a good opportunity to show what they're made of."
Geelong forward Steve Johnson said the Cats, who have named a stronger outfit minus just Jimmy Bartel, Joel Selwood, Corey Enright, Andrew Mackie and Mark Blake, with Tom Hawkins, Gary Ablett, Joel Corey, Cameron Ling and himself as additions, won't pay attention to the common thought this will be a landslide result.
"Our main focus will be on our side, and in these sorts of games, 95 per cent of your thoughts are going into your own preparation so I don't think you have to worry too much about who you're playing," he said.
"It's a game of footy and we've got to respect the game and the opposition.
"We don't know too much about a lot of their players but it's a good chance for them to have a run against some of our good players, and it's a good test for us."
The 2007 Norm Smith Medallist said the Cats' recent time at the top has taught them the importance of respecting all oppositions, despite occasional glaring mismatches.
"No matter who we play or whether we're a big favourite or not, we always try and improve in certain areas," he said.
"There's always things you can work on, and tomorrow night is no different.
"We'll go in with a set of goals, things that we want to work on more than others, but it's an advantage that we've respected the opposition every time we've gone out to play."
Dream Team watch – Chris Johnson is rated a $338,100 defender in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.
