Brent Harvey
Harvey at the 2017 AFL Grand Final parade
Personal information
Full name Brent Harvey
Nickname(s) Boomer
Date of birth (1978-05-14) 14 May 1978 (age 45)
Place of birth Preston, Victoria, Australia
Original team(s) Preston RSL (Vic)/Northern Knights
Draft 47th overall, 1995
North Melbourne
Height 175 cm (5 ft 9 in) [1]
Weight 75 kg (165 lb)
Position(s) Forward, Midfielder
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1996–2016 North Melbourne 432 (518)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
1999, 2008 Victoria 2 (8)
International team honours
2000–2008 Australia 11 (12)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2016.
2 State and international statistics correct as of 2008.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Brent Harvey (born 14 May 1978), often known by his nickname "Boomer", is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He holds the record for most matches played by an individual in VFL/AFL history, breaking Michael Tuck's previous VFL/AFL record in 2016 with a total of 432 games played.[2]

Career

Drafted by the North Melbourne Football Club in the third round of the 1995 AFL Draft, Harvey played in his only premiership side in 1999 after earning an E. J. Whitten Medal for being judged as the best player afield playing Victoria in the State of Origin series; it was the last time this medal was awarded, as the State of Origin series was put on indefinite hiatus at the end of the year. He won the Syd Barker Medal in 2003 as well as the Jim Stynes Medal in the International rules series, captaining the Australian team in the 2008 International Rules Series.[3]

A highlight of his 2003 season was against Carlton at the Telstra Dome in Round 22. Playing in his 150th game, Harvey kicked three goals in the Roos' record-breaking 124-point victory.[4]

He was the only North Melbourne player to have played every game at Manuka Oval during North Melbourne's nine-year stint at the venue.

In 2007, Harvey polled 22 votes in the Brownlow Medal, finishing equal second, and in 2008 Harvey polled 17 votes to finish in eighth place despite being one of the favourites to win the award in both years.[5][6]

In 2010, the week after a career-low five-possession game against St Kilda, Harvey led North Melbourne to a 25-point win over West Coast Eagles with a career-best 44 disposals, along with 11 marks, six goal-scoring assists, and one goal. Harvey also almost kicked a candidate for goal of the year, taking seven bounces of the ball in a run from defence before hitting the post with his shot at goal.[7] Incidentally, Harvey holds the record for most career bounces, with 1,055. He is the only player to have crossed the thousand-bounce threshold.[8] In 2011, playing his 312th game, he broke Glenn Archer's all-time club record for games played.

Harvey's grandfather Bill Harvey played two games for North Melbourne in 1948. His brother, Shane Harvey, played 14 games for Essendon and North Melbourne from 2002 to 2004.

Late career

In Round 17 of the 2015 AFL season, Harvey played his 400th career game, becoming the first North Melbourne player to do so and fourth overall. He kicked two goals in a performance that suggested his career was far from over.

In Round 19 of the 2016 AFL season, Harvey broke Michael Tuck's record for most VFL/AFL matches by a player.[9] In honour of Tuck's record, the Kangaroos wore the number 427 applied to the vertical royal-blue bars of their guernseys, and the number 50 on the 50-metre arc was replaced by 29, the number Harvey had worn for his entire AFL career. In August, North Melbourne announced they would not renew his contract for the 2017 season.[10]

On Friday 7 October 2016 at the 2016 Syd Barker Medal night, Brent Harvey announced his retirement from AFL football. He was the last-remaining VFL/AFL player born in the 1970s, and the last who had played in the 1990s.

In 2022, he was inducted into the AFL Hall Of Fame in his first year of eligibility.[11] At the time of the announcement, he was the AFL/VFL all-time leader in games played, with 432. Only four other players have achieved the feat of playing 400 AFL games: Tuck, Essendon's Dustin Fletcher, Richmond's Kevin Bartlett, and Port Adelaide and Hawthorn's Shaun Burgoyne.

In elite Australian rules football (the VFL/AFL, SANFL and WAFL), Harvey is one of seven players (Harvey and the other four VFL/AFL players being joined by Craig Bradley and Peter Carey) to have played 400 career premiership matches (home-and-away and finals matches), and is ranked third for most career premiership matches played behind Bradley (464, including 89 SANFL matches for Port Adelaide) and Burgoyne (433, including 26 SANFL matches for Port Adelaide) as of 2022.

Other matches

Harvey also played two matches for Victoria in State of Origin football and 46 matches in pre-season/night series competition for North Melbourne (which are counted as senior in the SANFL and WAFL but not the VFL/AFL). However, if these are included, Harvey played a total of 480 career senior matches.

The AFL record Harvey's total as 445 career senior games, excluding his pre-season/night series matches but including 11 International Rules matches, which are counted as senior by the AFL. If his pre-season/night series matches are included here, Harvey played an overall total of 491 senior career matches.

Depending on the viewpoint taken, Harvey broke Tuck's elite Victorian football record in Round 16 of 2016 (using the AFL's total), in Round 10 of 2016 (excluding International rules matches), or in the first pre-season round of 2016 (including International Rules matches).

As of 2022, Harvey's total of 445 senior career matches (using the AFL's total) ranks fifth behind Bradley (501), Peter Carey (467), Greg Phillips (447) and Russell Ebert (446), while if his pre-season/night series matches are included, Harvey's total of 480 or 491 senior career matches (depending on whether or not his International Rules matches are included) ranks second behind Bradley (519 or 528).

