Brad Johnson (born 18 July 1976) is a former Australian rules footballer who was the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of Australian Football League team

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the ...

. Despite his small size for his position, he was considered to be one of the best forwards in the game because of his overhead marking ability, and he also had the ability to play across half forward or in the midfield.

AFL career

Footscray/Western Bulldogs career

Johnson made his debut in the

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

season, and has been known as either a damaging forward or midfielder. Known as the "Smiling Assassin" due to the constant smile on his face, he is a popular figure around the club and has won three

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

awards – in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

and 2006. In 1996, Johnson along with the entire Footscray football club was filmed for the documentary Year of the Dogs, which was released in 1997. The documentary followed the turbulent 1996 season where the Dogs finished second last on the ladder. In 1997, Johnson and the Dogs had a good season. They finished third on the ladder and made it all the way to the preliminary final. In the preliminary final the Dogs faced the Adelaide Crows and led at the final break by five goals. In the fourth quarter the Crows made a stirring come back to win the game by 2 points. Johnson played in several other preliminary finals in his career, but never competed in a Grand Final. In 2000, Johnson was a part of the Bulldogs side that ended Essendon's winning streak of 20 games in the classic round 21 clash. The Dogs defeated the Bombers in a fierce contest by just 2 goals. Right on half-time Essendon player John Barnes turfed Johnson and left him concussed. This led to a vicious brawl between the teams. At the end of the game Johnson ran on the field and confronted Barnes, giving him the last word. The Dogs were the only team to beat Essendon that year, who would later go on to win the premiership. Johnson was the springboard in what many consider to be the greatest mark in the history of the AFL when Gary Moorcroft took the mark of the year in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

, earning him the nickname "Springboard". It is considered to be the greatest mark of all time by many, including in a 2021 AFL-run poll of more than 30,000 fans, where Moorcroft won with 25% of the vote. Johnson has represented Australia in

International Rules Football International rules football ( ga, Peil na rialacha idirnáisiunta; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was develop ...

in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003. In

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

, he kicked a Goal of the Year contender – an amazing soccer-style half volley from an extremely tight angle on the boundary line. Johnson has been selected in the

All-Australian Team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led by ...

in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007. In 2006 he was chosen as captain of the Bulldogs following the injury of

Luke Darcy Luke Darcy (born 12 July 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL) and now works for the Seven Network and Triple M covering the AFL and the Olympics. Early life ...

and also as captain of the All Australian Team. Under Johnson's leadership the Bulldogs made the finals for the first time since 2000. In their Elimination Final the Dogs defeated Collingwood by 41 points. They were knocked out in the Semi Finals by West Coast. Johnson capped off his 2006 season finishing second in the

Coleman Medal The Coleman Medal is an Australian rules football award given annually to the Australian Football League (AFL) player who kicks the most goals in the home-and-away season. It is named after Essendon full-forward John Coleman, one of the most ...

with 70 goals, an amazing feat considering that he had played the final 11 games of the season with a shoulder injury that later required surgery. In round one of the 2007 season Johnson kicked a career high eight goals against the eventual premiers, . Despite several impressive wins, the Dogs didn't make finals this year. He started the 2008 season against the Adelaide Crows in his 300th game and kicked five second-half goals, including three in the last seven minutes as the Bulldogs came out on top by three points. The Dogs continued this season with many impressive performances and even finished third on the ladder. Their remarkable season came to an end when they lost to a strong Geelong side in the Preliminary Final by just under five goals. That same year Johnson was selected to represent the Victorian football team in the

AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match The AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match was a one-off all-star game between two representative sides organised by the Australian Football League to celebrate the History of Australian rules football, 150th anniversary of Australian rules football. Th ...

