Reborn Johnson hungry to make the most of his unique talent for Ferbane and Offaly

BACK in 2018 when Cian Johnson was interviewed ahead of what turned out to be a Senior Football Championship final mauling by Rhode, the world appeared to be his oyster and we imagined that he would be a household name by now – familiar to supporters across the country, even if Offaly's potential remained hidden by clouds.

An outstanding young protege, his scoring exploits as he progressed out of underage ranks into adult football set the pulse racing with excitement. A deadly, lethal finisher, he broke several teams' hearts, shooting the lights out on several occasions and he looked all set to succeed Niall McNamee as Offaly's star forward.

He was outstanding when Ferbane bridged a 25 year gap in 2019 and all the ducks seemed be lined up for him to take his football to the next level.

It didn't happen and until this year, Cian Johnson was in danger of becoming a forgotten figure for the Offaly football public in some aspects. He has made ten National Football League appearances for Offaly, five each in 2018 and 2020 and the past few years have been tough for him and his club.

A groin injury stalled his progress while Ferbane have yet to add to that 2019 title – back then, it looked like they would win at least another couple in the following years but the emergence of Tullamore has been the primary factor in that not happening.

Johnson missed 2021 and gradually began the climb back. It was a slow process. He was only introduced as a half time sub in the 2023 final loss to Tullamore, though the three points he kicked was a huge contribution in an awful game on a dreadful day when the final scoreline read 1-5 to 0-6.

He moved forward further in 2024, at least starting most games and he played for the entirety as Ferbane endured a devastating 0-15 to 0-14 defeat with controversy over refereeing decisions raging for days after it.

His form was still short of his early promise and he was not fully fit but the wheel has very much turned for him this year. His fitness levels are back close to where they need to be but equally as importantly, his hunger is burning brightly again. He is once again displaying his deadly finishing ability – he is top scorer in the championship and is quick to have a pot at those who have been suggesting he is blowing hot and cold, remarking: “If I'm hot and cold, then everyone else is freezing”!!

“Some say I am having a good year and others say I'm not and I'm top scorer in the championship. Sometimes I get judged to a higher standard than other players,” he complained.

At 26 years of age, he has plenty of road ahead of him but his footballing clock is ticking and he knows he has a short window to fulfil his potential. Already Declan Kelly and Mickey Harte have been in touch with him and he is doing their pre-season work. He wants to get back on the Offaly panel but prefers not to talk too much about that ambition at the moment, other than confirming his interest.

He did say: “I'd be lying if I said it's something that I wouldn't like to do. Since January, I went back at it and I said I'd give it everything and get into the best shape I could. I've been working with Colin Kenny, he's our coach but he's also a nutritionist so I've been working on my diet and my body fat. Since January I've done nearly 200 sessions between gym and pitch. I've really locked in. I'm 26 now so time is running out. I met Declan during the summer and we had an honest conversation of where I was at and what I needed to do. I'm on the extended panel. We got a gym programme to do. Look, I don't really like talking about it to be honest. I don't know if I'm going to get a call to the main panel. I just need to keep my head down and keep working hard.”

At the moment, all of his focus is on Ferbane and he was delighted when to be appointed joint captain with Kevin Nugent this year.

He didn't shy away from the question when asked what happened to make his career stagnate.

“It's a lot of things, a lot of moving things. Everyone's not David Clifford, I suppose. Loads of things got in the way, things happen and obviously injury is a big one. I missed nearly 18 months with my groin, the recovery was only supposed to be three months, it just didn't materialise.

“A lot of people wrote me off and said I wasn't coming back at all and I look on it as a positive that I have come back to this level. It was tough but that's what you have your clubmates for and I'm just happy to be back now, injury free.”

He talked about his long battle with the groin injury.

“It came on me just after we came back from Covid so it would have been 2020 into 2021. When everything shut down for Covid, the club came back first and it came on me when we played Tullamore in a semi-final and I got an injection to play which in hindsight was a terrible idea because we lost on penalties and I played 80 minutes that day and I couldn't feel anything. But I woke up the next morning and I couldn't even walk so in hindsight that was a terrible decision. I went back into rehab with Offaly and it wasn't coming right. I had groin surgery and was with every physio I could find and it just wasn't coming right and it wasn't until I went to Santry and I found a physio that I started getting relief. And thank God I haven't had any bother with it since. I missed a full club season in 2021. We were beaten by Tullamore in a semi-final quite heavily, we were down with a good few injuries that year.”

