Backyard Fantasy Is Played Out At Telstra Dome

The Age

Monday March 24, 2008

Jake Niall

The Bulldogs' skipper kicks three matchwinning goals in his 300th game.

BRAD Johnson could not recall a game in which he'd kicked the last three goals to win the Bulldogs the match. In his previous 299 matches, such a preposterous backyard fantasy had never occurred.

It happened yesterday. Or rather, Johnson made it happen. He booted the last three goals within the final 3 1/2 minutes.

He had a poor first half, then revived dramatically, bringing Easter analogies to mind. All his five goals were scored in the second half.

The Bulldogs, hitherto Adelaide's bunnies, won by three points. Not for the first time, Johnson was the player who most shaped the result.

The first and third of those last three goals seemed to fall into his lap, as if delivered by fate, mushy American scriptwriters or the footy gods. They were scored from the goal square because Johnson happened to be in the right spot, and somehow lost his opponent, Nathan Bassett.

"I was just lucky at the time," said Johnson of one of those goals, which came from a Brian Lake "floater", via the hand of Adelaide's Robert Shirley.

"Good players do that because they're still trying," said Chris Grant, Johnson's former teammate and captain, on how Johnno managed to find himself unoccupied twice in the final few minutes.

The last one was scored with one minute 21 seconds remaining. It put the Dogs a kick and a half ahead, and they wouldn't have hung on without it, and nearly didn't hang on with it. The fourth goal, from a lunging mark on the lead, had put them in front.

It turns out someone WAS watching over Johnson. At the Lockett end, above the fateful goal square, hung king-sized footy cards of the six Bulldogs to have played 300 games: the late E.J. Whitten, Doug Hawkins, Chris Grant, Rohan Smith, Scott West and Johnson, who has been in the trenches with four of that group.

West was out there in his 321st game, Grant and Dougie were in the stands, Smith was riding the boundary for Foxtel, but might as well have been a Bulldogs' runner - having addressed the players before the game and embraced his mate in what was, not unreasonably, more celebration than post-match interview.

No one is supposed to have a 300th game like Johnson's. Only 53 others have reached the milestone, and only 10 have made it to 350 matches.

Sam Newman played his 300th game for the Cats in his dressing gown, parked on the bench. A number of the 300-club were shepherded through, given a gold-watch year and gratis games - remember Mick Martyn's farcical finale at Carlton.

Johnson is at the other end of the scale, since he is still his club's best player - a fact that was dramatically underscored yesterday. Grant believes we could be watching the game's next (third) 400-game player.

Grant said Johnson, who does not turn 32 until mid-July, could "easily" play until he was 35.

"I reckon we're watching someone who'll go close to 400 games."

Whereas Grant's own body declined in his last few seasons, and Scott West, despite continued high standards, is showing signs of worn tyres, Johnson has what Grant described a "a very young body". Johnson has maintained both his speed and spring, and having missed only half a dozen games since 1994, has been spared significant injuries.

And, as Grant sagely observed, Johnson is still playing as a de facto key forward, and hasn't yet reached the point where he's been consigned to a forward pocket, in the manner of "Kevin Bartlett finishing his career".

Where does Johnno rank among that pantheon of 300-game Bulldogs? Grant said he was "getting there" as the best he'd played with, which included the more sublime Hawkins. "Hawk did things that were pretty special. Johnno's coming down to will now, Johnno winning games off his own boot out of will and desire and determination."

What is more relevant - and potentially troubling for the Dogs - is the fact that Johnson is still the man who gets them over the line. "That's not what they want," said Grant of the reliance on this 182-centimetre key forward. "That's not what Rocket (Eade) wants, that's probably not what Brad would want."

While unfailing decent and co-operative, Johnson shared few insights after game. He "just wanted the win", adding: "It turned out to be one of the best games I've ever played in."

None of the other 299 was quite like it.

© 2008 The Age

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