THE FIRST time Footscray won the flag, then captain CharlieSutton donned the No.6 geurnsey when he lifted the premiership trophy.

That was 1954, and the Western Bulldogs are still waitingfor that second elusive title. Current skipper Brad Johnson, who wears the samenumber, hopes that in the not so distant future, it can also be a lucky numberfor him.

“I hope it’s a good omen for me,” Johnson said.

“I’ve spoken to Charlie about that. He was saying it wouldbe nice if I was able to stand up there on Grand Final day and accept the cupand wear that number again.

“It would definitely be a nice trend to follow in hisfootsteps and be part of a premiership side. Obviously that’s our major driveand what we’re trying to achieve over the next few years.”

Such was his impact at the club, the premiership captain hadthe club’s best and fairest award named after him, the Charles Sutton medal.

Johnson now has three of those to his name, not to mentionfive All-Australians, including the accolade of being named All-Australiancaptain last year.

Despite his credentials and the fact that he would be anideal addition for many clubs, the smiling assassin is in no doubt about wherehis future lies and insists he’s never even been tempted to consider moving.

He’s happy to stay at the Doggies, where he believes thelong-term plan will eventually yield success.  

“This is my home, I’ve been here for 14 years, I’m not goinganywhere,” he said.

“That’s why my drive’s so strong in trying to get this nextcurrent group to achieve success for this team.”

It’s still mathematically possible but extremely unlikelythat the Bulldogs will make the finals. If they were to make the top eight, 31-year-oldJohnson would have played his 300th game in the first final.

But he insists that, although he is disappointed with not gettingto play footy in September this year, the fact his milestone will have to waituntil next year hasn’t even crossed his mind.

“I’ve still got plenty of footy left in me so it isn’t an issueat all. If it was my last year maybe, but I certainly haven’t pushed that atall.

“Whether it’s round one or two next year, that’s just theway it was meant to be.”

Despite an unsatisfactory year results wise, the skippersays that the real positive going into next year is the improvement of heclub’s younger players.

“I’ve seen a step up. To see players like Tom Williams,Andrejs Everitt, Malcolm Lynch, Jarrod Harbrow and all these first year playerscome into the side and have an impact is extremely positive for us goingforward.

“You’ve got to develop guys somewhere along the line andthose guys have got the development in this year.

“I suppose those guys wanting to have a big pre-season andcontinue to have that impact this year is a big challenge.

“It puts a lot of competition on spots at the start of nextyear, which is a healthy thing for a football club.”

What’s more, Johnson says that the senior players arecommitted and confident in what coach Rodney Eade has flagged as a two orthree-year plan.

“We know exactly where we can be in the next year or so… wefeel that over the next two years we can really have an impact in finals, andthat’s our drive and we’ll continue to push for that until we achieve it.”