Johnson, 33, believes the Bulldogs will be buoyed by their players aged 23 to 27, who only recently began to experience the sort of September exposure Johnson received earlier in his career.
"I've been through it in 1997 and 1998, and I'd only missed finals once since I first started up until 2001," he said on Tuesday.
"Being a part of it for a while there and then missing it for such a chunk of five or six years until Rodney [Eade] came on board … to get that taste again, that's what we play for.
"We had some players that had played 100 games and hadn't played a final. Now they've got a taste of it over the past few years and they want to keep that drive going."
Johnson admitted securing an elusive premiership before his career ended was something that kept him motivated throughout the year.
"It's probably not so much a dream; it's more that vision. It's what we train for, it's what we put all the hard work in for – to be the best team in the competition and win premierships for our footy club," he said
"We're certainly working as hard as we can to try and achieve those goals."
"We're in a position now as a club. They talk about windows of opportunity, and we know we're in a good place at the moment.
"It would be great to capitalise on that at the tail end of my career."
Johnson also said he felt the Dogs were in the box seat to achieve success this September after a positive past month.
"Our confidence is up, and we've beaten some good sides in the run in," he said.
"Tactically, we're certainly maturing as a group in that way because we've been able to adapt to various situations.
"We're handling that better and better as the year has gone on, certainly with our understanding of the way Rocket wants us to play."
