After showing promising signs in the final two games of the season, Taylor Garner has accepted a one-year deal at North Melbourne.
The 26-year-old believes a solid plan to get him back from a hamstring injury was the key to his revival.
“I’m obviously rapt to be re-signing. Considering the injury I had throughout the year, I didn’t even know I was going to get back to play at all but squeezed a couple of games in so I’m pumped,” Garner told North Media.
“We had a plan for the last eight games of the season which was getting me back to play the last two, so it actually worked out fairly well.
“There were still moments where I was thinking, ‘how am I going to get back?’ but then I just turned a corner and put out a couple of good performances and here I am.”
After 385 days out, it was great to see Garns back among the goals.
— North Melbourne (@NMFCOfficial) September 14, 2020
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Garner said having confidence in his ability kept him moving forward in what was a difficult year.
“The motivation was to play footy. I know my ability at its best can stand up against the best in the competition so I just love playing footy and just wanted to get back to do what I love doing,” he said.
“I owe it to the strength and conditioning team and medical team at the club; they’ve put in a huge amount of work to help me get my body right and get me back out on the field and I couldn’t be more grateful for that, and to the coaches for having the confidence in me.
“I’m thankful for the opportunity and look forward to repaying the club on the field.”
With a host of young emerging talent at the Kangaroos, Garner said an exciting future is ahead.
“We have a lot of talent on the list, obviously we’ve had one bad year but with a few blokes coming back from injury, we can turn the corner pretty quickly,” he added.
“It’s been a year of good opportunity for the younger guys to get some more experience under their belt and it will bode well for the future.”