‘Unbelievable player’: Vermont’s Lachie Johns the enduring Eastern league champion
‘Everything he touched turned to gold,’ an opponent said of Lachie Johns. And, often, goals. The Vermont champion’s ability to hit the scoreboard sets him apart from other top-line Eastern midfielders.
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Everywhere Lachie Johns looked he saw a Vermont star.
Ryan Mullett.
Kris Bardon.
Robbie Ross.
Nathan Henley.
Matt Greig.
For a player entering senior football in 2012, it was at once exciting and a little intimidating to wear the purple and gold jumper alongside so many established and successful players.
There was one advantage, Johns says. He trained hard and he trained well, because he didn’t want to mess up a drill.
“It was crazy walking into that. You just wanted to impress these guys. You didn’t want to stuff up a kick to them,’’ he says.
“Your actions on the field bring you closer to people … once you’re sharing wins and sharing losses and having a few nights together, it breaks the ice a little bit.’’
The wheel turns. Whipper-snippers starting out with Vermont these days probably look at Johns the way he did Mullett and co.
The novice of 2012 can now be counted as one of Vermont’s greatest players.
The powerful midfielder has won seven best and fairests and a league medal for the Eagles, who are among the state’s most successful and respected clubs.
Their reputation for winning premierships travels well beyond the grounds of the Eastern Football League. For a while there it seemed more newsworthy when they didn’t win the flag.
Johns was aware of the club’s standing when he left the Heathmont juniors to play for Vermont’s Under 16s.
He and his teammates wondered how any of them would ever go on to be senior players in such a powerful side.
As it happened, a few did, because the Vermont Under 16s that season had a ton of talent and won the flag by a wide margin. Future AFL-listers Alex Greenwood and Matt Arnott were in the team, as was Pat Lawlor, who went on to be an accomplished VFL player. And Johns and Connor McCafferty became Vermont senior captains, one after the other.
It was Greenwood who pushed up Johns’ name with the Eastern Ranges.
A bit like South Croydon great Daniel King, Johns was a state under-age cricketer but attracted little “pathway’’ interest for his football.
Taking Greenwood’s advice, Eastern called him up halfway through his top-age season to help cover Vic Metro absentees.
He played eight games in the TAC Cup, then headed to Box Hill Hawks for a pre-season.
Shin splints kept him in the rehab group. The Hawks, having seen little of his football, overlooked him for the list.
But VFL would come later for him.
*****
Footballers talk about other footballers - conversation is the oxygen of the game - and a few weeks ago Noble Park greats Kyle Martin and Jackson Sketcher got talking about the best players they’d seen in Eastern.
They agreed on three. Leigh Williams of Norwood, Zac Clarke of and Lachie Johns of Vermont.
Sketcher always thought Johns did more damage than the other leading midfielders of the competition.
“Everything he touched turned to gold,’’ he says.
And, often, goals.
“You’d tag him and he’d still kick three,’’ Sketcher says. “You’ve got accumulators and blokes who get clearances but he did everything. He’d do the hard stuff. He’d tackle, he’d defend. He was the whole kit and kaboodle.’’
Sketcher remembers a match at Noble Park when Johns, despite being tagged, kicked two goals and had 15 possessions, only to get a deep corkie and not come back on after halftime.
“It pretty much won us the game,’’ he says.
Noble was happy to take it, because any win over Vermont is to be cherished.
This year, however, they’ve been a little easier to achieve.
A club so synonymous with success went into Round 14 seventh on the ladder, still a chance to grab fifth place, but not in the top rungs it customarily occupies.
Johns, 32, says injuries – particularly to key men Sam Weideman and Liam Buxton – haven’t helped.
Twenty-six players were unavailable across the seniors and reserves last week, leaving the selectors to fish a few players out of the Under 19s.
Johns is approaching the situation like a statesman.
He has missed out on the finals only once in his career at Vermont, in 2022. It rallied the following season to reach the grand final against Rowville.
