Pick 12 in the 2008 AFL national draft: Lewis Johnston on his 10 game career across two clubs

But Lewis Johnston can.

It was the penultimate round of 2013 – coincidentally, the Crows last ever game at Football Park – and Johnston starred with six goals two in a 68 point defeat of the lowly Melbourne to earn two votes from the officiating umpires.

“That was exciting,” Johnston told Code Sports recently.

“It’s something I didn’t really think too much about at the time, but to have a couple of votes is nice.”

It was a fair achievement for the former first round draft pick whose career had, to that point, never had a chance to get going thanks to constant injury issues.

But it wasn’t to be a sign of things to come. In fact, just three games later, Johnston’s AFL days were numbered.

As a kid, Johnston never dreamt of playing in the AFL.

“To be honest, I actually didn’t have any interest in football. I won’t lie,” he said.

At the time, the tall teenager from Port Pirie in South Australia was more focused on his junior basketball career than the Sherrin. And he was pretty good too.

“I made the top 10 in Australia when I was an under 14 after the country championships in Albury.”

And for him, it was hard to imagine making the AFL from his hometown.

“My thought was, no one gets drafted from Port Pirie … so I didn’t even think about it,” Johnston remembers.

And yet, Johnston then became an under 18 All Australian in 2008 alongside Nic Naitanui and Steele Sidebottom which put him firmly on the draft radar.

“So all within 12 months, I went from potentially looking at doing a trade, an apprenticeship in Port Pirie to, the reality of getting drafted.

“So it all happened pretty quick.”

Come draft day, Johnston was pretty certain that he was headed to Sydney, but hearing his name called in the first round was a shock.

“They told me if you’re available at pick 30, we’re happy to take you … but yeah, they took me at pick 12, so I wasn’t expecting that at all.”

If you’re into omens, Johnston’s start in the Harbour Sydney could easily be seen as a sign of what was to come.

“When I went over my first two weeks I got the flu, I was sick as anything,” Johnston remembers.

“Then I was meant to fly back [to Sydney] on the Sunday night and I got food poisoning on the Saturday after Christmas.

“After that, I settled in and then played round one in the VFL team then in round two, I broke my foot and missed the rest of the season.”

Johnston’s injury woes didn’t get much better after that.

“I had an issue with my toe in my second year and then my third year I did my ankle, it was a syndesmosis injury and I missed about 14 weeks and then when I was at the Crows I broke my leg in my second season, it was like up in the knee joint and then in my last season I snapped the tendon off my finger so had to get that reattached.”

And so, when 2008’s number 12 draft pick got the tap on the shoulder from the Crows at the end of 2014, Johnston wasn’t surprised.

“I sort of expected it to be honest,” he says.

“I just feel I just couldn’t get going.”

These days, Johnston owns his own mortgage brokerage in Norwood with an interest in supporting footballers with their investment choices.

“I’ve seen so many bad scenarios come across my desk with people in positions that they shouldn’t be in based on the amount of games and income they’ve earned over their playing period.”

And his relationship with the game?

“I’m not a massive football nut to be honest,” Johnston admits.

But it helps that his daughter, Mila, is a Crows fan.

“We do enjoy going to the football every now and then.”