Steve Johnson still has more to offer GWS despite struggling for form early this season
STEVE Johnson’s former teammate Cameron Ling has been one to question whether the Giant went on one year too long but Stevie J still has more to give, Jon Ralph writes.
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STEVIE J has always liked the bright lights.
He loves prime time nearly as much as proving people wrong.
Steve Johnson has made a career of dispelling the doubters: from his four-goal Grand Final on one leg to three All-Australian berths after his ankle saw him ruled untradeable.
So here we are again, pondering the questions that his stats say we should be asking.
Did he go on a year too long?
Has Stevie J’s magic faded, left with only the showboat acts but not the brilliance that allowed him to get away with all that stuff that bent team parameters.
Will he actually be in the Giants’ best team by finals, especially if Brett Deledio eventually returns from an indefinite calf problem?
Time to back Johnson in one more time, starting against St Kilda on Friday night at Etihad Stadium.
At 33, even Johnson admits he had retired in his own mind before missing the painful preliminary final loss through suspension.
“Six weeks before the end of the year I’d basically told the club that I’d be hanging the boots up,” Johnson said in December.
“I hadn’t definitely made my mind up but when I saw the look on the boys’ faces, and the opportunity we’d missed, plus knowing that I probably had a little bit more to give, I decided I wanted to stick around to hopefully help this club try and win a premiership.”
And after five games, it is not just the output of only six goals (three in the 24-goal tally against the Suns) that is cause for concern.
Last week against the Dogs he hit only two of five targets by foot, his solitary scoreboard impact a behind.
As he failed to make the distance from a set shot even his premiership captain Cameron Ling worried in the commentary box at his lack of kicking penetration.
With Stephen Coniglio due back at some level this week and Lachie Whitfield available after Round 8, the Giants selection squeeze is on.
In the Giants’ very best side Brett Deledio, the suspended Toby Greene and pressure player Devon Smith could potentially play ahead of him.
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But a deeper dive into his statistics show reason for optimism.
Just like Collingwood’s Alex Fasolo before him, Johnson is butchering the ball in front of goal.
From 18 total shots this year he has kicked 6.8 and fallen short altogether four times.
From his nine set shots he has kicked 2.5 and twice missed the goals altogether.
He has the third-most shots at goal for the Giants behind Greene and Jeremy Cameron.
And against the Dogs he played for half the game on elite defender Easton Wood, who had only three disposals to his eight in their 62 minutes going head-to-head.
Other opponents this year have been elite stoppers Nick Smith, Steven May and Brodie Smith, who all would go to a lesser opponent if he wasn’t there.
Johnson has nothing left to prove and cannot tarnish his legacy, set to retire as a triple-premiership player, Norm Smith Medallist and future Hall of Famer.
Now the challenge is to go out at the top of his game, recalibrating his goalkicking radar while Greene watches in the stands.
Just as with their recruitment of Deledio, the Giants only need one great final to justify their investment in these mercurial forwards.
The man who famously predicted his Norm Smith Medal performance has never lacked self-confidence and surely isn’t now.
Stevie J is just going right now but only the foolhardy would write him off just yet.
Originally published as Steve Johnson still has more to offer GWS despite struggling for form early this season
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