The demon who doubted himself

[whelan=legend]

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/ne...1216163236114.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

The Demon who doubted himself

Emma Quayle | July 20, 2008

COLIN Garland loves everything about football. At Melbourne, his teammates give him grief because he keeps up with statistics and knows most players' names.
"I'm fairly analytical in nature," explained the 20-year-old this week. "I just like to know a lot about football and the boys all give me stick about it, but sometimes I think it comes in handy. I just really love the game."
This has not always been such a great thing. When Garland was chosen for his first match last year, under Neale Daniher, he didn't feel ready. He was so shy he still struggled to make conversation with his teammates, and he wasn't even sure why he had been picked.
"I wasn't sure why I was there, and I think that hampered me a little bit," he said. "Even when I played my second game, about 10 weeks later, I felt more prepared for it form-wise, but mentally I still wasn't sure. I was thinking about all the blokes in history who only got one handball in their first game and I found that really hard.
"I guess when I first went in I was worried about making mistakes. Then, this year, I got sent back to Sandringham after three games and something sort of changed. I played two games down there and I just thought, 'I can do this level, so why shouldn't I try and step it up?' My confidence sort of flowed from there."
Garland's love for the game is even more interesting considering he didn't play football for a long time, a junior career being something he was not only uninterested in, but deliberately avoided for almost four years. Hamish Ogilvie, who ran the Tasmanian junior program for several seasons, spotted him for the first time when he was 14, playing in a school game in Hobart. Ogilvie was umpiring the match, but it was impossible to not keep an eye on the tall, athletic teenager.
"He was playing at centre half-back and every time the ball came down, he marked it," he said. "He would have taken 19 marks. At that level of footy, anyone with some talent will stand out. But it was clear he had something special."
After that match, Ogilvie asked Garland to play for the Southern Swans in the under-16 state championships. He agreed to, and played well, then didn't show up for an under-16 state team trial in Launceston. He played only under-17 football for North Hobart the following year, resisting Ogilvie's monthly calls, emails and pleas to join the state program. Having played against the likes of Jack Riewoldt, Mitch Thorp and Tom Hislop, Garland felt he could play well alongside them. But he had reasons for staying away.

"Coming from a single-parent family, there were things going on and it was more about not wanting to ask my mum to get me to training and putting that extra pressure on her," he said. "The other reservation I had was that I didn't want to just walk right in and take somebody's place in the team. They'd all done a pre-season and I hadn't, and I didn't want people thinking, this guy reckons he can just walk in and do what he wants.
"I always knew I could play when I was older, when I could get myself to training and games. I always loved the game, watching it and playing it, so I always thought I could do it if I wanted to, but at the time I just didn't want to be there."
The following year, though, the "harassment" stepped up. Off no pre-season training, Garland played some practice games for the North Hobart seniors, then kicked six goals in his second game and 10.6 in his fifth. His coach, Brent Williams, and a handful of teammates rounded him up, and told him he shouldn't be letting this chance go.
Talked into training with the under-18 team, Garland was then thrown on a plane to Melbourne, where the Mariners were to play the Western Jets in a TAC Cup match, on the premise that it would be handy for him to see how the team did things on the road.
Ogilvie's plan all along, however, was to play him. "We were a bit sneaky," he said. "We got out to Williamstown and we said, 'OK, this guy's out, you're playing. Out you go.' And he played really, really well. I'd almost given up on getting him in, to be honest. I didn't give up, but I never thought he would come."
From there, his journey quickly sped up. He played for the under-18 state side at the national championships, finishing the year in the Tassie Devils VFL side and finally at draft camp.
"It was weird. At one point Hamish came up to me and said, 'I haven't asked you, do you actually want to play AFL footy?' I hadn't thought about it and even after the camp I didn't know if I could make the transition.
"I guess I always thought that if I made the decision to go in the draft and did get drafted I was going to have a fair crack at it. Once I decided to nominate, I was always going to try and succeed."
That remains the case: Garland has enjoyed playing against Lance Franklin, Nick Riewoldt and Robert Murphy, among others, and is starting to think less about how big their names are. Over his first 14 games, he has slowly found himself worrying more and more about his team, rather than his own progression.
He also knows how proud his mother, Shirley, is of what he's achieved.
"She rings after every game and tapes every game," he said. "At the nursing home she works in, they all sit around and watch the game. Her last name is Miller, so because all the old people are pretty senile they all think her son is Brad Miller. She was pretty popular when he kicked the winning goal against Brisbane."

 

[aNty]

nice article

 

[master bate]

I love that last bit about Miller, and I knew he lost interest in the game through his teenage years but I didn't know it was to not burdenhis mum, thats a really selfless thing for a young guy.

 

[eliasd82]

it really shows you that these guys are just normal blokes just like you and me...
sometimes we put them up on this pedastal and forget that they are human and Not just football playing robots.

Top article.

 

[melbournemartin]

Didn't he used to post on Big Footy and a post was found where he bagged David Neitz?

Great article too btw.

 

[bloodpumpsRnB]

Didn't he used to post on Big Footy and a post was found where he bagged David Neitz?

Great article too btw.

Wouldn't surprise me considering the first few sentences. Great article.

 

[Dez!]

Seems like a really selfless kid, wouldn't surprise me if we see him doing kamikaze back with the flight or with the flight type marks.

Just watching Gameday this morning and watching some of the highlights from the 2nd time we played the Hawks, Garland and Warnock make quite the handy tag team.

 

[cannons]

Seems like a really selfless kid, wouldn't surprise me if we see him doing kamikaze back with the flight or with the flight type marks.

Just watching Gameday this morning and watching some of the highlights from the 2nd time we played the Hawks, Garland and Warnock make quite the handy tag team.

I'm not sure you can draw comparisons between acting selflessly in the interests of his mother and courageous pack marks, but I do agree on the Warnock/Garland sentiment. I saw those highlights on the Sunday Footy Show and they were impressive in assisting each other on a few seperate occasions. They could form a solid foundation for Melbourne's backline, and hopefully Frawley and Martin can become exceptional players too.

 

[Dez!]

I'm not sure you can draw comparisons between acting selflessly in the interests of his mother and courageous pack marks, but I do agree on the Warnock/Garland sentiment. I saw those highlights on the Sunday Footy Show and they were impressive in assisting each other on a few seperate occasions. They could form a solid foundation for Melbourne's backline, and hopefully Frawley and Martin can become exceptional players too.

Not what I meant, what I meant was that I don't think he will hesitate in throwing his body around for the sake of the team.