IN HIS fifth game at the MCG since Geelong won last year's grand final and he was judged best afield, Steve Johnson was channelling Norm.

Norm Smith, that is, the football legend whose name is cast on one of football's most prestigious individual prizes.

The pigeon-toed Cat, whose socks are only ever down, played a very different game yesterday to the 23-possession, four-goal match he turned on for the season's climax last year.

And a glance at his final stats, without watching how Geelong's qualifying final against St Kilda unfolded, would suggest a performance that was good without being overly so. Johnson kicked a single goal and two of his teammates scored three each, but afterwards, one of them, Cameron Mooney, rated his smaller offsider as the undisputed best-performing forward in his team.

At half-time, Jimmy Bartel was clearly the player excelling most, but a strong case could be mounted that Johnson was having just as much influence on the match. Saints coach Ross Lyon indicated as much by ordering at least six changes of opponent for him before the main break — Sam Gilbert was handed the job first and the baton would later be passed between Sam Fisher, Brendon Goddard, Xavier and Raphael Clarke.

Johnson had the final's first goal-scoring opportunity and, free in a forward pocket, he skirted the boundary line, took a bounce and with trademark casualness missed. A few minutes later, he marked in front of Gilbert, chose to play on rather than pause, and saw his shot for goal rushed over the line. In both instances, Johnson's shuffling approach would have drawn criticism for being too cute. But it was in between Geelong's forward thrusts that he was doing some of his best work. During the second term, Johnson brought Nick Riewoldt to a thumping halt after tackling him to the ground and, 18 minutes in, he kicked across his body — it seemed the only method of passing by foot he was prepared to employ yesterday — to set up Mooney for his second goal.

Bad-boy-turned-good had a new poster boy last September when Johnson produced his on-field heroics on the biggest stage only months after being banished from his club for unruly off-field behaviour. The script hasn't got the same ingredients this year, but Mooney doesn't think it makes for any less of a story. "I rate his season this year higher," Mooney said in the Cats' dressing rooms last night.

"I don't think he's been getting the accolades, but it's probably because he's played a full season, he hasn't come back from a suspension and so no one's looking for the Cinderella story.

"He's been running his opponents into the ground, his possessions are up — I think he's averaging close to 18 possessions a game or 20 possessions, that's huge for a half-forward — and I think right now, he's one of our most influential players.

"I don't know how many assists he had today — he gave me about two or three — but from the moment the ball bounced, his work-rate was just massive and he was up and down the ground all day. When he does all that kind of stuff, he basically links play up. He's so creative and I thought he was quite exceptional today."