One of the league's genuine nice guys, the 35-year-old debuted in 2002.

"It feels like I've been playing forever, but at the same time it goes in the blink of an eye," he suggested just minutes after the Easter Sunday loss to Lavington.

"I'm rapt to be involved in such a successful, family-orientated club, obviously it wasn't our day today, but it's good the young boys are getting a go at the minute, I'm sure we'll bounce back, we'll be right."

The 2013 Morris medallist has always been a clever player and he displayed it in the first quarter, spotting up an unmarked Tim Lawrence with a crafty left-footer.

Meanwhile, Lavington coach Simon Curtis was impressed by the Pigeons.

"I thought we were pretty patchy, we had some times where we controlled the play OK, but I thought 'Yarra' had a lot of the ball, they had their opportunities and they played pretty well, but it's great to get a win," he offered.

Like a number of his profile team-mates, Curtis got better as the match wore on.

It was a much improved performance from the Panthers after falling to Wangaratta Rovers by 31 points.

Curtis had an interesting build-up to that game when he fell off his mountain bike just 48 hours before the clash.

He had cuts on his right hand, which would have made it extremely difficult to control the ball.

Lavington's 2019 Did Simpson medallist Shaun Mannagh worked the bench and also did some running for the Panthers against Yarrawonga.

He played 16 games for the club in its premiership year while aligned to Richmond's VFL, but it's highly unlikely he will play anywhere near as many this season after joining a non-AFL-aligned club in Werribee.

And Corowa-Rutherglen coach Peter German revealed he ignored some of the suggestions when he arrived.

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"I was told, 'he can't kick, he can't do this, he can't do that', well they showed today (against Wodonga) those guys can kick and they can do this, you can't tell them they can't do something," he admitted.

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