Born Burra, South Australia May 31, 1879 - died Melbourne, Victoria September 5, 1948

Recruited to Carlton from Richmond (VFA)

Carlton player No. 177

At Carlton

90 matches, 29 goals 1905-1909

Premiership player 1906, 1907 & 1908

George Sydney Johnson – nicknamed ‘Mallee’ for reasons that remain unclear – is often considered amongst the greatest of the greats through Carlton’s glory years of the early 1900s.

Johnson, who served a voluntary mounted infantry unit during the last months of the Boer War, found his way to Princes Park after featuring in VFA club Richmond’s 1902 Premiership – and quite literally earning his stripes as the Tigers’ first genuine star.

At Carlton he found a quick rapport with Jack Worrall, even though the resident Secretary/Coach harboured some concerns with the player’s apparent lack of pace.

Johnson was one of five players to complete their senior debut in Carlton’s opening round match of the 1905 season. Another was the ruckman ‘Champagne’ Charlie Hammond, whom history would record as the club’s one and only five-time Premiership player.

Carlton fell 27 points adrift of Fitzroy in the 1905 Preliminary Final, but Worrall was assembling a playing group capable of going all the way – and so it was in 1906 when the playing group, bolstered with the recruitment of the likes of Alex Lang, Doug Gillespie, Les Beck and Fred Jinks, took Carlton to League football’s summit in 1906.

Worrall’s decision to afford ruck responsibilities to ‘Mallee’ with Charlie Hammond in support reaped handsome reward through 1907 and a second Premiership in as many seasons. Against South on that September Saturday, Carlton again prevailed, albeit by just five points against South.

In 1908, Johnson was named in the Victorian state team for the Jubilee ANFC carnival, and capped off another stellar season when his club team fought off a dogged Essendon team to claim an unprecedented third Premiership on the trot.

Two years later, when a ‘reform group’ swept to power and unseated virtually all of Carlton’s previous administrators - Worrall included – seven Carlton stars, Johnson included, cut ties with the club. Johnson followed Frank ‘Silver’ Caine, Hammond and Les Beck to North Melbourne, and the Shinboners, not surprisingly secured the 1910 VFA Premiership.

‘Mallee’ Johnson called time on a remarkable playing career in 1913, on the end of a term as captain-coach of Prahran. He is forever remembered as one of 11 men to represent Carlton in each of the club’s first three Premierships in League competition.