Australian rules football is littered with players whose bright careers were cut short because their bodies failed them. Even for those who have long and fulfilling careers, either the mental drive, body or both gives way in their early to mid-thirties.
Key position players and contested midfielders can find the end comes quicker, their bone crunching roles and pack crashing wears the flesh down. For outside players, the strain comes from the marathons the modern game has them running.
In such a physically pulverising sport, this defiance of the inevitability of time makes Brent Harvey such a marvel. But what has allowed this illustrious career to hit the 400 game mark? Is there some kind of hidden truth of longevity that is maybe unattainable to the average footballer?
Harvey’s role has often bounced back and forth between classic rover, winger or damaging presence on half forward. His strength through the legs and the resulting acceleration allows him find time and space, a precious commodity in the modern game.
A profile published by the Herald Sun in early 2014 juxtaposed the pre-season training regimes of Harvey and first year father-son Luke McDonald. There doesn’t appear to be a clandestine method of prolonging a career in the details, but rather a re-occurring theme of understanding your own body and what’s it’s trying to tell you.
Harvey has never missed a pre-season in his career, a gruelling slog of time trials and weight sessions in the warm summer weather. As a supporter, the tales of players tweaking a hamstring or muscle in the off-season comes with a shrug – they should be OK for round one.
Harvey points out this isn’t as straight forward when discussing the importance of not having setbacks, work load or injury-wise. “If you’re chasing tail you’re probably not going to get picked for the NAB Cup and you’re behind the eight ball straight away. By round 10 you probably find yourself in the reserves still behind because all the other guys are still improving while you’re catching up.”
Terry Daniher, albeit it in a different era, pointed out his own struggles with over-doing it in an extended pre-season when isolated after serving an 11-match ban for striking in the 1990 grand final. “I was told, ‘If you do these heavy weight sessions it will make you stronger’… but it ended up giving me a lot of back soreness and hammy tightness, which did affect me on the footy field when I came back. It stiffened me up and I really battled, so in the end I think the weights did more damage than good.”
Daniher, who like Harvey had an intense running regime, cautioned against overdoing it.
Genes are another key element in excelling in fitness, influencing everything from body fat levels, aerobic capacity and the metabolism. Whilst Harvey is likely gifted the tools to take him to this achievement, it took years of painful slog and the correct attitude to become the astounding outlier he is today.
Our fascination with the defying of the passage of time has been well documented in many myths and legends over the course of history, namely the search for the Fountain of Youth. Who says that hasn’t transitioned into a more modern setting with our record breaking sport stars the globe over, like a Ryan Giggs or Francesco Totti being able to cut it with players half their age?
Harvey comfortably belongs in the company of North’s greatest – Carey, Grieg, Schimmelbusch, Cable, Blight, Glendinning, Dench and Archer. A hero (and at times anti-hero) of a North Melbourne era that wasn’t about dizzying heights, but brave survival and adjusting to a corporate competition.
Harvey is an imperfect champion. His captaincy was contentious and his on-field behaviour is sometimes abrasive and maddening, a victim of white-line fever. Some champions can be shared, others can only be owned by a certain group. Harvey is the latter. A Michael Voss everyman might cut through the tribalism, but Harvey’s intensity and energy has its outright fans or detractors which is usually down partisan lines.
He has offered to North fans and team-mates his whole self, flaws and all. It’s not hard to imagine the temptations in taking off to another club, fulfilling loftier ambitions elsewhere rather than staying in a middling team. He’s a testament to the creed and long held battle mentality that comes from Arden St – small in stature but ferocious and gritty to the end.
There is still a little left to go in his story and he’s likely after this weekend to re-focus and begin eying off the next milestone. But for now, it’s a sincere thanks for 400 wild, engaging and dynamic games of footy.
