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Veteran Greater Western Sydney forward Steve Johnson revealed his troublesome knee is feeling better than it has for around 20 weeks, after he bagged his biggest goal haul for six years in Saturday’s semi-final win over West Coast.
The recalled Geelong triple-premiership player player only touched the ball three times in the first half, at Spotless Stadium, but kicked six goals in the second.
Playing his final season, 34-year-old Johnson has missed several games with knee soreness and booted just 15 goals in 16 games.
Johnson was dropped for last week’s qualifying final against minor premiers Adelaide, but a season-ending injury to key forward Jeremy Cameron opened up a spot for Johnson.
He benefited from playing in the scratch match against the Crows for players, who missed out on the Adelaide Oval game.
“My knee has probably been the best in the last week or two it’s been for 20 weeks,” Johnson said.
“I’m really just riding it till the end, but tonight has been the turning point for me, that’s all I needed and I can go into next week confident again.
“I think the boys will move on from this game really quickly and obviously there’s a buzz around the changing rooms.
“But (Giants’ coach Leon Cameron’s) message was ‘enjoy it’, get the pats on the back, but tomorrow we’ve got to be thinking about Richmond because they’ve been in red-hot form.”
Johnson acknowledged he struggled to impact on the game in the first half on Saturday.
“At halftime I knew I’d probably had only three or four touches,” Johnson said.
“I felt like I was moving around the ground alright, but got caught in between a little bit and I think in that second half, I sort of found myself trying to get a little bit deeper, just so the ball wasn’t quite passing me.
“At least I gave myself every chance of being involved in the play and probably got on the end of one through a stoppage and then the next one came.
“I was really able to score on the back of some pretty good ball movement.”
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