Johnson’s AFL flair his own idea

Freakishly talented Geelong AFL forward Steve Johnson says he gets no licence to thrill from coach Chris Scott and has to answer for it if his flair comes unstuck.

The triple-premiership forward was best afield with 36 touches, playing a roaming role against the Western Bulldogs last Friday night.

While he produced some dazzling moments, such as a reflex look-away handball which found its mark, Johnson said they were not the sort of acts Scott encouraged.

“He doesn’t give me a licence. He doesn’t come up to me and say ‘Stevie, you’re allowed to play on instinct totally,’” Johnson told One HD’s AFL Game Plan on Thursday night

“But I probably give it to myself at times.

“Sometimes it comes off and I look great.

“Other times I’m up in the review meeting on a Tuesday being asked ‘Stevie, what the hell have you done here?’

“Early on in the season, I probably wasn’t at my best, I’m starting to find a bit of form and the game’s coming to me a little bit more at the moment.”

Johnson was also confident the reigning premiers were returning to their best, despite sitting on a 5-4 record and having consistently lost the contested ball this year, an area they have excelled at in the past.

“We haven’t been playing our best football,” Johnson said.

“The question marks are raised for a reason, we take some things on board.

“But we think we’re going some way to fixing those things and we think another couple of wins and our confidence will grow and we’ll be back to the form we showed last year.”

The Cats play Greater Western Sydney at Simonds Stadium on Saturday.