In season 2017, Aflplayers.com.au will showcase Michael Barlow’s ‘Out of Bounds’ podcast.

The new Gold Coast Suns recruit has worked tirelessly to take listeners behind the scenes and into the life of an AFL player. Each week, Barlow will have a relaxed conversation with a current AFL footballer or key stakeholder and discuss the football landscape, and their busy lives outside of the AFL microscope.

In the latest edition, Barlow caught up with Sydney Swans’ premiership defender, Alex Johnson.

Johnson’s career got off to the best possible start in 2012 when he won a premiership in his second season, but things have gone downhill rapidly since then, with the defender failing to play in a senior game since the 2012 Grand Final due to repeated knee injuries.

He discusses growing up in Melbourne, moving to Sydney and falling in love with the Swans’ culture, the multiple knee reconstructions and the origin behind changing his number from 24 to 2.