STRUCK DOWN

The veteran defender was struck down by an ACL injury in a pre season game at Casey and played no further part in the club's 2017 campaign. Will turn 30 early next season and there must be some doubt as to his playing future despite having another year left on his contract.

Date of Birth: 28 April, 1988

Height: 191cm

Weight: 92kg

Games MFC 2017: 0

Career Total: 141

Goals MFC 2017: 0

Career Total: 16

Next.

It’ll be interesting to see whether he does play on or an agreement is reached 

If he does, does anyone really expect him to make the senior side?

I think he can definitely add experience at Casey, and he’s another player from the last decade who ‘seems like a good bloke’ but is a vanilla footballer - has no massive weapons to his game, tries hard, but is fairly limited from an ‘impact’ perspective

remember when he ‘held’ Buddy (I think the then Hawk kicked 3.4 or something, but everyone seemed to agree Garland play well) and he looked like he might develop into a very good defender?

He was sort of just ‘there’ over the last few seasons before the acl, and we’ve definitely got a tall defensive crew who have gone past him - is he really better tall defensive depth than Keilty, J Smith, etc.? 

I tend to think not

Can he play a different role?

I saw him debut against the Swans at the scg - from memory, didn’t have a touch until the third quarter - and he’s had a few notable cameos getting on the scoreboard; maybe they’ll try him as a forward at Casey?

Another MFC list management masterstroke: a three year contract for a bloke who was destined to spend the majority of the contract in the VFL.

We need to implement a rule that states no long term contracts for players aged over 26 unless they are in the top 10 players on the list.

That said, I think Garland offers more next year than we'll get from the likes of Kennedy, Vandenberg & McKenna.