Steve Johnson fighting for his place in the GWS Giants finals campaign, says Mark Robinson
EVERY logical observer in football says Steve Johnson can’t play in the finals, but MARK ROBINSON has a warning for GWS — leave him out at your peril.
Mark Robinson
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STEVE Johnson can’t play against Adelaide on Thursday night.
Every logical observer in football says it’s a no-brainer.
His defensive actions aren’t good enough, he’s slow-ish, he can’t stick tackles, his knees are creaking, he conks out after 10 minutes each quarter and he can’t find the ball.
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The dazzle that has defined him has become a smudge at the end of his career.
What’s Johnson thinking? Maybe more to the point, what is Leon Cameron thinking?
The GWS coach and his match committee will decide if Johnson plays against the Crows on Thursday night and the selection dilemma probably pits Johnson against Matt de Boer for the 22nd spot in the team.
The cunning, creative premiership champ with a Norm Smith Medal and big-game reputation versus a dour, hardworking utility recruited from the Dockers who would be basically asked to be an offensive defender to slow down Rory Laird or Brodie Smith.
Do you stop the opposition or scare the opposition?
Johnson was emotional in the rooms post-match against Geelong in Round 23.
It was said he was a man confronting his mortality as a footballer.
Big game, but zero impact on the turf where his exploits earned him the magical stage name of Stevie J.
The mortality argument might be a little over the top. Johnson played a poor game in front of a packed house he used to call home.
His mental preparation would’ve been fanatical. It was supposed to be the perfect occasion to shove it up the critics and shove it up Chris Scott and the Cats. It didn’t happen. The magic had deserted him.
But, gee, there was some magic across the seasons.
His best was tantalising and his attempts at being tantalising sometimes were frustrating.
He kicked 452 goals for Cats over 253 games. He and Paul Chapman might just be the greatest pair of forward flankers to grace the one team.
Johnson was challenged by others and by himself throughout his career. The drinking, the speeding, the broken ankles at the Torquay hotel.
And who can forget his night in Wangaratta when, a little inebriated, he slept at the back of house, believing it was where his mate lived? It wasn’t. The police came and Johnson was back in front of the leadership group.
Johnson was a larrikin, but he was Geelong’s larrikin and they took ownership.
They persisted and cajoled and eventually he met club standards off the field and clearly lifted standards on the field.
The thing to remember about Johnson, outside of his freakish talent, was his ability to deliver.
His 2011 Grand Final was case in point. He hurt his knee in the preliminary final, raged against time to get it half-fixed for the GF and delivered with four goals from 14 disposals.
“I don’t care if I never walk again, as long as I get this premiership,’’ he said of his determination to play.
He blossomed against the odds.
Finals football is not for the faint-hearted. Players play but not everyone can perform.
Johnson’s breadth of work in September underpins his reputation as a big-game player.
There was 32 possession and four goals against the Hawks in 2013 preliminary final. There was the 28 possessions and three goals against Fremantle in the semi-final of 2010.
He was a big moments player. Front and square and then over the shoulder or around the corner was his signature move. Give him a metre and he’d make it look like five.
You can’t buy that instinct: when and where to run, when to tread water and finding the angles on the footy oval.
Plenty of players can kick freaky goals, but how many could do it when it was needed most, in a final, in front of 85,000, as consistently as Johnson did?
Of course, they are stories of yesteryear, but they are what make this a dilemma for Cameron.
Maybe Johnson’s best chance of a flag at GWS was in 2016. But he blew it.
As much as Phil Carman arguably lost the 1977 premiership for Collingwood when he snotted Hawthorn’s Michael Tuck in the second semi-final and missed the Grand Final and the replay, Johnson arguably cost the Giants the flag when he was suspended in last year’s qualifying final for collecting Sydney’s Josh Kennedy in the head.
Johnson had a superb 2016. He kicked 43 goals from 22 games and if he had played in the preliminary final against the Bulldogs — they lost by six points — who knows if the result would’ve been the same.
A win and they were into the Grand Final. Indeed, Carman and Johnson lived and died by the sword.
His 2017 season has been wretched. Fifteen goals from 16 games is the tally, with just the one real magic moment, the front and square goal against Collingwood with seconds to play.
Everything says he can’t play this weekend — that he’s cooked, he’s old and he can’t defend.
Even Cameron has doubts.
“I understand the intrigue,’’ Cameron said on AFL360 this week.
“He’s a big-game player, he has performed in finals, we bought him up here to help us with finals. But we’ll keep judging that one every game we play.
“There’s a number of players who have finished, some superstars of the game and Steve Johnson fits in that category.
“What I do know is he’s a very proud man, a competitive animal and he will be putting his hand up to play this final.
“We’ll take each game as it comes. If selection falls his way it falls his way, if it doesn’t he’ll get on track for the next one.’’
Which direction does Cameron take? What does the team need? Does the allure of a bashed-up Johnson defeat the blue-collar actions of de Boer?
Whoever plays, it will be for about 60 minutes because that’s how Cameron will play it.
In return, he will want two goals and defensive pressure.
For sure, Johnson is a risk and De Boer is the safe selection.
Yet, when Cameron needs a lightning bolt halfway through the final quarter, when the game is up for grabs and goals are scarce, and the Crows crowd is overwhelming and suffocating, when a single moment could determine victory or defeat, does he want Johnson deep in the forward 50 or de Boer?
There’s only one answer: surely Stevie J plays on Thursday night.
Originally published as Steve Johnson fighting for his place in the GWS Giants finals campaign, says Mark Robinson
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