One of the deadliest finishers in Offaly, it was interesting to note that Johnson didn't take a penalty in any of their shootout defeats and he explained: “No, I didn't. I never really took penalties. I missed a few when I was playing soccer growing up and I never really put my hand up. I prefer open play.”

His form this year has been the closest to his early excellence.

Did you have an eureka moment where you decided, this was it, that the footballing ship could sail by very quickly?

“The county final last year I was close to where I wanted to be but I wasn't where I am now. When you lose a game by a point it lights a fire inside you and even watching some of the Offaly games, and I haven't been to many Offaly games in the last few years and that's because I felt I should have been out there, it's nothing to do with management. Looking at Offaly winning the league, things like that light a fire inside you. It's kind of humbling when you're playing and you're not fit. Not to be disrespectful but there's players you should be getting the better of beating you to the ball. Mentally it's not easy so I'm just happy to be back somewhat to where I should be.”

When Ferbane won it in 2019 I remember writing that you will win two or three in the next five years and then Tullamore arrive?

“When we won in 2019 even some of the older guys were saying enjoy this now because you never know when it will come around and we were laughing at them. Look, county finals are hard won and they don't get sent out in the post to you. There's been a lot of variables in that. We've had a list of excuses as long as your arm – penalties, the weather, the ref.
“There's only so much bad luck you can have. At some stage we have to look at ourselves. If you've a problem in life you only have to look in the mirror, not out the window. Because you're blaming everyone else. We'd be the first to say we haven't won enough for the talent that we have. We've come close and a lot of clubs would love to be in our position, getting to loads of finals. But we're not satisfied with that, we need to start winning, win a final again. If we lose it's going to be bad year for Ferbane, that's the reality of it. County finals have to be the currency for us. If you're not first, you're last really.”

Was there too much talk about referees last year?

“I don't really like getting into talk about referees. There was a lot of talk in Ferbane and even neutrals were saying... look, I don't really want to get into that. If you look back on the whole game we got frees in the first half that were probably soft as well. Referees have families as well, they don't need abuse. They're going out for a little amount of money, they're doing it for their club or the love of the game. I think no more than a player wants to play well, a ref wants to have a good game. This thing of people saying about refs that he doesn't like that club, or he hates that lad, that needs to stop.”

The last couple of county final defeats, you've been so close?

“I suppose Tullamore have probably been the better team over the two games and we've hung in there and it's come down to fine moments. Coming down the stretch there's always going to be a bounce of the ball here or there, a missed shot, a goal chance, that's what county finals come down to. We've been close but close isn't good enough. It's going to be another long winter in Ferbane if we don't get over the line. We just need to find a way, please God.”

Did you put your hand up to be captain this year or was it a management decision?

“Myself and Kevin are joint captains. I was vice captain last year. Raff (Ger Rafferty) asked me. It's a huge honour. I would have captained minor and under 20 teams to county titles so it's been a real dream of mine to captain us to a senior title. It doesn't really change my role an awful lot. I might be chatting to Raff a bit more around decision making around what we're doing and I'd be a bit more conscious of the young lads, trying to point them in the right direction but most of our group are in their mid 20s. Everyone is so professional now with the gym work and getting into training early. It runs like clockwork so there's no real policing, we've a really good set-up.

“So it's really a huge honour to be captain. Anyone who knows me will tell you how much I love football and how much I love Ferbane. I'd be down here every night of the week whether it's training myself or going to the gym or coaching underage teams. There's not a minute in the day where I'm not thinking about Ferbane and trying to win a championship. It's just I'm kind of obsessed with it, it could be a bit unhealthy at times, but what else would you be doing?”

You're an intermediate selector this year?

“Brian Flynn was the manager and he put a lot of effort into it. The second team had been kind of thrown together but we got video analysis and really tried to put a focus on our second team to feed our senior team. I would have known a lot of the lads from managing them at minor and under 20 and training with them so I had a good scope on where we were at. Our squad probably got a bit too stretched in the end so we were well beaten by Brigid's. But we've a really good minor group now. They won it last year and are in the final again this weekend so we hope they're going to add to it.
“ I keep getting roped into stuff and it's hard to say no. If I get involved with any more teams down here I'm going to have to start charging! I'm with the under 16s and we were beaten by a point by Edenderry. When I got the injury I started with teams and I've been with them every year since so hopefully I'll have a few more years playing and then I'll transition into that. I wouldn't be one for roaring and shouting on the sideline, I'd just try to point the lads in the right direction. You see some selectors screaming at young lads. Even as a player on the senior team I never look to the sideline to see what the manager is shouting at. If you have to be shouting at a lad during a game you've done something wrong at training, that's where your work is done. It's enjoyable. I get a really good buzz out of it.”

