STEVE Johnson has been one of the most entertaining players of the modern era. Blessed with freakish skills, he loves the big stage and rarely disappoints. He played 253 games and kicked 452 goals for Geelong from 2002-15 and was a member of the Cats' 2007, 2009 and 2011 premiership teams, winning the Norm Smith Medal in 2007. He joined Greater Western Sydney at the end of last season.
MAD MAGPIE
What got me interested in footy was going along to watch my local side, Wangaratta, with my old man, Terry. I can remember from the age of five I always had a footy in my hands, and I used to love getting out on the ground at quarter-time and half-time and having a kick with my mates. Some of my best friendships have come from footy, so it’s always been a happy place for me.
I grew up barracking for Collingwood. I was fortunate that my family were AFL Members, so we used to travel down from Wangaratta to Melbourne to watch the footy seven or eight times a year. In the early days my idol was Peter Daicos. Then, when he retired, my idol became Nathan Buckley because he was by far the best player at Collingwood at the time.
I can see how there are similarities in the way Peter Daicos played and how I play. In his day he was clearly the best in the AFL at snapshots for goal, and the banana kicks and all those different tricky attempts on goal, and I have no doubt I tried to emulate him in some way.
CALL ME STEVE
Geelong is a unique and ideal place to play footy. Leading up to the 2001 AFL draft I would have gone anywhere to play, but when I was selected by Geelong (at number 24) I was as happy as I could possibly be because within a few weeks I knew it was the perfect place to play footy. The players become part of the furniture down in Geelong and the people there are so used to seeing us that it’s not a surprise when they do bump into us in the street. I'm just 'Steve' to everyone there, not 'Stevie J' – that's a media tag.
I had a lot of belief in my own ability. I knew if I could get my fitness to an acceptable AFL level I could play some good footy. I was drafted with Jimmy Bartel (selected at pick eight), James Kelly (pick 17) and Gary Ablett jnr (pick 40 under the father-son rule), and we all drove each other to improve from the word go, which fast-tracked us along. We were also thrown into senior footy from a young age as part of Mark 'Bomber' Thompson's plan to get games into his young players.
Thompson didn't change a lot after the well-publicised internal review at the end of 2006 that nearly saw him sacked by the club. The way he taught us, as individuals, to play footy was brilliant and also the way he went about structuring training. But what did change was the buy-in of the players to what Mark and the club were trying to do.
When Tom Harley was selected as captain at the start of 2007 he wasn't one of our standout players. But of all the players it was he who, internally, led the playing group the best and that’s why he was chosen.Tom drove the standards of the club and he had the respect of every player on the list.
Steve Johnson celebrates with Tom Harley and Joel Selwood in 2007. Picture: AFL Media 903.jpg)
PULL YOUR HEAD IN
I made a few mistakes early in my career, which were well publicised. The hardest thing for me during that time was trying to manage injuries at the same time I was trying to improve my fitness and my overall game. I was labelled inconsistent during that period, but I always felt that that inconsistency came from me not being able to put regular sessions together on the training track.
I was playing a game, and then missing a week of training because of injury, then playing a couple of games – it was a vicious cycle that I couldn't seem to break out of. I had no continuity in the way I went about things. I knew that I also needed to make some changes off the field in regards to my behaviours, and those standards were set for me by the likes of Harley, 'Lingy' (Cameron Ling) and Cameron Mooney. While they were very direct with me about where I was going wrong, I knew that what they were telling me was not because they didn't like me: it was because they all wanted me to get better as a person.
Their feedback was the key reason for me to turn things around, on and off the field. I was forced to take a good, hard look at myself at the end of 2006 and I began to prepare myself the best I possibly could. I learned how to better look after my body and recover between matches. Since then, it’s all been pretty good.
FLAGGING SUCCESS
I kicked a couple of goals early in the 2007 Grand Final, and from then on I just had fun all day. I was playing on a half-forward flank, and the ball was moving down the ground so swiftly and so often – I would have hated to be a Port Adelaide defender. Every single guy in our team contributed that day and the Norm Smith Medal could have gone to any number of players. Even though I was awarded the medal, I was just so relieved to get a premiership under my belt – finally. I think every player would like to say they could perform well on the big stage of a Grand Final, and I am certainly no different in that regard. But until you get there, you just don't know how you're going to handle it.
Steve Johnson and Jimmy Bartel celebrate the 2007 Premiership. Picture: AFL Media 698.jpg)
Once we tasted premiership success we were hungry and driven to win more. That next pre-season was one of our best and we had an outstanding season, losing only one game (to Collingwood by 86 points in round nine), but on Grand Final day things just didn't go our way. Hawthorn took their chances and that's what it takes to win Grand Finals. You have to be the best team on the day, and unfortunately we weren't.
I don't think the disappointment of losing that game will ever leave me. It was very hard to cop, and I used to hate turning on the TV and seeing footage of Hawthorn celebrating on the podium. It stung us all, and it made us so motivated to get back there again.
Leading into the 2009 Grand Final I felt we weren't the best side in it that year – I thought St Kilda had the better season. But, like in 2008, where we had been the best side through the year but had lost the Grand Final, I knew anything could happen on the day. We didn't use that 2008 loss as motivation because it was a new season. It was a gutsy performance by us to win the 2009 Grand Final, although I had a pretty poor game myself – I not only battled a hip injury going into that game, but I also battled Steven Baker, who tried some very dodgy tactics on me in order to stop me going near the ball. He was hard to play against because he was such a good tagger. While he took the points against me, we won the Grand Final, so I was happy.
When I injured my knee in the 2011 preliminary final against West Coast, it was a huge challenge to get myself fit for the Grand Final. Initially when I suffered the injury I thought that I was gone for all money because the pain was excruciating. I could see my kneecap sitting a couple of inches away from the centre of my knee. But when I had scans two days later they said that there wasn't much structural damage, meaning I had done a lot of minor damage that had caused me to dislocate my kneecap. But if we could find a way to keep that in place and keep the swelling down then I would have a 40-50 per cent chance of playing.
That week I spent a few sessions in a hyperbaric chamber and I was icing it every night: I'd done everything I possibly could, including a fitness test on the eve of the game, but by the end of the week I could still hardly walk. So the doctor put three injections in my knee, and immediately I felt the happiest I had ever felt because the pain was gone and I was able to run up the corridor. So I passed the fitness test. But then, once the injection wore off, the knee felt really sore again.
After the Grand Final parade I went back to the hyperbaric chamber and iced it again that night, and woke up in the morning still not knowing if I would be playing. I had injections an hour before the game and it was then that I finally knew that I was going to play. The one positive was that by focusing on getting my knee right all week, it took my focus away from the occasion and I wasn't as nervous as I might have been otherwise. Of the three premierships that I have won, that one is the most enjoyable and rewarding because I thought that I had lost the opportunity to play in it. The fact that it was against Collingwood, who I had supported as a kid, made it all the more enjoyable. It was also rewarding to win our third flag because, given the success we had had over a five-year period, I felt we deserved a third premiership.
Steve Johnson embracing Geelong fans following the 2011 Premiership. Picture: AFL Media
Extract from Champions: Conversations with great players and coaches of Australian football. Published by Slattery Media Group, RRP $49.95