. Although Johnson pulled out just weeks before the match. In his later seasons, Johnson twice had the misfortune of missing shots on goal after the final siren to win the game. In Round 9, 2008, against North Melbourne, Johnson missed a shot at goal from 35 metres out on a 45-degree angle. A year later in the same round, Johnson had the same opportunity but this time against the Geelong Cats from 10 metres in front of goal on a tight angle in which he also missed. The 2009 season was another marginally successful season for the Dogs under Johnson's captaincy. The Bulldogs for the second consecutive year finished third on the ladder. The Dogs played their final match in a Preliminary Final blockbuster against the Saints. Losing by just 7 points. On 1 August 2009, Johnson became the games record holder for the

. With 342 games he surpassed Chris Grant's old record of 341 games for the club. Johnson went on to play a total of 364 games for the

and as of 2022 remains the club's record holder for most games played. In 2010, whilst recovering from a previous injury Johnson, was struck by the club's drinks cart in training. His then manager Ricky Nixon later said that the resulting injury was worse than Johnson and the club let on and that it hastened the end of Johnson's career. On 6 September 2010, Johnson announced his retirement from AFL at the end of the 2010 season. Johnson played his final game on 18 September 2010, after the Bulldogs' second consecutive loss to St Kilda in a preliminary final. On 4 June 2014, Johnson was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, co ...

Playing positions

Brad Johnson regularly played as a half-forward flank; however, when he was heavily tagged or out of the play, he was able to play as a

forward pocket In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

or midfielder.

Statistics

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, style="text-align:center;", , 33 , , 9 , , 7 , , 7 , , 90 , , 24 , , 114 , , 23 , , 8 , , 0.8 , , 0.8 , , 10.0 , , 2.7 , , 12.7 , , 2.6 , , 0.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 21 , , 10 , , 9 , , 199 , , 91 , , 290 , , 78 , , 33 , , 0.5 , , 0.4 , , 9.5 , , 4.3 , , 13.8 , , 3.7 , , 1.6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 22 , , 14 , , 13 , , 264 , , 85 , , 349 , , 90 , , 20 , , 0.6 , , 0.6 , , 12.0 , , 3.9 , , 15.9 , , 4.1 , , 0.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 24 , , 16 , , 15 , , 375 , , 125 , , 500 , , 122 , , 25 , , 0.7 , , 0.6 , , 15.6 , , 5.2 , , 20.8 , , 5.1 , , 1.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 24 , , 29 , , 14 , , 330 , , 133 , , 463 , , 120 , , 26 , , 1.2 , , 0.6 , , 13.8 , , 5.5 , , 19.3 , , 5.0 , , 1.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 24 , , 26 , , 21 , , 382 , , 162 , , 544 , , 133 , , 22 , , 1.1 , , 0.9 , , 15.9 , , 6.8 , , 22.7 , , 5.5 , , 0.9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 21 , , 32 , , 16 , , 346 , , 121 , , 467 , , 120 , , 35 , , 1.5 , , 0.8 , , 16.5 , , 5.8 , , 22.2 , , 5.7 , , 1.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 22 , , 48 , , 32 , , 327 , , 109 , , 436 , , 124 , , 36 , , 2.2 , , 1.5 , , 14.9 , , 5.0 , , 19.8 , , 5.6 , , 1.6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 22 , , 44 , , 28 , , 334 , , 154 , , 488 , , 137 , , 47 , , 2.0 , , 1.3 , , 15.2 , , 7.0 , , 22.2 , , 6.2 , , 2.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 22 , , 42 , , 23 , , 335 , , 167 , , 502 , , 146 , , 40 , , 1.9 , , 1.0 , , 15.2 , , 7.6 , , 22.8 , , 6.6 , , 1.8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 21 , , 19 , , 24 , , 332 , , 120 , , 452 , , 133 , , 51 , , 0.9 , , 1.1 , , 15.8 , , 5.7 , , 21.5 , , 6.3 , , 2.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 22 , , 42 , , 23 , , 329 , , 139 , , 468 , , 149 , , 42 , , 1.9 , , 1.0 , , 15.0 , , 6.3 , , 21.3 , , 6.8 , , 1.9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2006 , style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 24 , , 74 , , 42 , , 332 , , 135 , , 467 , , 174 , , 30 , , 3.1 , , 1.8 , , 13.8 , , 5.6 , , 19.5 , , 7.3 , , 1.3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 21 , , 59 , , 26 , , 292 , , 114 , , 406 , , 165 , , 37 , , 2.8 , , 1.2 , , 13.9 , , 5.4 , , 19.3 , , 7.9 , , 1.8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 25 , , 50 , , 28 , , 331 , , 118 , , 449 , , 172 , , 37 , , 2.0 , , 1.1 , , 13.2 , , 4.7 , , 18.0 , , 6.9 , , 1.5 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 25 , , 37 , , 26 , , 353 , , 185 , , 538 , , 176 , , 66 , , 1.5 , , 1.0 , , 14.1 , , 7.4 , , 21.5 , , 7.0 , , 2.6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 6 , , 15 , , 9 , , 8 , , 170 , , 69 , , 239 , , 91 , , 14 , , 0.6 , , 0.5 , , 11.3 , , 4.6 , , 15.9 , , 6.1 , , 0.9 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 364 ! 558 ! 355 ! 5121 ! 2051 ! 7172 ! 2153 ! 569 ! 1.5 ! 1.0 ! 14.1 ! 5.6 ! 19.7 ! 5.9 ! 1.6

