How Geelong champ Steve Johnson revolutionised kicking at goal in the AFL

In the realm of innovation, some ideas emerge suddenly, like a flash of inspiration, presenting themselves to the world in an entirely new form. However, there is another type of innovation that requires a keen observer to discover existing things and transform them, giving them new life. Steve Johnson's around-the-corner shot, later dubbed the "J-curve," falls into the latter category.

This kicking technique is often used for shots from tight angles. The player kicks the ball with their right foot across their body, effectively widening the shooting angle by imparting forward and lateral spin, causing the ball to curve in the air from right to left. Steve Johnson's goal against Melbourne in 2011 is a prime example of the "J-curve." Despite the constant innovation and development in Australian Rules Football, the most basic skill—kicking—has seen little change in the past half-century.

By the 1970s, early popular kicking styles—the punt kick and the drop punt—had gradually faded into history, and the set shot punt had long disappeared. While it's impossible to pinpoint who invented the drop punt, it's certain that by the 1930s, legends like Jack Dyer of Richmond were already using it. As early as the 1910s, Collingwood players began using a stab kick, which was essentially the same as a drop punt, but with a shorter follow-through, used for short, quick passes.

For the past 50 years, the drop punt has been the most common kicking style in Australian Rules Football, for obvious reasons: the backspin on the ball allows it to travel further and more accurately, and this kicking style is also more forgiving than the punt kick. The torpedo punt is occasionally used by players seeking greater distance, but unlike the reliable drop punt, it's difficult to execute consistently. Banana kicks are becoming increasingly rare as players become more adept at around-the-corner shots with their non-preferred foot.

The around-the-corner shot is the biggest revolution in Australian Rules Football kicking since the drop punt became the mainstream kicking style. And all of this is thanks to one man. Johnson was one of the most exciting players to watch in the AFL in the first two decades of this century. He was often described as mercurial, but that word masked his consistent excellence. In his 253 games for Geelong (including three premierships and the 2007 Norm Smith Medal) and 40 games for GWS, Johnson established himself as a legendary midfielder and forward.

In 2011, he became the last player in the AFL to average more than 20 disposals and 2 goals per game in a season—he also did it in 2008—testament to his ability to win games single-handedly. Over his career, Johnson kicked five or more goals in a game 17 times, and many of his 516 goals were kicked with his signature J-curve.

Around-the-corner shots have always been a part of Australian Rules Football. Kicking across the body is obviously the preferred option if a player is moving parallel to the goals or a teammate, or if they're under pressure and can't get their body straight. But before Johnson's innovation, it was generally only used in general play, or when players continued running to shoot at goal to open up the angle. Blair Campbell did this for Richmond as early as 1968. Johnson's genius was realizing that the around-the-corner shot was a more accurate method for set shots from tight angles.

Remarkably, the idea came to him when he was just 10 years old, inspired by Collingwood legend Peter Daicos. Johnson told ABC Sport, "He was the king of the freak kick when he played in the '80s and '90s. I'd spend hours practicing dribble kicks, practicing kicking drop punts into the basketball ring in my backyard, and practicing kicking around-the-corner kicks at the basketball ring."

When Johnson returned to his hometown of Wangaratta to play, he would always kick around-the-corner shots. He said, "It originated from me practicing shots on the boundary line at the local footy ground when I was a kid. When you go to local footy grounds for quarter-time or half-time kick-to-kick, you rarely see kids lining up from 20 meters out directly in front."

"I was the same—I'd just go straight to the boundary line. But when I was shooting from the boundary line, I'd never line up like I was kicking a drop punt. I'd just line up to kick around the corner, side-on to the goals." For those who support Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000-hour rule," Johnson could be the poster child for the argument.

"I got really good at it because I basically had a footy in my hand every minute of every day," he said. "That's what I did: I went to footy training; I went to the local footy ground on the weekend, and I did the same at school—I'd kick the footy at lunchtime." "So, I got really good at kicking around the corner, and I had a really good technique. Honestly, I was as good on my left as I was on my right, and that was purely because I put so much practice into doing it on both feet."

Johnson says he didn't overthink what he was doing, saying it just felt instinctively right. It wasn't until later that he realized that an around-the-corner shot from a stationary position was actually more reliable than a drop punt from the boundary line. Johnson says the beauty of the kick is its predictability, and as he became more proficient through thousands of hours of practice, its accuracy also increased.

"I probably put a bit of thought into it and thought, 'What's the best option?'" he said. "I knew that basically anywhere inside the boundary line, if I kicked around the corner and lined up properly, I was probably kicking a goal eight or nine times out of ten. Whereas if I kicked a drop punt, it was probably only a 50-50 chance." He says the around-the-corner shot is more predictable because it's more forgiving than the drop punt.

"You can drop the ball slightly lower, and you'll basically still hit the spot on the ball perfectly every time," he said. "And you're actually hitting a more forgiving spot on the ball, because you're hitting more of the belly of the ball, even if it's underneath it. You can also impart curve on the football and get it to spin and get some bend on it." Over the years, he constantly refined his technique, making it consistent on both his left and right feet.

The key was using his guide hand (the hand on the same side as the kicking foot) to cradle the bottom of the ball, which gave him more control over the drop, allowing him to place the ball closer to his foot. The football would be angled toward his left hip, while he would position his body at a 90-degree angle to the goals, stepping out two steps and then kicking. "I just needed to drop the ball like it was in the same spot and kick up through it, and the ball would swing back into the goals," he said.

