Australia's spearhead during the late 1980s and early 1990s, McDermott has been appointed to replace Troy Cooley in the Australian team coaching staff.
While McDermott knew how to dig the ball in short as well as anyone, he snared the majority of his 291 wickets in 71 Tests with deliveries which pitched on a length and had batsmen fending at his pace and swing.
While reluctant to focus on the enigmatic Johnson, McDermott admitted he was looking forward to working with the 29-year-old before the August tour of Sri Lanka.
When Johnson swings the balls he can rip the best batting line-ups apart, while when he loses his rhythm he can be wild and expensive.
But McDermott saw good signs from him on the recent one-day international tour to Bangladesh.
"I thought Mitchell had his head in a really good space in Bangladesh," he said.
"If he can get it together he's like no other bowler we've got in the country.
"His arm speed is phenomenal and when he gets it right, he's unplayable.
"He was working on a couple of things in Bangladesh and if he gets it right he will bowl well and he'll be around for a long time."
The 46-year-old McDermott said he remained a fan of pitching the ball up to get wickets.
"Everything is not a quick fix. It's a long-term thing. Certainly I'd like to put an emphasis on that part of our bowling," he said.
"If you pitch it up you're a much better chance of getting lbws, caught behinds and clean bowls."
McDermott would not go into specifics on theories for why Johnson could bowl brilliantly one day and be so wayward the next.
"I'm not really here to talk about the p's and q's of Mitchell Johnston or anyone," said McDermott, who has 12 months to get results.
Did he think today's quicks had the same fire and mongrel as the likes of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson?
"I think there's enough fire there," he said.
"All our fast bowlers have to have some aggression in them, it's just how they use that sometimes.
"You can be too aggressive and actually forget about what you're trying to achieve at the other end.
"I was guilty of that in my time as well on the odd occasion.
"It's a fine line you walk.
"I had a number of ups and downs in my career until I got it right in about 1990."
Despite coming up short in last summer's home Ashes series when Australia's bowlers were carved up, McDermott is confident the future looks good.
"We've got more than enough (bowling) depth for Australia to be top in all three forms of the game," he said.
"It's a challenging time but I enjoy a challenge."
- AAP
Tags: sport, cricket, australia First posted May 12, 2011 18:40:00
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