Mercurial forward Steve Johnson may not yet have played his last game in the AFL, with GIANTS coach Leon Cameron stating he intends to discuss a contract extension with the triple-premiership winner as early as next week.
Johnson missed the GIANTS' one goal preliminary final loss to the Western Bulldogs at Spotless Stadium on Saturday night, raising the spectre that his decorated career could be over.
However, Cameron suggested Johnson’s preparation, form and resilience warranted consideration in deciding the club’s playing list for 2017.
“We’ll have that discussion. It’s probably more likely than unlikely, I reckon. He’s obviously had a terrific year,” Cameron said.
“It’s disappointing he didn’t play tonight, but that’s life. He’s fit in well with our footy club. But this time of year’s always interesting because of the shifting and moving of players and we understand that it happens a lot more than it used to.
“So we’ll look at our list and say ‘Are we on the right track?’
“I feel as though we are definitely on the right track - we’ve made a prelim final, fell short by a goal.
“I’ll probably have that chat with him early next week, but it’s probably more likely than unlikely.”
Cameron said Johnson’s place at the club would be subject to the same considerations as any player.
“It’s like everything, you assess all your players,” he said.
“First you assess how their year panned out. Secondly, can they contribute in big games? Can he get through a pre-season? They’re the sort of things.
“We’ll chat about that early next week, but he’s had a good pre-season, he played some really good footy, he’s played 21 games I think, so he’s in pretty good shape.
“It’s disappointing we didn’t have him tonight, but we’ll assess probably a number of players as well.”
Asked about the impact of Johnson’s absence against the Bulldogs, Cameron said: “It’s a hard one because you can’t sit back and say ‘Well, if he’s there …’
“You could turn around and say, well, if Callan Ward plays the last two and a half quarters… and they could be saying the same about Roughy…. if they had Robert Murphy.
“The fact is that they beat us. We scrapped pretty well, turned it into a pretty good spectacle to watch for the fantastic crowd that turned up.
“But we lost the game.”