As it turns out, he had a physiological quirk that benefited his kicking. "I was born with one leg slightly longer than the other, and I needed a lot of adjustments and chiropractic work when I was a kid because my femurs, the way my legs went into my hips, they went in at an angle," Johnson said. "So, if I swung my leg back, my leg would also swing back at a slight angle, it wouldn't swing back straight."

"So, the way I rotated to kick the footy, it was more natural for me to kick across my body. My body was actually better suited to kicking around the corner than probably anyone else's." Steve J got the chance to test the theory. The kick had been perfected. All that remained was the opportunity to try it in an AFL game. Despite Johnson's proficiency at kicking around the corner, he didn't use it in the AFL for the first few years of his career because he feared criticism if he tried it and missed.

But eventually, his confidence in his ability to execute the kick overcame his doubts, and it was a few years into his career, in a game against Carlton. It was most likely in Round 8 of 2005—Johnson's fourth year in the AFL—that he found himself with a set shot opportunity in the left forward pocket. "I thought it was the perfect spot for me to kick. It was 30 meters out; it was a pretty tight angle, but it wasn't on the boundary line," he said.

"It was definitely a position where most players would kick a drop punt and be happy to get it close." Should he kick a 50-50 drop punt, but have the peace of mind of knowing he wouldn't be criticized if he missed? "Or should I try this kick that I'm nine times out of ten going to kick? But if I miss... yeah, the world might fall apart," he said. He decided to give it a go.

"So, I went back to the mark, and then I walked in, looking at the man on the mark, and then side-on to the goals and the man on the mark," Johnson said. "That's probably when everyone at the ground and everyone watching on TV was thinking, 'What the hell is he doing?' We'd never seen that before." Johnson went through with his routine and kicked the goal, and then a few minutes later, he kicked another set shot around the corner with his left foot from the other pocket.

It was arguably the first time in the 150-year history of the AFL/VFL that someone had lined up for a shot without facing the goals directly. Now set shot around-the-corner kicks are so common that we forget how foreign it looked when Johnson first deliberately lined up at right angles to the target. "I remember there being some discussion about it (after the game). But there would have been a lot more discussion if I'd missed," he said.

"I was taking a risk and doing something different. As I said, I probably looked like, you know, 'This kid's got a high level of confidence, a high opinion of himself, he's trying to do something to show off.'" "But that certainly wasn't the case. This had been brewing for 10, 15 years, and I was just doing what I thought was the best option." Johnson's conviction didn't stop the critics—especially when other players started using the around-the-corner kick for set shots.

"When it started to become popular and players started to do it, not everyone had done enough repetitions, not everyone had refined what their technique should look like," he said. "I was looking at what they (the commentators) were looking at and almost thinking, 'You know what, he's got a bit of a point, because that player hasn't done it right.'" "If they knew how to do it properly, you could change the minds of those professionals who are stuck in their era."

Jordan Clark, when kicking around the corner, has the guide hand on top of the ball, which has led to some terrible misses. Johnson says he can predict whether a player will successfully kick an around-the-corner shot by the way they line up and how they hold the ball. "A lot of players, if you see them lining up and the ball's horizontal, you know they're probably going to miss to the right of the goals because the ball's going to drift slightly before they hit it," he said.

Similarly, he says he sometimes sees players adjust their angle to the goals, which means they're likely to miss on the narrow side of the goals. "Whereas I knew that the way I held the ball and the way I was at 90 degrees to the goals, I just needed to drop the ball like it was in the same spot and kick up through it, and the ball would swing back into the goals," he said. "But if they step to the left, their 90 degrees to the goals might be the left goalpost, so they've got to guess somewhere between the bottom of the ball and the belly of the ball, which is really hard to do."

Passing on the knowledge to other forward stars. The kick—and the technique—slowly became the preferred method for shots from tight angles, starting with his Geelong teammates. "It became something that I was really good at, and then you know, obviously we'd have kicking competitions after training, and other players started lining up and practicing it in exactly the same way," he said.

"Over the years, (I) certainly taught a lot of players what I tried to do technically to make sure that you know you could execute it. Guys like Paul Chapman was a great around-the-corner kick. Tom Hawkins was the same, James Podsiadly, you know, obviously all my forward-line teammates." "Then I went to GWS and tried to share some knowledge with those players, and Toby Greene became a great around-the-corner kick, Jeremy Cameron became a great around-the-corner kick."

"Now, they probably would have become great around-the-corner kicks anyway, but I certainly helped improve their technique." He says the best around-the-corner kick in the game at the moment is Hawthorn's Luke Breust. As for who coined the term "J-curve," Johnson credits legendary commentator Dennis Cometti. "One day in commentary he said: 'Here he comes: Steve Johnson with the J-curve'," he said.

He's proud that something he pioneered has now become an accepted part of the game. "I was the first person to do it, so when I see that, yeah, it makes you feel a little bit special," he said. "Just because I'm a footy nut, and I wasn't trying to do something completely different to change the game." "I was just doing something because I probably had a footy in my hand more than any kid in history, so I developed something that has now become normal."

"So, the pride comes from leaving a little bit of a legacy in a game that you love." It took 50 years for Johnson's intuitive spark to create a new kicking style in Australian Rules Football, which begs the question of whether there are any more innovations to come into the game. "Yeah," Johnson says without hesitation, "there's another kick. Yeah." He calls it the "sliced banana." But that's another story.