New Sydney forwards coach Steve Johnson has enjoyed tapping into the football brain of Swans superstar Lance Franklin but hopes they can also find different scoring avenues.
Johnson, who played 293 games in 16 seasons with Geelong and Greater Western Sydney before accepting his first coaching job with Sydney late last year, is working with Franklin, the 10th highest goal-kicker in AFL-VFL history.
"He obviously knows a lot about the game and he watches probably a lot more footy than people realise, he's been great," Johnson said.
"It's been great to get to know him as a person and to see how much he loves footy and just sitting down with him and speaking about footy has been really refreshing, just hearing his ideas."
Johnson said he'd like to think he could make Franklin an even better player, but stressed Sydney shouldn't rely too much on Buddy, who has topped their goalkicking chart in each of his first four seasons at the club.
"Hopefully we've got some real different avenues to goal," Johnson said.
"Everyone looks at our forward line and thinks of Buddy straight away and he is a really important player for us.
"But we've got some young players coming through, (Will) Hayward, (Tom) Papley.
They are really dangerous players .We've got some speed down there and given the way that the modern game is going with pressure, I think that's an advantage that I've got at my disposal as forwards coach.
"It's been really impressive working with them and their hunger to want to improve has been really good."
During his time at GWS, Johnson worked closely with midfielder-turned-forward Toby Greene who on Tuesday signed a six-year contract extension with the Giants.
"I wouldn't mind accepting half of his contract if I'm the reason why he's able to do that," Johnson quipped.
"It's great for someone like Toby that he has extended his time at the Giants for another six years, because it shows what a loyal kid he is and how much talent he does have and I think he's going to be a star of the game for a long time."
Renowned as something of a maverick during his playing days, Cats triple premiership winner Johnson won't be holding up his own career as a template for his new charges.
"It's sort of do what I say and not what I did," Johnson said.
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