Sugar and spice
Caroline Wilson
The Age
November 29, 2006
GIVEN his determination to escape the microscopic glare of AFL football in Adelaide, Kane Johnson admits now he was dismayed and not a little shocked by the state of affairs at Richmond when he arrived four years ago at the club he loved as a boy.
The inferior state of Tigerland compared with the Crows' sleek headquarters did not surprise him, but the poor work ethic that appeared to have infected Richmond's young players, not to mention the instability that began at board level and worked its way down, took Johnson aback.
"No one felt safe," Johnson said. "The place was jittery and coming from Adelaide, which was such a professional club and so thorough in everything it did, it was a bit of a shock.
"On the training track it stood out and I got pretty frustrated and became pretty vocal. I said things to people that maybe hit home. There were just too many blokes not having a crack or just doing the bare essentials and on the training track you just can't carry blokes.
"I'd come from a place that was so methodical and the attitude at training was just so different. It's cost us as a club for a few years."
In the four years that have passed, Johnson — known as Sugar to his teammates — has moved from frustrated newcomer to the least-publicised captain in the AFL. What makes his low profile even more remarkable is the fact that he is a dual premiership player and a club champion.
Richmond, he insists, has moved on too. "We are far more professional on the training track and Terry Wallace has had a bit to do with that, but I think it goes all the way to the top. (President) Gary March and (chief executive) Steven Wright have done a great job in making the board and the whole place a lot more stable.
"The most encouraging thing was when the new boys Graham Polak and Kent Kingsley came down at the start of pre-season and they said they couldn't believe how hard we trained."
Johnson has not spoken about his uncharacteristic lapse in professionalism, and he grimaces even now when asked about his faux pas of two months ago when, at the 2006 Jack Dyer Medal presentation, he paid tribute to a group of departing teammates and "outed" the yet-to-be-delisted Tom Roach, David Rodan and Jeremy Humm.
The club was attempting to find new homes for them — and potentially even trade at least two of the trio — and cringed during Johnson's speech. The player himself admitted it pretty much ruined his first best-and-fairest victory.
"I didn't hang around afterwards to celebrate," he said. "It had been a pretty stressful night anyway because of the prospect of winning, and I just felt shocking after I realised what I'd done. Despite what some people thought, the boys had already been told but I felt bad I might have hurt their chances of playing footy elsewhere.
"It was obviously a misunderstanding and I just went home and crawled into a big cave for the next week or so. I didn't read the papers or watch TV — I got (Channel Ten's) 'Tool of the Week' didn't I?"
What was underplayed was Johnson's successful adaptation — one he mentally resisted at first — from his role as an attacking midfielder to the defensive job at which he was so effective as a 19-year-old in 1997, when he played on Robert Harvey in the Adelaide-St Kilda grand final. The following year Malcolm Blight played him on Shannon Grant, and later Peter Bell, and that also proved successful. In 2006 the only midfielder to escape Johnson's clutches was Scott West.
"My first reaction when Terry first spoke to me about the change was, 'I did that when I was younger, I don't want to do it now' ," he said. "But I think I've got the role now and with Mark Coughlan coming back it should work OK. The next trick is to start attacking more as part of the job."
If his best-and-fairest gaffe can be counted as a mark against him, Johnson's only other brush with the controversy he so detests came six months after his first flag. Leaving an Adelaide nightclub in the early hours of a pre-season Saturday, he was punched by a man whose identity was never discovered, breaking his jaw and missing the start of the 1998 season. "I think it was a bad start for my relationship with the Adelaide media," Johnson said with a smile. "I wasn't starting a fight or anything but obviously I shouldn't have been there at that time and I hated the attention.
"Some players are good at that stuff. Nathan (Brown) likes it and enjoys it so that's good for him and probably good for me, so I tend to avoid it. I've got no interest in working in the media after football."
Johnson started his AFL career the way he hoped to go on. A 17-year-old apprentice electrician at the end of 1995, he worked on the day of the national draft on what was then the Crown Casino building site, calling his father during his lunch break to find out where football would take him.
