Australian Football

Chris Johnson was a footballer of the highest calibre who had a noteworthy career with two AFL clubs.

Fitzroy drafted him from Victorian under eighteen club Northern Knights and from 1994 to 1996 he hardly missed a game, playing a total of 59 and kicking 67 goals. When the Lions underwent an ostensible merger with Brisbane in 1997 Johnson was one of eight Fitzroy players to travel north. After initially struggling to settle he developed into one of the finest defenders in the competition. (Prior to joining Brisbane he had occupied a number of different roles.)

Boasting excellent all round skills he also displayed considerable, usually well harnessed aggression and was a fine overhead mark. His runs out of defence could be electric. When Brisbane claimed a hat trick of flags between 2001 and 2003 Chris Johnson made a significant all round contribution. Named as an AFL All Australian in 2002 and 2004 just about the only blot on his otherwise flawless copybook came not in Australian football but the hybrid code sometimes called ‘International Rules’ engaged in by teams representing Australia and Ireland. In 2005 Johnson was appointed co-captain of the Australian team which took on the Irish in two Test matches, during the second of which Johnson instigated a brawl involving large numbers of players from both teams. He was suspended for five tests, but by the time the ban expired he had retired as a player. The Brisbane phase of his career saw him play 205 AFL games and kick 105 goals between 1997 and 2007.

The esteem in which Chris Johnson was held as a footballer was emphatically affirmed in 2005 when he was selected in a back pocket in the official Indigenous ‘Team of the Century’.

Author - John Devaney