“We’re going through a bit of a challenging year at the moment, not reaching the expectations that we’ve had,’’ Johns says.
“I don’t enjoy it. But I see it as a challenge now … I guess I’m getting closer to the end and thinking how can I help the club and the younger players work through this phase, as opposed to being really disappointed, which I am. I’d love us to be up the top like we have been but I have a slightly different view on it now. Having said that, we still are a chance. The middle part of it (ladder) has been really even. Everyone has been beating everyone through there. We could sneak in.’’
*****
The young fellow who broke into Vermont’s senior team in 2012 was the club best and fairest by 2014.
Former Hawthorn forward Kris Barlow was his first coach and Johns credits him with pushing him forward as a footballer with steady encouragement and opportunities.
“He was a massive supporter of mine,’’ he says.
“He pumped me up whenever he could. He pushed me to challenge myself more than I would have otherwise. Without him I would have just kept drifting along at Vermont, which would have been fine and would have been fun.’’
Barlow encouraged him to go to the VFL.
Johns was receptive to the idea; he felt his eight games for Eastern Ranges hadn’t really given him enough exposure or any indication of whether he could go higher.
“I didn’t have that opportunity to have a good crack at trying out for that (AFL),’’ he says. “VFL was that opportunity to test myself and also see if there was any chance to go on to the next level again.’’
Johns joined Coburg, staying for two seasons. Niggling injuries held him up.
That said, he enjoyed it at the City Oval and played some good football for the Lions; in 16 senior games he grabbed nine mentions in the best. He looked and felt comfortable at the higher level.
“Everyone is rock-hard fit. There are no weak links out there, that’s for sure,’’ he says.
But the travel was a pain and he decided to go back to Vermont in 2017. Fitter and stronger for his VFL experience, Johns soared as an Eagle.
Coached by Harmit Singh, Vermont was the best team in the competition in 2017, but South Croydon knocked it over in the decider.
“We lost one game for the year. Yeah, that was tough,’’ Johns says.
But the Eagles, with Johns in his first season as captain, made no mistake on grand final day in 2018, with a side that crackled with class on every line. It was hard to imagine a better local team, then or ever.
“I actually think we got a little bit better in 2019,’’ Johns says.
“I don’t think Mitch Honeychurch (former Western Bulldog) played in 2018.’’
Of course, the Eagles won the flag in 2019.
And, with all players recommitting, they could look expectantly to 2020. Covid intervened, chopping off the entire season and then half of 2021.
They were on top of the ladder when the final siren blew on ’21, and Johns added another decoration to his career when he shared the Chandler Medal with Norwood’s Blake Pearson.
He also won Vermont’s best and fairest, as he did in the following three seasons.
His name went on the honour board under those of Mullett, Ross, Bardon, Adam Parker and Tom Schneider.
But seven times and counting?
“I’m a pretty proud person and I always want to do well to help the team,’’ Johns says.
“I’ve tried to have consistency in my effort every week.’’
Singh, now with the Sydney Swans, says Johns was an exemplary captain, respected, setting the standard at training and making time for every player on the list.
“In those big moments, he owned them,’’ he says. “He still does that now. Unbelievable player, one of the best I’ve coached. He’ll go down as one of Vermont’s absolute greatest.
“It’s unfortunate he had some injuries at Coburg, because he had so much ability and could have made an impact in some capacity at a higher level other than just VFL level.’’
He agrees with Sketcher’s comment about Johns being more “damaging’’ than the other midfielders bracketed in Eastern’s best.
Singh can remember games where his skipper would have 40 possessions and boot three or four goals.
“There have been really good accumulators who could win it but pound for pound the damage that Lachie did made him, at a local level, the most damaging midfielder I’ve coached,’’ he says.
When he started at Vermont, Lachie Johns saw a star everywhere he looked. He endures as one himself.
Originally published as ‘Unbelievable player’: Vermont’s Lachie Johns the enduring Eastern league champion
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