WHEN people talk about how her husband has missed only two games through injury, Donna Johnson pictures Brad standing in their pool on a freezing cold winter night, or waking himself up every two hours to ice an ache or pain.
When Jake Landsberger hears similar talk, the Western Bulldogs' doctor remembers how well his captain combines a remarkable talent for healing with an even better attention to detail; how if Johnson has taken one anti-inflammatory tablet, he'll call to make sure he's allowed to take a second, and if it will make him feel better if he does.
And when Johnson's father, Bruce, hears about how his son was only ever dropped twice, he remembers him arriving home after it happened for the second time, certain it would never happen again.
It didn't. But if Johnson has followed a fortunate path to his 300th game today, he has made sure he's been lucky, partly through his positive nature and also because he has never really wanted to feel bad.
He was in his second season when he was dropped, and he felt more determined than disappointed. Johnson is a happy-go-lucky person and always has been, said his father. But he was still someone who decided which way the flow would go, before going with it. "He copes with things; he copes with life. If something doesn't make him happy, then he'll find a way to get a smile on his face," he said.
"He's always been like that. The first year he got drafted, he still went to school in Geelong. My wife would pick him up from the Hoppers Crossing station straight after school and take him to training, and there were never any complaints. He knew at an early age he had to program his life and make sure things were in order so he didn't feel pressured.
"Nothing's ever bothered him, but he's made sure of that. I can remember him coming home after he got dropped and his response was, 'I'll never be dropped again, Dad'. That's how he coped. He didn't let it get him down, he decided it wouldn't happen again because it didn't make him feel good."
On the football ground, his body has helped him. Landsberger learns soon after meeting a new draftee what his body will and won't cope with. He found out early on that Johnson had not only an ability to endure various injuries, but an ability to fully recover from them with incredible speed. He considers it like his ability to kick a goal, or outmark a bigger player — a talent.
More than once, the doctor has told the 31-year-old that he had a three-, four- or five-week injury — but that given his healing powers, he would probably miss only one match. It happened last year, when Johnson took only one week to recover from a hamstring strain that would have taken other players three or four weeks to overcome.
It happened in 2005, when Johnson badly injured his ankle in the final week of the pre-season. It was a four- or five-week injury for anyone but Johnson, who played in round one and kicked four goals. "People thought that was a significant injury and there was no way he would play in that game. And it was a significant injury," Landsberger said.
"But his ability to recover is nothing short of extraordinary. And that's partly because his priority is to get himself right. He wants to do things that are beneficial and he'll never do anything if he doesn't know it will help him. Even if he's iced something twice, he'll ring and say, 'I've iced twice, should I ice it again?'
"He does whatever needs doing, but I can't imagine ever being in a situation where I'm going to say to him, 'You're going to miss four or six weeks, without doubt'. That doesn't mean he's ever come back too early because he never has. He's never come back and we've rolled the dice too far and had a setback. When he comes back, he stays back."
Not everything has felt so controllable. Johnson was in Ireland with the All-Australian team in 2000 when his wife, who had been intermittently unwell for many months, got worse. It was the first time Bruce Johnson ever sensed his son was unsure and stressed out; back home, when Donna was diagnosed and with chronic fatigue syndrome, Johnson again did his best to remove the uncertainty.
"It was like we just got on with things. I know he was worried, but he just did things," she said. "Whether it meant doing things around the house or food shopping or whatever it was, he just lived his life and he lived my life, too. At stages, he was doing everything around footy as well as everything around home. At times, it freaked him out, but he had a real focus and that was just to get me back on track."
Football became Johnson's escape during that time, which is possibly why a few years later, when Donna was much better, that he felt it turn on him. During 2004, he got frustrated, or as much as he ever had been. He wasn't playing as well as he wanted, he wasn't sure why, and it was the one time he needed to talk and be talked to.
"He was very, very flat. It was only really to do with his football, but he went through a bad patch and it was probably the lowest I've ever seen him before," Donna said. "I was a bit shocked by it all and a bit worried, but we pretty much just talked it through and it came back to how much pressure he was putting on himself to be at the same level.
"He does so many things for other people, and he knows how to handle every situation and make people feel better, so it was good to see him work through something and look after himself. People call him resilient and he is, but if he doesn't like things, he changes them."
