In the realm of innovation, some innovations seem to spring from nowhere—an idea suddenly emerges and ultimately becomes a completely new creation. However, there are also innovations that require someone to see what already exists and adapt it, breathing new life into it. This process of adaptation and refinement often leads to unexpected breakthroughs.
Read Also...:
World Athletics Indoor Championships 2025: Who is competing, how to watch & key timings
03-21, 2025
Bulgaria 1-2 Republic of Ireland: Republic can do 'a little better' after Bulgaria win - Hallgrimsson
03-21, 2025
Emma Raducanu: Vladimir Platenik coach partnership ended over 'stress and pressure'
03-21, 2025
Salford beat Giants for first Super League win
03-21, 2025Steve Johnson's around-the-corner banana kick—later dubbed the "J-curve"—falls into the latter category. This kicking style is often used when shooting from tight angles. The player kicks the ball around their body with their right foot, effectively opening up the shooting angle by imparting forward and side spin, causing the ball to curve in the air from right to left. Johnson's goal against Melbourne in 2011 is a prime example of the "J-curve" in action, showcasing its effectiveness and precision.
Despite the constant innovation and evolution of Australian Rules football, the game's most fundamental skill—kicking—has changed very little over the past half-century. By the 1970s, the early standard kicking styles—the punt kick and the flat punt—were gradually phased out, and the drop punt became dominant. 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, solidifying its place in the game.
For the past 50 years, the drop punt has been the most common kicking style in Australian Rules football, for obvious reasons: the backspin imparted on the ball allows it to be kicked further and more accurately, and the margin for error with this kicking style is lower than with the punt kick. The torpedo punt is occasionally used when players are chasing greater distance, but unlike the reliable drop punt, this kicking style is difficult to execute consistently. Banana kicks for goal have become less common as players have become more adept at using their non-preferred foot to curve the ball. The around-the-corner banana kick is the biggest change to Australian Rules football kicking since the drop punt became the game's staple. And it's all thanks to one man, who refined and popularized the technique.
Johnson was one of the greatest performers in the AFL during the first two decades of this century. He was often described as "mercurial," but that word masked his consistent brilliance. In his 253 games for Geelong (including three Grand Final victories and the 2007 Norm Smith Medal), and 40 games for GWS, Johnson established himself as a legend in the midfield and forward line. In 2011, he became the last player in the AFL to average over 20 disposals and 2 goals a game in a season—he also did it in 2008—a testament to his ability to win games with his feet. Throughout his career, Johnson kicked five or more goals on 17 occasions, and many of his 516 goals were scored with his unique J-curve kick.
The around-the-corner kick has always been a part of Australian Rules football. Kicking sideways is obviously preferable if a player is moving parallel to the goals or a teammate, or if they are under pressure and unable to straighten their body. But before Johnson's innovation, this kicking style was only used in general play, or when players were running around to open up the angle for a shot at goal. Blair Campbell was doing this for Richmond as early as 1968. Johnson's genius lay in realizing that the banana kick was a more accurate way of taking set shots from tight angles, transforming it from a situational technique into a strategic weapon.
"When he was playing in the '80s and '90s, he was the king of the fancy kick," Johnson told ABC Sport about his idol, Collingwood legend Peter Daicos. "I would spend hours and hours practicing dribble kicks, practicing putting drop punts through the basketball ring in my backyard, and banana-ing the ball towards the basketball ring." When Johnson went to watch football games in his hometown of Wangaratta, he would always kick banana kicks. "It stemmed from me practicing kicking on the boundary line at the local footy ground as a kid," he said. "When you go to quarter-time or half-time shootouts, you rarely see kids lining up from 20 meters out, directly in front of goal. "I was no different—I would go straight to the boundary line. But when I shot from the boundary line, I never set up like I was going to kick a drop punt. I would set up straight away to kick a banana kick, side on to the goals."
For those devotees of Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000-hour rule," Johnson is perhaps a prime argument. "I got really good at it because I basically had a football in my hands every minute of every day," he said. "That's what I did: I went to footy training; I went to local footy games on the weekend, and I did the same thing at school—I was kicking goals at lunchtime. "So, I got really good at kicking banana kicks, and I had a really good technique. "I could honestly kick it just as good on my left as I could on my right, just because I practiced it so many times on both feet." His dedication to practice transformed a childhood pastime into a professional advantage.
Johnson said he didn't overthink what he was doing, saying it was just instinctually what he should be doing. It wasn't until later that he realized that his set-shot banana kick from a standing start was actually more reliable than kicking a drop punt from the boundary line. Johnson said the advantage of this kicking style was its predictability, and that its accuracy only increased as he got better through thousands of hours of practice. "I probably got to the point where I thought more about it and thought, 'What's the highest percentage kick?'" he said. "I knew that basically anywhere inside the boundary line, if I kicked a banana kick and set up properly, I was going to kick it 8 times out of 10. "Whereas if I kicked a drop punt, it was probably only 5 times out of 10."
He said the reason the banana kick was more predictable was because it was more forgiving than the drop punt. "You could drop the ball slightly low and basically still hit that spot on the ball perfectly every time," he said. "And you're actually hitting a more forgiving spot on the ball, because you're kicking more of the belly of the ball, even if it's underneath the ball. "You can also get the football to rotate and get it to spin and curve." He honed his technique over the years to make it consistent on both his left and right feet. The key was to cradle the ball underneath with his guide hand (the hand on the same side as his kicking foot), which gave him more control when dropping the ball, allowing him to place the ball closer to his foot. The football would be held at an angle pointing towards his left hip, while he would square his body at 90 degrees to the goals, step out two steps and kick. "I just needed to drop it, like in the same spot, and kick up through it, and the ball would swing back towards the goals," he said.
