The Lavington captain hasn’t been able to string together more than two games consecutively so far in 2017, with injuries and an untimely suspension keeping the key Panther off the field.

Garland suffered a hamstring strain in April which sidelined him for two games, before returning to kick nine goals against Wangaratta Rovers, but unfortunately missed the next match with suspension.

His suspension from the clash with Rovers also ruled him out of the interleague fixture against Goulburn Valley in Wodonga.

Garland was beginning to find some consistency again before a calf problem sustained at training last Thursday night forced him to miss the monumental win over the Pigeons at Yarrawonga.

“This one (season) has been extremely frustrating for me, I’m not really getting much continuity with games at the minute,” Garland said.

“Playing one or two and missing a couple is not ideal when trying to get some continuity into your game, but I take the good with the bad.

“I didn’t miss a game at all last year and didn’t look like getting injured, whereas this year has been the complete opposite.”

“I was doing one of the full ground drills and gave my calf a bit of a twinge.

“It wasn’t really bad and I was talking to the physio on Monday and we’re presuming it will be two to three weeks if all goes well.”

Like every player, Garland hates missing games of football, but was extremely proud of the effort of the young group on Saturday. 

“To do what they did when they were genuine underdogs made it an extremely good win,” Garland said.

“The weekend might be a really good turning point for us I think, because guys will get that hunger to know when we do put our best foot forward, we play good footy.”

Garland will miss this Saturday’s clash against the Rovers, but is aiming to be fit in time to face Wodonga in round 11.