Dogged by doubters, but Johnson won't roll over

[The Coon Dog]

Rohan Connolly - The Age - 5 March

ANY AFL player the wrong side of 30 will tell you that it takes only an injury or a few poor games in a row for every man and his dog to start throwing the "R" word around.

It hasn't really been a problem for Western Bulldogs captain Brad Johnson, though. His incredible consistency, a triple best and fairest winner and placed seven times, fourth last year at the age of 33, six-time All-Australian, etc., etc., has been remarkable.

No more so than his durability, however. Johnson played nine games in his first AFL season all the way back in 1994. Since the beginning of 1995, he has played 340 of a possible 346 games. Unbelievable. Indeed, as Johnson has got older he's got even more durable, missing just two games in the past nine seasons.

Article in full... (http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/dogged-by-doubters-but-johnson-wont-roll-over-20100304-plr9.html)

[Mofra]

Genetic freak. He should donate his body to science when he departs.

[The Pie Man]

What's this part in reference to?

''People can write what they like about Barry Hall, and Leigh Matthews can say what he likes on telly, but I'll keep saying it: Barry Hall's going to fit in with us, we're not fitting in with Barry.

[Hotdog60]

I think it refers to Leigh Matthews saying that last year we were the highest scoring team with a multi-pronged attack and now with Bazza it will change our forward structure and more ball will go to Barry. He mentioned this numerous times during last weekends match.

[comrade]

Cop that Lethal!

[chef]

Cop that Lethal!

I always get the feeling that he doesn't like the Dogs, whether that's because of Aker or something else I don't know.

[LostDoggy]

****''People can write what they like about Barry Hall, and Leigh Matthews can say what he likes on telly, but I'll keep saying it: Barry Hall's going to fit in with us, we're not fitting in with Barry. He commands the ball because he leads so well and gets to the right spots, but even if he doesn't kick a lot of goals, he'll be able to take a lot of pressure off Brad, Mitch Hahn and Robert Murphy because of his strength and leading ability. Barry can play up the ground, too. He'll just fit in with our system, which is it doesn't mattter who kicks the goals******
That's the part of the article I really liked.
Rocket giving Leigh Matthews the "Bird"