It turned out that he had a physiological quirk that worked in his favor. "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 swing my leg back, my leg also swings back at a slight angle, it doesn't swing straight back. "So, the way I rotated was more suited to me kicking across my body. My body was actually more suited to kicking a banana kick than probably almost anyone." This unique physical attribute inadvertently enhanced his natural aptitude for the technique.
The kicking technique had been perfected. All that remained was the opportunity to try it out in an AFL game. Despite being so proficient at kicking banana kicks, Johnson didn't use it in the AFL for the first few years of his career because he feared he might be criticized if he tried it and missed. But eventually, his confidence in his ability to execute the kick overcame his doubts, and that 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. It was 30 meters out from goal; it was at a fairly tight angle, but not on the boundary line," he said. "It was definitely a spot where most players would kick a drop punt and be happy to get it close."
Should he kick a drop punt that he knew he only had a 50% chance of kicking, but could safely know he wouldn't be criticized if he missed? "Or should I go for this kick that I know I've got a 90% chance of kicking? But if I miss it… yeah, the world might cave in on me," he said. He decided to go for it. "So, I went back to the mark, and then I walked up, and I looked at the man on the mark, and then I turned sideways on to the goals and the man on the mark," Johnson said. "That was probably the time where everyone at the ground and everyone watching on TV would have been saying 'What the hell is he doing?' Like, we've never seen anything like this before." His decision marked a turning point in how set shots could be approached.
Johnson completed his routine, kicked the goal, and then a few minutes later, he kicked another set-shot banana kick from the opposite pocket on his left foot. It was arguably the first time in the 150-year history of the VFL/AFL that someone had lined up for a set shot without facing the goals directly. Now the set-shot banana kick is so common that we forget how foreign it looked when Johnson first deliberately set up at right angles to the goals. "I remember there was some talk about it (after the game). But there would have been a lot more talk about it if I had missed," he said. "I was taking a risk and doing something different. As I said (I) probably looked like, you know, 'This kid has got a high level of confidence, rates himself highly, he's trying to do something to show off'. "But that definitely wasn't the case. This had been brewing for 10, 15 years, and I was just doing what I thought was the highest percentage kick."
Johnson's conviction didn't stop the critics—especially when other players started using the banana kick for set shots. "When it started to become popular and players started to do it, not everyone had done the repetitions, not everyone had honed their technique to what it should be," he said. "I was watching what they (the commentators) were watching and almost thinking, 'You know what, he's got a point, because that player hasn't done it right'. "If they knew how to do it properly, you could change those professionals' opinions, you're stuck in their era." Johnson said he could predict whether a player would successfully kick a banana kick by the way they set up and how they held the ball. "A lot of players, if you see them setting the ball up flat, you know they're probably going to miss to the right, because that ball's going to drift slightly out before they even make contact with it," he said.
Similarly, he said he would sometimes see players adjust their angle to the goals, which meant they were likely to miss on the narrow side of the goals. "Whereas I knew how I held the ball and being at 90 degrees to the goals, I just needed to drop it, like in the same spot, and kick up through it, and the ball would swing back towards the goals," he said. "But if they step to the left, then 90 degrees for them might be the goal post on the left, so they've got to guess a spot between the bottom of the ball and the belly of the ball, which is really hard to execute." He emphasizes the importance of consistent technique for accurate execution.
The kicking style—and technique—slowly superseded the preferred method of shooting from tight angles, starting with his Geelong teammates. "It became something that I was really good at, and then you know, obviously, we had kicking competitions after training, and other players started setting up and practicing it exactly the same way," he said. "Over the years, (I) definitely taught a lot of players the technical aspects of what I was trying to do to make sure you know you could execute it. "Guys like Paul Chapman was an amazing banana kick. Tom Hawkins was the same, James Podsiadly, you know, were obviously all teammates of mine in the forward line. "Then I went to GWS and tried to share some knowledge with those guys, and Toby Greene became a great banana kick, Jeremy Cameron became a great banana kick as well. "Now, they probably would have become great banana kicks anyway, but I definitely helped improve their technique." His influence extended beyond personal performance to mentoring and skill development within his teams.
He said the best banana kick in the game at the moment is Luke Breust of Hawthorn. As for who coined the term "J-curve," Johnson believes it was legendary commentator Dennis Cometti. "He said one day in commentary: 'Here he comes: Steve Johnson opts for the J-curve'," he said. He said he was proud that something he started had now become an accepted part of the game. "I was the first one to do it, so when I see that, yeah, it makes you feel a little bit special," he said. "Just because I'm a football fanatic, I wasn't trying to do something completely different to change the game. "I was just doing something because I probably had a football in my hands more than any kid in history, so I developed something that's now become normal. "So, the pride is in leaving a little bit of a legacy in the game that you love."
It took 50 years and a spark of intuition from Johnson to create a new kicking style in Australian Rules football, which begs the question of whether there are any more innovations to come to the game. "Yes," Johnson said without hesitation, "there is another kicking style. Yes." He calls it the "sliced banana kick." But that is another story for another time, hinting at further evolution in the sport.
