The Blues have named a squad that includes all eight of their rookie-listed players, two first-year players, and just two of the club's top 10 from last year's best and fairest count.
Johnson, 24, said the Blues had a plan all along to restrict the pre-season game time of some of their brightest stars.
"From the start of the pre-season, the fitness staff put in a structure and it doesn't matter who we're playing – Geelong has been the bench-mark for the past couple of years and we're a lower-level side – but it doesn't matter," he said on Friday.
"It's good to see where our young players are going to be at against one of the top sides of the competition."
Johnson said the Blues will enter the game with a "risk-free" attitude, having given Chris Judd, Brendan Fevola, Marc Murphy, Bryce Gibbs, Heath Scotland, Jarrad Waite, Kade Simpson and Ryan Houlihan the night off, while Andrew Carrazzo and Robert Warnock remain sidelined with injuries.
He added the prospect of facing a tough side like Geelong will be largely beneficial for the young Blues who are yet to play much senior football.
"It's very important. They're going to gain experience from it," he said.
"We haven't seen a lot of the guys play, like Chris Yarran and Rhys O'Keeffe, and a few of our rookies too, like Luke Stanton, so they're going to get a good opportunity to show what they're made of."
