Former Geelong star Steve Johnson has defined how he cheekily tricked coach Mark ‘Bomber’ Thompson into letting him return every week early from a club-imposed suspension in 2007.
Johnson was exiled from the membership in the beginning of the season after a sequence of off-field indiscretions left his profession effectively and really hanging within the stability.
After a number of weeks of arduous work turning his life round, Johnson instructed 3AW’s Footy: Then and Now podcast he thought he’d strive his luck throughout a gathering with Thompson earlier than the membership’s Spherical 6 conflict with Richmond.
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“I used to be suspended for six weeks however we had been two (wins) and three (losses) and I went into Bomber Thompson’s workplace and mentioned ‘I feel the suspension mentioned I may very well be again in Spherical 6’ and he mentioned ‘yep, that is proper’ (and) I used to be in,” Johnson mentioned.
He kicked two objectives and had 21 disposals in his return because the Cats thumped the Tigers by 157 factors.
Geelong did not lose once more till Spherical 21, when Port Adelaide snuck over the road towards the Cats by 5 factors at Kardinia Park.
Regardless of the defeat, Johnson mentioned it wasn’t the Energy who the Cats seen as their greatest menace heading into the finals that 12 months.Â
“I in all probability thought it was Collingwood and the preliminary remaining in all probability speaks to that,” Johnson mentioned.
“That was the most effective video games of soccer I’ve ever been concerned in, the most effective environment I’ve ever performed in entrance of – Collingwood, prelim remaining, about 98,000 (followers) there on the MCG and we had been in a position to simply recover from the road.
“I feel that was one factor that was additionally fairly essential for us – we had a very robust recreation the week earlier than the grand remaining.
“Typically, you may have a neater kind of recreation and suppose you are going higher than you’re.
“They (Collingwood) actually challenged us and I feel they had been in all probability the second greatest workforce that 12 months.”
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Johnson’s ideas had been justified, with the Cats destroying the Energy by a file 119 factors within the grand remaining the next week.
In a outstanding redemption story, Johnson received the Norm Smith Medal as the most effective participant on the bottom that day.
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