South Warrnambool committee member Jock O’Connor says the club’s AFL Appreciation Wall will receive an almighty boost on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Roosters, who use the wall to celebrate players to have gone on to play VFL/AFL, will add the photo of the late Frank Johnson.
He joins the company of Leon Cameron, Jonathan Brown, Wayne Schwass and Kevin ‘Cowboy’ Neale.
O’Connor said the former Port Melbourne and South Melbourne star ruckman was a deserving inductee.
"It is a great honour to have him inducted as the 31st player on the wall," he said.
"He is easily one of the best players to have played in the Hampden league.
"He was a former All-Australian captain when he came to South, that's pretty incredible really, it would be like getting someone like Dustin Martin in this era.”
O’Connor described the resume of the former Roosters captain-coach as “unbelievable”.
"He beat Bobby Skilton in South Melbourne's best and fairest at just 28 in his first VFL season, Bobby at time was the reigning Brownlow Medallist,” he said.
"He came fourth in the Brownlow in 1961. He is the only VFA player to be inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame.
“Port Melbourne hold a Frank Johnson Day every year because he was regarded so highly there.
"So he is an absolute deadset legend he is.”
Three of Johnson’s children, including his son Frank junior, will make the trek from Melbourne to Warrnambool for the presentation.
Frank Jr said their late father would have loved to have been here to be inducted at South Warrnambool.
"If he was still here he'd be absolutely thrilled," he said.
"He always talked extremely fondly of South Warrnambool, loved his time there and the club treated him and mum fantastically.
"And any of these honours that were bestowed upon him he was always thrilled and humbled by."
Johnson’s son revealed the interesting story behind how his dad ended up at the Roosters.
"He wanted to go from Port Melbourne in the VFA to South Melbourne in the VFL, but back then if you changed clubs without a clearance you were banned for something like 10 years," he said.
"He didn't want to do the wrong thing by Port Melbourne and didn't want to burn bridges in case it didn't work out and he wanted to go back there.
"And I think he got a very good offer to play and coach at South Warrnambool so he took the job and then got cleared."
He is easily one of the best players to have played in the Hampden league.
- Jock O'Connor
