Third AFL flag best for Cats’ Johnson

GEELONG AFL premiership hero Steve Johnson says Saturday’s grand final win over Collingwood was the sweetest victory of the three flags he has shared with the club.

The phenomenally-skilled forward, who was the Norm Smith Medallist in 2007 and also part of the 2009 premiership, faced a huge hurdle to play in the 38-point win over the Magpies.

Having badly wrenched his knee in the previous weekend’s preliminary final win over West Coast, Johnson admitted there were numerous times leading up to Saturday’s match that he doubted he would make it.

“Time after time. One day I’d feel like I was really improving and the next day I’d feel like there was no way I could possibly get up,” Johnson said, as the Cats celebrated with thousands of fans on Sunday.

“The doctors did a fantastic job and I didn’t leave any stone unturned in my preparation, to try to get up.

“I didn’t really find out until Saturday morning … I was more relieved than anything.”

Johnson looked untroubled by the injury during Saturday’s game, throwing himself into the contest and kicking a match-high four goals.

But he was struggling to walk on Sunday and faces a long rehabilitation period.

He said doctors had told him he would have been sidelined for four to six weeks had the injury occurred mid-season.

But Johnson insisted his effort to play in the decider was less courageous than it appeared.

He said having used pain-killing injections to make it through a fitness test on Friday, he had not doubted he could make it through the game in similar fashion.

“People could say it was courageous, but it wasn’t at all, because I couldn’t feel my knee,” he said.

“Once I got out there, I did honestly feel 100 per cent.

“I’d done a fitness test the day before and I trained with a couple of injections.

“Once I was numb I was able to go full tilt and I had great confidence that I’d be ok, as long as the next day the injections worked the same.

“I was sore without them, but there was no pain at all (with them), so I was really confident.”

Johnson said the feeling of victory outweighed that of the previous two flags, partly because it confirmed the Cats as the great club they believed they were.

“They just keep getting better and better, to be honest,” he said.

“When you win the premiership, it’s more about relief.

“You put so much hard work into getting yourself an opportunity and I suppose just this group of players, with how many games we’ve won, we really felt like we deserved another one.”

He did not expect to need surgery, just a long period of rest, although that will only come after some serious celebrating.

“I’ve just torn a few ligaments, so it will mend itself I think.

“I probably need to stay off it a little bit, which probably won’t happen in the next couple of days.”