Collingwood had indicated it would pick him in the first round but went for Simon Prestigiacomo instead, and it was not until pick 27 that the Crows called out the name of the boy from Croydon High School.
Although Johnson remains close to such former Adelaide teammates as Peter Vardy, Mark Ricciuto and Simon Goodwin, he is far happier to be back in his hometown. This week, he moved to a new home in St Kilda Road with his girlfriend Nicole DeBono and his father Alan, who has heart problems and for whom Johnson is the primary carer.
"I always wanted to come back to Melbourne," the 28-year-old said. "I couldn't live in Adelaide any longer. It was just football, football, football there and coming from Melbourne I just found it a bit too insular. Here, I can wander around without being noticed too often."
Johnson was on the verge of joining Richmond for the 2002 season but stayed at the Crows another year following a botched trade attempt involving Ben Holland.
Having grown up a passionate Richmond supporter, he was upset, but his value was enhanced by what he believes to be near career-best form in the first half of 2002 and an extra year working with Neil Craig, then an assistant coach, whom he described as "a brilliant one-on-one motivator".
But in the middle of 2002 his run was cut short when a fishbone became lodged in his bowel. Johnson missed several weeks, completed his time in Adelaide and finally crossed to Tigerland in a complicated swap including Wayne Carey, Jason Torney and — thanks to the AFL's punishment handed down to Carlton — the No. 2 pick in the national draft, with which the Kangaroos took Daniel Wells.
For all the raised eyebrows about the Tigers' sacrifice to get Johnson, they got not only a new leader but a consistent one; he finished runner up in the 2004 best-and-fairest before winning it this season.
"There's a big myth in footy that you've got to stay with a club all of your career," said John Reid, Adelaide football manager. "If we got the seven years out of all our recruits that we got from Kane, we'd be happy.
"I suppose the broken jaw incident mightn't have helped him in his thoughts about the media, but I think with Kane it was more the coverage we get at the Crows. We never train without the TV cameras on us and that mentality used to irritate him."
Wayne Campbell, the Richmond captain who retired at the end of 2004, removed himself from the process by which Johnson was chosen ahead of Joel Bowden, Matthew Richardson and Nathan Brown in a pre-season trial initiated by Wallace, which Johnson admitted was stressful.
But Campbell said Johnson was "the standout candidate".
"It was interesting when he was made captain and at his first press conference he was so impressive and everyone was so surprised because no one thought he was good at public speaking. It wasn't that at all. It was just that he chose not to do it," he said.
"When a player comes from a successful club you're all looking for the secret. He made us realise there is no secret, just a good group who worked very hard who had been together for the right amount of time."
Johnson disputes Campbell's positive assessment of his first year as captain.
"At Adelaide I never would have dreamt of the captaincy, but clearly once Wayne stepped down there was a lack of leadership at Richmond," he said. "That had been a problem and I found the process of being selected pretty nerve-racking. I think we were all exhausted by the end of it and then the season started.
"That first game (against Geelong in round one, 2005) I did not get near it and I don't feel I ever really got into the mode of being captain. This year I started by working at promoting other blokes to stand up like Brett (Deledio), Mark Coughlan and Chris (Newman). We've got some good young leaders now."
Having played in premiership teams at 19 and 20, Johnson never dreamt finals would become such a lean commodity.
He feels for teammates such as Richardson, the retired Campbell and Andrew Kellaway, that for all their efforts a flag has eluded them.
"In a couple of years we'll be ready to have a real go," he said. "I feel a bit bad for some of the blokes here. I was privileged. But if I could finish my career with just one more, if I could win one at the end, it would mean so much more. It would be perfect."
KANE IS ABLE
KANE JOHNSON
Age: 28
Height: 186 centimetres
Weight: 85 kilograms
Draft history: 1995 national draft second-round selection Adelaide, 2002 traded to
Richmond.
Player honours: 2006 best and fairest winner; runner-up best and fairest 2003, 2004;
Richmond captain since 2004; Adelaide premiership player 1997, 1998; Rising Star nominee 1997.
PLAYING HISTORY
■ Adelaide: 1996-2002, 104 games, 44 goals.
■ Richmond: 2003-, 76 games, 23 goals.
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