Paul A. Johnson (born 26 June 1984) is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er currently listed with the

East Perth Football Club The East Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Royals, is an Australian rules football club based in Leederville, Western Australia, current playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). Formed in 1902 as the Union Football Club, the club ...

in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

(WAFL). He previously played senior matches with the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

, the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

, and the

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawt ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL), the

Swan Districts Football Club The Swan Districts Football Club, nicknamed the Swans, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The club is based at Bassendean Oval, in Bassendean, an eastern suburb ...

in the WAFL, and the

Sandringham Football Club The Sandringham Football Club, nicknamed The Zebras, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne which was formed in 1929 and plays in the Victorian Football League (VFL) which was formerly called the Victorian Football Association ...

and the

Box Hill Football Club Box Hill Hawks Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the Victorian Football League. It has an alliance with the Hawthorn Football Club, which plays in the Australian Football League. Early Australian rules football in B ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL). Johnson was the winner of the 2005 J. J. Liston Trophy, as well as the 2012

Simpson Medal The Simpson Medal is an individual prize awarded for Australian rules football in Western Australia. The medal has been donated by Dr Fred Simpson and family since 1945. Simpson Medals are currently awarded to the following players: *The best pla ...

as the best player in an interstate match for

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Football career

Originally from the Australian state of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Johnson played under-18 football for the

Dandenong Stingrays The Dandenong Southern Stingrays are an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. 1992 saw the birth of the Southern Stingrays, developed under the leadership of Steve Kennedy (Regional Ma ...

in the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victo ...

before being drafted by the West Coast Eagles with the 24th pick overall at the 2002 National Draft. As part of West Coast's affiliation with WAFL clubs, Johnson was selected to play matches for the

. Making his debut for Swan Districts in the first round of the 2003 season, strong form playing mainly at

centre half-forward In Australian rules football, the centre half-forward is a position on the half-forward line of a football field. The directly opposing player is a centre half-back. Royce Hart of the Richmond Football Club and Wayne Carey of the North Melbour ...

led to Johnson making his debut for West Coast in round five of the

2003 season 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

, in the

Western Derby The Western Derby () is the name given to the Australian rules football match between the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers, who both participate in the Australian Football League (AFL). As both teams are based in Perth, the capital ...

match against . In the game, which was to be his only game for West Coast at AFL level, he recorded one disposal, a

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

, and one tackle.Paul Johnson
– AFL Tables. Retrieved 26 May 2012. Having played a total of 32 games and kicked 41 goals over two seasons at Swan Districts without gaining another opportunity at AFL level, Johnson was traded to the Melbourne Football Club during the trading period at the end of the 2004 season, in exchange for the 29th pick in the National Draft. Making his debut for Melbourne in round seven of the 2005 season, against , Johnson played a total of eight games in his first season with the club, as a back-up ruckman behind Jeff White. However, he played 14 games for Melbourne's affiliate club in the VFL, Sandringham, and at the end of the season was awarded the J. J. Liston Trophy as the

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 ...

player in the league, having tied with the

Tasmanian Devils The Tasmanian devil (''Sarcophilus harrisii'') (palawa kani: purinina) is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae. Until recently, it was only found on the island state of Tasmania, but it has been reintroduced to New South Wales in ...

Ian Callinan Ian David Francis Callinan Order of Australia, AC King's Counsel, KC (born 1 September 1937) is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. Education Born in Casino, New South Wales, Cal ...

on 16 votes, including five

best on ground In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

efforts. Johnson also played in the club's premiership win over

Werribee Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham local government area. Werribee recorded a population of 50,027 at the 2021 census. Werribee i ...

. He played two games for Melbourne early in the season, including a two-goal game against in round four, but missed the rest of the season due to a shoulder injury which required a shoulder reconstruction.Paul Johnson
– Demonwiki. Retrieved 26 May 2012. Johnson was used mainly as a second ruckman throughout his time at Melbourne, and was delisted at the end of the 2010 season having played a total of 68 games for the club. After his delisting in 2010, Johnson was asked to join Hawthorn's pre-season training squad as one of three players competing for an extra spot on the club's

rookie list The rookie list is a means for Australian Football League (AFL) clubs to maintain additional players outside the 38-man primary or senior list. Rookie listed players are not eligible to play in AFL home-and-away or finals matches unless they are e ...

. He was eventually selected to join the list, but was forced to miss eight weeks at the start of the season due to a stress fracture in his foot. Johnson was upgraded to Hawthorn's senior list in May 2011, after injuries to key position players and strong form for the club's affiliate in the VFL, Box Hill. He played his first and only game for Hawthorn against in round 24 of the 2011 season, becoming one of a small group of players to have played with three or more clubs. After being delisted at the end of the 2011 season, Johnson trained with Hawthorn in an attempt to again win a spot on the

, but was not selected. Following this, he was recruited by East Perth in the WAFL. In May 2012, he was named in the state squad for the match against the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

, and was later awarded the

as the best player on the ground for Western Australia. In the following years' state game, against the VFL, Johnson was named captain of the team.Paul Johnson Named WA Captain
– East Perth Football Club. Retrieved 24 June 2013.

References

External links

*
Melbourne Football Club player profileWest Coast Eagles player profileWAFL playing statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Paul 1984 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Box Hill Football Club players Dandenong Stingrays players East Perth Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club players J. J. Liston Trophy winners Living people Melbourne Football Club players Sandringham Football Club players Swan Districts Football Club players West Coast Eagles players Casey Demons players

Football career

See also

References

External links