Are you working?

“I'm working with Off the Ball. I do a bit of freelance sports journalism and I do a bit with balls.ie as well. It's enjoyable, sometimes it doesn't feel like work when you're watching sport and you'd be doing that anyway.”

Have Ferbane been a bit hot and cold this year? Ye were ok against Ballycommon, and then Rhode and then drew with Edenderry in a game ye should have won and sort of fell over the line against Shamrocks. It didn't look like county final winning form?

“It didn't. We're kind of always like that in a way. I think judging us off group games is not the way to go. I think we played eight weeks championship in a row, hurling and football. We were the only dual club that done that, every other club got a break. We played constantly. Lads' bodies are aching, going week to week, trying to train. So we nearly always have a couple of performances that aren't up to standard but every year we just focus on getting to the knockout and we try and take it from there and hopefully produce our best football. We weren't at our best against Shamrocks and should have been beaten but we did get away with one and we got over the line.

“We produced some of our best football the last day. I don't think we were as bad as we thought we were against Shamrocks and I don't think we're as good as we think we are now because we beat Edenderry. We're probably somewhere in the middle, I don't think we're getting enough respect, just from everyone. Ahead of the Edenderry game a lot of people were saying Edenderry were going to beat us. We couldn't understand it. I've been here since '17 and I don't think we've lost a championship game to Edenderry. From our starting 15, all of us have played in county finals. We brought four lads off the bench that were in the county final last year. We've huge depth in our squad. I think Edenderry had two or three lads who played in a final?

“I couldn't understand where it was coming from that they were ahead of us in the pecking order. That was really fuelling us. We spoke about it in a team meeting and I think that was evident in the second half. When we went ahead we wanted to win by as much as we could and show everyone how wrong they were to be writing us off. I know it's the year of people being wrote off. Rhode got the edge on us in the group stage, Kerry in the All-Ireland, they were written off. You need to find something to motivate you so you can write us off for Sunday if you want (laughs).”

The thoughts of losing a third final to Tullamore is nightmare stuff?

“If you keep losing finals... the thoughts of that would nearly keep you awake at night. Tullamore are going to dress it up whatever way they want, they're going to say that we hammered Edenderry and only beat us by a point last year. But the reality is they are red hot favourites. They're 1-2 to win the game, we're almost 3-1. That tells you all you need to know. They're going for three in a row and steam-rolling everyone. They're not bringing Stephen Rochford half way across the country just to win a county title, they've been doing that anyway. I think it's clear that they're looking at bigger things down the line. I don't think they're going to be overly concerned with us so it's going to take a massive performance for us. We're probably going to have to play the game of our lives to get out the right side.”

Everybody's beatable though?

“We'll be going in with a belief. We've always had belief. It's been tight margins the last few years, a point or two here and there so we're definitely going in with the belief that we're going to win. People on the outside will probably be saying it's going to be Tullamore again but we can't listen to that, we'll just block it out. Hopefully we'll deliver a performance.”

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This group needs a second title, doesn't it?

“Yeah, you don't want to be one-hit wonders. I'm 26 now. I don't want to be going around in 10 years saying what happened, we won one and never turned up again so everyone is mad for a second title. It's six years now and it felt like 106. Every year that goes by you're wondering will we ever get back there. We went back early this year ourselves, even before the management called us. We had a lot of lads in with the county and the rest of us tried to get up to that level, fitness level, S&C wise. Colin Kenny has done great work with us as coach. He's a breath of fresh air, he brings a great buzz to training, he has a great way of connecting with lads. We would have played with him at underage and everyone knows him. It's really enjoyable.
“And Raff as well, he's back for another year. It would have been very easy after last year to step away but he's just a really good manager, he has a good way about him and he's just one of those lads you wouldn't really want to let down. You always want to perform for him. The boys have done a good job with us and we're just really looking forward to it now.”