Sacked: Brendan McCartney reveals how Geelong changed its approach after the Steve Johnson suspension
It was the line in the sand moment that may have saved Steve Johnson’s career. But would the Cats do it all over again? Brendan McCartney reveals why the club moved from only punishing players to realising they needed to support them.
Geelong
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Brendan McCartney has detailed the dramatic moment Geelong stars Steve Johnson and Paul Chapman came to blows at training, lauding Johnson’s stunning transformation into a Norm Smith Medallist.
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The long-time Cats assistant said while Geelong’s internal suspension of Johnson was the making of the star, the club also realised its own failings as it tried to support the mercurial goalsneak.
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Johnson and Chapman did not get along early in their careers, with Johnson writing in his biography that Chapman had an obsession with what he perceived to be his teammate’s selfishness.
The pair repaired their relationship in later years but McCartney told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast the 2009 incident between the pair showed how competitive each was.
“It boiled over a few times. There was one day at training where it was a good blue. It was fearsome and neither of them stepped back,” he said.
Were there punches thrown?
“Yeah, a multitude and they landed. And they looked at each other and went, ‘Righto, let’s get on with it’.
“Someone went over and said, ‘That’s enough, the ball is coming’.
“You don't get much time to think about it. Probably your first thought is that it’s not ideal, but then you think back and they are just two hard competitive people who were finding their own way of communicating.”
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“If he was in a good position but I didn’t give him the ball, he’d react with fury,” he wrote.
“‘You f***ing selfish c***’ was a phrase he directed my way on many occasions.
“He did this right throughout our glory years and I felt that I was one of the most unselfish players on our team during those years.”
Johnson was suspended for the early rounds of the 2007 season after being arrested that summer for public drunkenness and told he was on his last warning.
He returned in Round 6 to kick 49 goals and then win the Norm Smith Medal after predicting he would take out the award.
McCartney said the Cats moved from only punishing players to realising they needed to support them more.
“It was more the support that was offered as well, so I think we moved towards a club that had always challenged once another but the support wasn't there,” he said.
“Johno had enormous support from key coaches and players, then he understood he wasn't being judged as a human being. It was his behaviour and that was really important. He got his head around that, the talent was obvious, he kicked five in front of 90,000 in his second or third game.
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“He was urged to still be himself, but temper that a little bit. That resonated with him and a couple of us took him on little outings. We jumped in the car and took him to the races a couple of times and had a couple of cans on the way home, and quietly, that was important.
“He knew the challenge was there for him to build his career and move forward as a person, but there was incredible support behind it.
“We drafted Johnno because of his exuberance and Stevie's career sort of encapsulated around the freakish things he did, but he was hard, and a competitive beast. No one went harder at the ball. That was the non negotiable. If you played with us you cracked in and attacked the ball.”