A HAWK TILL THE DAY FLAG FLIES
200-GAMER KEEPS THE DREAM ALIVE
AN elusive premiership is only a small reason why Ryan Garrard continues to pull on the boots at Inverleigh.
More so, it is the faith they showed in him as a junior that the 200-gamer wants to repay.
“When I first started at Inverleigh we were at the bottom of the ladder, getting pumped by 200 points week in week out — seniors and reserves,” Garrard said.
“The club invested a lot in our juniors at that time and me in particular, so it’s something I hold pretty close to my heart and I will at the end of my career that I’ll be a one-club player.”
The Inverleigh captain has been forced to reinvent his game this year under new coach Adam Donohue, taking more responsibility from a wing compared to the forward pocket where he has played most of his 199 games.
Garrard played his best game in the new role in last week’s win over North Geelong, claiming the Vietnam Veterans match best-on-ground medal for his clinical job in setting up the Hawks’ forwards.
“It was nice to get a little bit of form back, to be honest with you,” he said.
“It hasn’t been one of my best years, so hopefully I’m finding a bit of form at the right time of the year, which would be nice.
“I’ve played as a forward pocket for 180-odd games of my career, so it’s just adapting to that sort of stuff and fingers crossed I’ve got it down pat now. It’s only taken me 16 rounds.”
Garrard said the move up the ground, to put more experience around the football, would hopefully help the Hawks come finals.
“That was the talk that ‘Buck’ (Donohue) and I had about that, and we didn’t want to throw a young guy in there who hadn’t been accustomed to it,” he said.
“We just want our young kids coming through to worry about playing footy, so that was my sort of role.
“We’ve been in a bit of a form slump in recent weeks and my role, as much as anyone’s, is to let the boys play and have a bit of fun.
“On the wing, you’re in the play or around the footy the majority of the time, so I suppose it does (allow you to have more of an impact).”
Career highlights, following junior stints at Drysdale and Portarlington, include a number of finals campaigns and a narrow second in the 2015 Whitley Medal, but Garrard recalled a final against Werribee Centrals that stood out fondly.
“I think it was 2011, we played Werribee in a semi-final I think it was, and we were down by eight goals at half-time and we actually came back and won that game,” he recalled.
“I was two years into my senior career and we had a very young team and to come back from eight or nine goals from halftime, that’s one that sticks out in my mind.
“I know David Peel absolutely tore that game apart, so I remember that game pretty fondly.”