JOEL Garner wears a lot of hats around the Richmond Football Club.

Indigenous player development manager, VFL development coach, and on Saturday, clutch match winning goalkicker.

"I'm very glad that the scores were level when I was lucky enough to take the mark, because I was a little bit nervous going back at the top of my run up there," Garner said on the State of Play podcast.

It was a significant win, not only because the Tigers had found themselves 23 points down at the final break, taking on coach Jake Batchelor's former side in Sandringham. Three quick goals to start the fourth quarter kept hopes alive, until Garner found himself with ball in hand after the siren.

"It was all (a) bit of chaos there toward the last sort of five, 10 minutes. The runner was out there giving us time updates and where we had to be on the ground," Garner said.

"As you can imagine, those chaotic moments, just a bit of luck needs to go our way, and we got a bit of luck towards the end which was good."

And now, despite some significant turnover both on the playing list and coaching panel, the Tigers are off to the perfect start for the 2025 VFL season. Two wins from two starts couldn't have been possible without the steady hand of Garner guiding the new arrivals.

"A bit of turnover last year, some senior players moving on, so it's been really nice to work with 'Batch' and the other coaches, and learn a lot from them," Garner said.

"I work at the club full time as well, so I feel like I'm here a fair bit, in and around the place, so it's great to get some learnings from the AFL staff and the AFL coaches, and put that into practice when I'm out on the ground.

"I don't see myself as much as a coach, it's more of an on-field leadership role to help and assist, just get a bit more maturity in our team, in and around the ball. So, it's been great, it's been really, really good so far, and I'm really enjoying my time here."

Garner's full-time role at Richmond is working with the club's Indigenous players, himself a Marra man.

"It's a space I'm really passionate about," Garner said.

"It's really nice to work with particularly Rhyan Mansell and Maurice Rioli in the program here and get to watch their career unfold. As you know, they've become really good players for our footy club.

"But I think the coaching stuff at the moment, it's just good part time. It's good to learn and share my short experience and my time in football with the younger guys coming through. So, just trying to help out where I can."