Where does he stand, well its very hard to judge because obviously they are all from very different eras. Past players are remembered often with rose coloured glasses and any current players who are held up as being similar are often jumped upon whenever they show fault. This goes along with the belief that past greats seemingly played awesome in every game they played.
No player has ever played awesome footy every single time they step out.
After saying all that where do I rate Johns, well as good as they get. Is he the best ever, too hard to judge, is he in that group for sure.
I guess the best players I have seen play were probably, Lewis, Kenny, Sterling. Fittler was also a very good player, as was Daley and Langer. Big Mal and Lazarus also left huge impacts on the game. Lockyer is good too and probably still improving as a player.
Johns is as good if not better than any of those mentioned above. I'd probably put wally and he in a little category above the others from the last 25 years. I think Joey was better than sterling or langer or any other recent halfback.
The only thing he lacked was any genuine speed, but he wasn't a slow player. His skill level with hands or feet was phenominal, but for mine the thing that tops him off is how rugged he was as a defender. The only reason to target johns in the defencive line was to wear him out, because he was a powerful defender, you couldn't say the same about any other top line halfback in the last 25 years, well not one with the same skill level. Yes Turvey was a great cover defender, but he couldn't sit people on their backside front on like Johns.
So you have perhaps the most skillful halfback to have gone around, who tackles like a 2nd rower, that is why in my view he is as good as anyone I have seen.
