IN JUST his second season at the club Daniel Garner has already stepped up to help coach Dimboola’s under-17 side and it illustrates just how well he has fitted in at the Roos.
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He said that he would have liked to have been able to register more wins with the side in his first season but had at no point felt like he did not want to be there.
“It’s a real testament to the club,” he said. “Things haven’t been great in terms of wins and losses but it’s the sort of club that you want to keep coming back regardless. It’s a club where you want to keep pitching in to try and turn that around.”
Garner grew up playing football at South Warrnambool before spending five years in Melbourne while at university.
It’s a club where you want to keep pitching in to try and turn that around.
- Daniel Garner
After securing a job at Horsham College he spent three seasons playing in the Horsham District league for Rupanyup before making the switch to play for Dimboola in 2017.
“As I was getting older I wanted to step up what is perceived as the better competition in the area because I wanted to test myself that little bit more,” he said.
The 28-year-old who plies his trade running off the half-back flank said he has seen plenty of promising signs within the club, especially through his work with the under-17s.
“We’re trying really hard to ensure that the under-17s know what senior football is about so that we can keep our numbers strong across the next few years,” he said.
“You can often lose a lot of blokes between that under-17s and reserves age so we want to build a culture that keeps them at the club.
“The main thing is that everyone is pulling in the same direction.
“I’ve played at clubs before when people start pulling in different directions when things get difficult but everyone has remained on the same path at Dimboola – we’ve just got to hold the faith.”
He said it was a natural progression to help out with the younger players at the club.
“I have a passion for helping to develop young people and deveoping young leaders – that’s why I’m a school teacher,” he said.
“I saw it as an opportunity to try and help the club out and do my bit to keep people involved in footy.”
He said a successful 2018 for Dimboola’s senior side would be all about improvement.
“There is that intangible aspect where we need to feel like we are playing better football than last year,” he said.
“It’s hard to measure that because other sides change as well but we’re obviously aiming to win more than the one game we won last season.
“We’ve only played three teams that have looked pretty good so we’re not sure where we are at yet – finals could still be the goal.”
