Newtown & Chilwell coach Steve Johnson reflects on his first pre-season and hopes for 2025 and beyond
This country club hasn’t tasted premiership success in 39 years, but optimism is high after landing Geelong great Steve Johnson. The new coach opens up on his hopes for 2025 and the future.
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Steve Johnson will be up against a familiar face in his first game as coach in the town where he is considered a hero.
Johnson’s Newtown & Chilwell takes on St Joseph’s in a blockbuster Geelong league clash on Saturday, pitting the Geelong great against his former coach and development manager at the Cats in Ron Watt, who coached Johnson in Geelong’s 2002 VFL premiership.
A packed house is expected for the 1.40pm season-opener at Elderslie Reserve and there has been an extra buzz around the club this pre-season with Johnson’s arrival.
Johnson led Yarrawonga to an Ovens & Murray premiership and a three-point grand final defeat in the past two seasons as coach. He hopes to break Newtown & Chilwell’s 39-year premiership drought – in time.
But he knows it will be a baptism of fire first up against the 2024 minor premier and that success may not happen overnight with the young yet talented list at his disposal.
“I had a coffee with Ronny a week or two ago, we didn’t necessarily talk too much about our own teams,” Johnson told this masthead.
“But I’m fully aware that he has got a really strong list and they were undefeated last year throughout the home-and-away season for a reason, so we expect them to be really competitive and it is a great test for us first up.
“We expect a really big crowd first up at Jardon Oval and there’s some real excitement around the club as to not just this week, but what the season may look like going ahead.
“The main focus throughout the off season is not just to try to improve the list, but to try and improve players that we have on the list and to try to develop those players so that they can be senior footballers – not just this season but going forward for Newtown.
“We don’t put a ceiling on where we can finish. Obviously the goal is to play finals, but we understand we are coming from a little bit further back than some of those top teams.”
Johnson certainly isn’t the only Geelong player around Newtown & Chilwell, which has become an extension of the Cats father-son academy.
The sons of Cam Mooney, Andrew Mackie, Peter Riccardi and Tom Lonergan all play or have played at the club, with Geelong Falcons prospects Jagger Mooney and Boston Riccardi being potential father-son selections this year.
The 253-game Geelong and GWS Giants star has loved being back around plenty of familiar faces in Geelong.
“I’ve had a lot of ex-players reach out and want to know how we’re tracking, but there is some familiar faces around the footy club with a few of my ex-teammates having kids running around in the junior program,” Johnson said.
“So they’ll certainly get behind the senior team.”
“Geelong’s obviously a great place to live and just seeing so many familiar people around is great.
“We’ve got a lot of good friends and a good strong network in Geelong and, from a coaching point of view, it’s does take a little bit of time to form those relationships and get to know everyone.
“And I’m now at the point where I turn up really excited to get to work at training and I’m really looking forward to the start of the season and seeing how we can go from a footy point of view.”
A former Geelong listed player will also be back at Newtown & Chilwell, with delisted 190cm defender Oscar Murdoch returning to his junior club after two seasons on the Cats’ list.
“He’s transitioned back into the club really well. Obviously being a player that is very familiar with all the playing group,” Johnson said.
“He has really enjoyed his pre-season and back at a local level and he’s in really good shape to have a strong year as a key defender for us.”
Johnson has lured some other talented recruits to Elderslie Reserve, including former Yarrawonga guns Logan Morey and Perry Lewis-Smith, the latter who played the first game of the VFL season with GWS.
Young key defender Felix Katsoros won Sturt’s under-18 best and fairest last season and is on Geelong’s VFL list after he crossed from Adelaide, tall forward Mitch Dodos kicked 19 goals in as many games for Kyabram last season and played 10 games for the Bendigo Pioneers in 2023, while backman Ben McGlade was a regular for the GWV Rebels in 2024.
And then there’s a streamline of talent from Newtown & Chilwell’s under-18 three-peat, including Geelong Falcons graduates Noah Caracella – son of ex-Brisbane, Essendon and Collingwood star Blake, Edan Ibbetson and Ben Pennisi.
“It’s exciting for those players that have arrived at the club and given some real energy around the place and the fact that we can play some youngsters is exciting that they have transitioned through the junior program into the senior program,” Johnson said.
Newtown & Chilwell also has a new president at the helm in Aaron Keating, who replaced long-time president Shaun McWilliam late last year.
The club has been a powerhouse in netball, winning eight of the past 10 premierships including last season, and he hopes Johnson can lead a wave of success in football with their talented crop of youngsters.
“There’s a real buzz around the club, I think that is on the back of a little bit of change, but on the back of Steve Johnson coming in,” Keating said.
“We’re obviously successful over at netball, we’re the reigning premiers, so if we can make some gains on the football side, well I think where we’re on the path to something really good at the club.
“We’ve been starved of success in terms of football premierships, so it’d be to start to turn the momentum and head towards a partnership cup over the next few years.
“It’s definitely the plan to have sustained success.
That 18 to 22 (age group), our crop of talent there is one of the best across the league, I guess.
“So Steve’s really committed to nurturing and playing that young talent. His ability to teach and educate and improve the players – both young and old, because we’ve got some veterans in there too – it’s really nice to watch. He’s really articulate and can develop.”
After sliding to eighth on the ladder in 2024 after losing a host of key players in the 2023 off-season, Keating is confident the club will improve their fortunes under Johnson in 2025.
“I think we’re internally confident that we can improve on last year, what we can’t measure is how great that improvement will be,” Keating said.
“We definitely won’t go backwards, we’ll definitely improve. Do we scrape into the five, do we push top two? Do we only go from eight to seven or six? It’s hard to say.
“But we’re comfortable and confident with what we’ve seen through the pre-season.”
Originally published as Newtown & Chilwell coach Steve Johnson reflects on his first pre-season and hopes for 2025 and beyond
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