Between 2006 and 2009, Johnson played in four consecutive NRL grand finals for the Melbourne Storm, of which the club won two, only for both to be stripped due to salary cap breaches.

[7] He played in the Storm's opening match of the season, alongside fellow first-grade debutant and future Australian and Queensland fullback Billy Slater.

[9] After three seasons of regular first-grade football, Johnson earned representative honours in 2006, being selected for Queensland in the State of Origin series.

[12] Melbourne won the season's grand final against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, but in 2010 were stripped of their premiership after the NRL discovered large-scale breaches of the league's salary cap.

[12] In the same season, he made a record-breaking 62 tackles in Queensland's victory over New South Wales in the second match of the 2007 State of Origin series.

After the end of the season he signed a three-year contract with the French club Catalans Dragons in the Super League.

[26] Johnson played in 26 matches for the Dragons in the 2010 season; the club finished on the bottom of the Super League ladder.

[30] While a regular member of a Cowboys team that spent much of the season in the top four on the NRL ladder, he missed out on selection for the State of Origin series.

In the week heading into the game, teammates said Dallas Johnson was as important to the team as club co-captains Johnathan Thurston and Matthew Scott.