Under Ross Lyon, Freo are on the verge of conceding the second fewest points ever in a 22 round home and away season.
The 1406 points the club has allowed in 21 games this year will see it only bettered by Lyon’s 2009 St Kilda side, which allowed a miserly 1411.
An integral part of the backline, Johnson said the team never looked further ahead than the next quarter it was playing.
“We break it down to 30 minutes,” he said.
“We’ll go out and work on breaking the opposition down in the first five to 10 minutes and then work from there.
“We never worry about the end score, we just go quarter by quarter because different things can happen each quarter, the opposition can change their game plan.”
Fremantle’s opponents in 2013 have also recorded a staggering nine goalless quarters and 19 one-goal quarters.
Despite the imposing score-against statistics, Johnson said the side never set a target it aimed to not concede in a game.
“There are key indicators we do follow but it’s nothing to do with the scoreboard,” he said.
“Leading into a game we talk about stopping their inside 50s and marks inside 50s, we never talk about score against.”
Johnson admitted it was pleasing to read the stats because it gave the team confidence heading into the finals.
“As a defender it’s good, it shows we’re a good team that can defend,” he said.
“If we want to play against the top teams we’ve got to stop them scoring.
“We see the record and we see that we have the ability to stop teams from scoring, and we’re stoked with that.”
But there is one side that has given Lyon’s Fremantle scoreboard headaches - premiership favourites Hawthorn.
The Hawks are the only team to score more than 100 against Freo this season, registering 118 in a seven-goal win in Launceston in round 3.
Alastair Clarkson’s side also booted 119 points in the corresponding fixture in 2012.
Johnson said Hawthorn’s strengths were obvious.
“They are really well drilled team with a lot of experience, and you can see their scoring power up forward with (Lance) Franklin, (Cyril) Rioli and (Jarryd) Roughead,” he said.
But he noted that other sides had successfully blunted the Hawks’ firepower this season and he welcomed an opportunity to meet them again.
“The key is to stop their good ball users,” Johnson said.
“We know we have played good footy against good opposition, but that was one game that did let us down earlier this season.
“If we have another chance against them, we know how to set up to beat them.”
