What do Chris Johnson, Darryl White and Michael McLean have in common with Ally Anderson, Courtney Hodder and Dakota Johnson?
Yes, they are the pin-up Indigenous men and women of the Brisbane Lions family. Three members of the AFL Indigenous Team of the Century named in 2005, and three members of the Lions inaugural AFLW premiership team in 2021.
But their unifying bond runs much deeper. It is 118 years old and goes all the way back to a small man who had a massive impact on Indigenous Australians in 1904.
Joe Johnson, all 168cm and 77kg of him, was the first Indigenous person to play in the AFL.
It was Round 1 1904 when Fitzroy beat Carlton 16-12 (108) to 1-8 (14) at Princes Park to post what still sits in the record books as the club’s 14th biggest win in 100 years in the VFL/AFL competition, and the biggest ever in 197 meetings with the Blues.
Johnson, a half back flanker, shared his debut with Percy Sheehan, another half back flanker, and Edgar Kneen, a wingman/half forward.
All were significant contributors at Fitzroy. Twenty-one weeks after their joint debut they were teammates in Fitzroy’s 1904 premiership side. Johnson and Sheehan also played together in the 1905 flag before all three were reunited in the 1906 grand final loss that signalled the end of Johnson’s 55-game career.
Kneen went on to captain University in 1910 and Sheehan later played with Carlton and Richmond, yet neither could match the legacy of Johnson. Not even close.
Indeed, the multitude of Indigenous players who have played in the AFL and the growing numbers forging a career in the AFLW are all indebted to Johnson, who had been recruited from VFA club Northcote and later was captain-coach of Brunswick in the same competition and was a member of their 1909 premiership side.
As the AFL this week celebrates part two of the Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round, named in honour of the ex-Fitzroy player who was the first Indigenous person to be knighted, the game’s entire Indigenous playing group will salute the pioneering Johnson.
He was the first of barely a dozen Indigenous people known to have played in the then VFL competition before the 1967 referendum which saw Indigenous Australians included in the census.
A dozen in 70 years! It is a number that doesn’t seem remotely possible today and shows the importance of people like Johnson and Nicholls in forging a path which sees such enormous Indigenous talent now on display weekly.
Collectively, according to official AFL records, 44 Indigenous players have worn the colors of Fitzroy and Brisbane in the VFL/AFL/AFLW.
White (268), Chris Johnson (264) and Ash McGrath (214) head the games list, while Joe Johnson (1904-05), White and Chris Johnson (2001-02-03), Des Headland (2002) and McGrath (2003) were premiership players. McLean was twice Brisbane club champion in 1991-93, and McLean (1988) and Chris Johnson (2002-04) were All-Australian.
Chris Johnson and Kevin Caton played for both Fitzroy and Brisbane.
The list in chronological order is:-
Joe Johnson – 55 games with Fitzroy – 1904-06
Norm Byron – 2 games with Fitzroy - 1918
Doug Nicholls – 54 games with Fitzroy – 1932-37
Shadrack James – 18 games with Fitzroy 1940-41
Ted Lovett – 9 games with Fitzroy – 1963-64
Kevin Taylor – 1 game with Fitzroy - 1984
Wally Matera – 32 games with Fitzroy – 1989-90
Kevin Caton – 17 games with Fitzroy/Brisbane – 1989-91
Dale Kickett – 19 games with Fitzroy - 1990
Robert Cummings – 1 game with Fitzroy – 1990
Michael McLean – 88 games with Brisbane – 1991-97
Matthew AhMat – 6 games with Brisbane – 1991-92
Darryl White – 268 games with Brisbane – 1992-2005
Russell Jeffrey – 8 games with Brisbane - 1992
Adam Kerinaiua – 3 games with Brisbane – 1992
Fabian Francis – 22 games with Brisbane – 1993-94
Gilbert McAdam – 58 games with Brisbane – 1994-96
Chris Johnson – 264 games with Fitzroy/Brisbane – 1994-2007
Trent Cummings – 27 games with Fitzroy – 1994-96
Peter Bird – 15 games with Fitzroy – 1995-96
Des Headland – 52 games with Brisbane – 1999-2002
Shannon Rusca – 2 games with Brisbane - 2000
Ash McGrath – 214 games with Brisbane – 2001-14
Anthony Corrie – 53 games with Brisbane – 2004-08
Jason Roe – 50 games with Brisbane – 2006-09
Rhan Hooper- 48 games with Brisbane – 2006-09
Albert Proud – 29 games with Brisbane – 2007-10
Sam Sheldon – 43 games with Brisbane – 2009-12
Xavier Clarke – 1 game with Brisbane - 2010
Allen Christensen – 68 games with Brisbane – 2015-20
Cedric Cox - 13 games - 2017-19
Charlie Cameron - 88 games - 2018-22
Callum Ah Chee - 49 games - 2020-22
Cam Ellis-Yolmen - 9 games - 2020
Keidean Coleman - 28 games - 2020-22
Nakia Cockatoo - 12 games - 2021-22
Two members of the Lions Indigenous family also have direct links to the current AFL competition – Gold Coast’s Joel Jeffrey, the Round 10 nomination for the 2022 NAB AFL Rising Star, is the son of Russell Jeffrey, and North Melbourne’s #1 draft pick Jason Horne-Francis is the step son of Fabian Francis.
In the Brisbane AFLW program there have been seven Indigenous players. Ally Anderson, Kaitlyn Ashmore and Shaleise Law were members of the very first team in 2017, and have been followed by Kalinda Howarth (2018), Paige Parker (2019), Dakota Davidson (2020) and Courtney Hodder (2021).
Anderson shares the AFLW games record of 53 with current teammate and 2022 League B&F winner Emily Bates and Adelaide’s Ebony Marinoff.