Honours and achievements

Individual *

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led by ...

, 2006 ( C),

* Charles Sutton Medal (Footscray F.C./Western Bulldogs B&F): 1999, 2002, 2006 * Footscray F.C./Western Bulldogs Leading Club Goalkicker Award: 2001, 2005-2008 * Australian Representative Honours in

* AFL Rising Star Nominee: 1995 (Round 7) * Footscray F.C./Western Bulldogs Captain: 2007–2010 * Footscray F.C. Team of the Century - Interchange

Media and personal life

Brad Johnson is married to Donna Johnson and they have two children, Ella and Jack. Johnson co-hosted children's AFL show '' Auskick'n Around'' on Fox Footy Channel with former

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their ...

captain

Matthew Lloyd Matthew James Lloyd (born 16 April 1978) is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A highly decorated full-forward, Lloyd's AFL's honours include b ...

before the show was cancelled at the end of 2005. Brad Johnson is currently the Mix 101.1 Resident Footy Expert on Friday Morning with

Brigitte Duclos Brigitte Duclos (born 13 December 1964) is an Australian television and radio presenter. Personal life Duclos, one of three sisters, was educated at Shelford Girls' Grammar. In December 2007, Duclos announced that she had split with husband ...

and Anthony Lehmann. He has also appeared as a panellist on the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australi ...

's '' AFL Game Day'' as well as on their coverage of the

2010 AFL Grand Final The 2010 AFL Grand Final was a series of two Australian rules football matches between the Collingwood Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club. They are considered the 114th and 115th grand finals of the Australian Football League (former ...

. After retirement Johnson made his debut for

3AW 3AW is a talkback radio station based in Melbourne. It broadcasts on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station. The station is owned and operated by Nine Entertainment Co. Histo ...

Football and

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

in season 2012. In 2013, he contributed to the website The Roar under the moniker of Johnno.Brad Johnson
The Roar In 2016, Johnson took part in the

EJ Whitten Legends Game The E. J. Whitten Legends Game was an annual Australian sports entertainment Australian rules football match. It is played for charity played as an all-star game. Retired star players are reunited, along with selected non-footballing celebriti ...

. He wore The Big V and was one of the best on ground, kicking 3 goals.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Brad 1976 births Western Bulldogs players Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Living people All-Australians (AFL) Victorian State of Origin players Charles Sutton Medal winners Williamstown Football Club players Western Jets players Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australia international rules football team players People from Hoppers Crossing, Victoria