In 2023, Harvey broke his leg playing for North Heidelberg.[12]

Statistics

[13]
Legend
  G  
 Goals
  K  
 Kicks
  D  
 Disposals 
  T  
 Tackles
  B  
 Behinds 
  H  
 Handballs 
  M  
 Marks
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game)
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
1996 North Melbourne 29 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0
1997 North Melbourne 29 17 10 8 105 54 159 26 9 0.6 0.5 6.2 3.2 9.4 1.5 0.5
1998 North Melbourne 29 23 32 20 209 89 298 44 31 1.4 0.9 9.1 3.9 13.0 1.9 1.3
1999 North Melbourne 29 23 24 14 273 112 385 66 28 1.0 0.6 11.9 4.9 16.7 2.9 1.2
2000 North Melbourne 29 25 35 32 375 160 535 107 50 1.4 1.3 15.0 6.4 21.4 4.3 2.0
2001 North Melbourne 29 20 17 19 338 172 510 75 29 0.9 1.0 16.9 8.6 25.5 3.8 1.5
2002 North Melbourne 29 20 30 12 296 133 429 65 45 1.5 0.6 14.8 6.7 21.5 3.3 2.3
2003 North Melbourne 29 21 28 20 314 137 451 94 38 1.3 1.0 15.0 6.5 21.5 4.5 1.8
2004 North Melbourne 29 21 30 13 218 117 335 71 37 1.4 0.6 10.4 5.6 16.0 3.4 1.8
2005 North Melbourne 29 23 23 17 325 188 513 108 49 1.0 0.7 14.1 8.2 22.3 4.7 2.1
2006 North Melbourne 29 22 17 11 335 195 530 121 46 0.8 0.5 15.2 8.9 24.1 5.5 2.1
2007 North Melbourne 29 25 36 17 351 243 594 116 53 1.4 0.7 14.0 9.7 23.8 4.6 2.1
2008 North Melbourne 29 23 25 19 339 230 569 110 54 1.1 0.8 14.7 10.0 24.7 4.8 2.3
2009 North Melbourne 29 15 12 8 193 142 335 62 31 0.8 0.5 12.9 9.5 22.3 4.1 2.1
2010 North Melbourne 29 22 25 22 313 234 547 92 63 1.1 1.0 14.2 10.6 24.9 4.2 2.9
2011 North Melbourne 29 22 31 25 304 188 492 80 59 1.4 1.1 13.8 8.5 22.4 3.6 2.7
2012 North Melbourne 29 23 35 9 285 235 520 99 47 1.5 0.4 12.4 10.2 22.6 4.3 2.0
2013 North Melbourne 29 16 19 9 210 175 385 75 43 1.2 0.6 13.1 10.9 24.1 4.7 2.7
2014 North Melbourne 29 22 29 20 310 249 559 106 66 1.3 0.9 14.1 11.3 25.4 4.8 3.0
2015 North Melbourne 29 25 24 15 304 266 570 74 53 1.0 0.6 12.2 10.6 22.8 3.0 2.1
2016 North Melbourne 29 23 36 24 290 206 496 98 56 1.6 0.7 12.6 9.0 21.6 4.3 2.4
Career 432 518 334 5687 3526 9213 1689 887 1.2 0.7 13.1 8.1 21.3 3.9 2.0

Honours and achievements

Brownlow Medal votes
Season Votes
1996 0
1997 0
1998 4
1999 6
2000 14
2001 16
2002 10
2003 16
2004 3
2005 11
2006 6
2007 22
2008 17
2009 9
2010 13
2011 8
2012 4
2013 9
2014 15
2015 4
2016 4
Total 191
Key:
Red / Italics = Ineligible

See also

References

  1. ^ https://www.nmfc.com.au/news/712606/boomers-tall-story-hits-new-heights
  2. ^ Schmook, Nathan. ""Match report: 427th heaven as Roos win for Boomer's bash"". "AFL.com.au. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  3. ^ Brent Harvey to rule roost against Irish Archived 13 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Kangaroos wallop Blues". The Age. 31 August 2003. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  5. ^ "Sporting News – NFL – NCAA – NBA – MLB – NASCAR – UFC – WWE". sportal.com.au. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  6. ^ Bookies sweat on Harvey
  7. ^ Chadwick, Guy Hand and Justin (10 April 2010). "Harvey's best effort caps day of redemption". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  8. ^ "AFL Tables - Career Stats - Totals and Averages". afltables.com. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  9. ^ Timms, Daryl (28 July 2016). "Brent Harvey will wear long sleeves in honour of record holder Michael Tuck". Herald Sun. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  10. ^ "North Melbourne won't offer Brent Harvey, Drew Petrie, Nick Dal Santo, Michael Firrito contracts for 2017". Herald Sun. News Corp Australia. 24 August 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  11. ^ John, Nathan. "Brent Harvey enters the Australian Football Hall of Fame". NMFC.com.au. North Melbourne Football Club. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  12. ^ AFL icon Brent Harvey rushed to hospital with sickening injury
  13. ^ "AFL Tables – Brent Harvey – Stats – Statistics". afltables.com. Retrieved 30 July 2019.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brent Harvey.
Kangaroos 1999 AFL premiers
Captains of the North Melbourne Football Club
North Melbourne Football Club: Team of the Century
Syd Barker Medal · North Melbourne Football Club best and fairest winners
Australian Football Media Association · Player of the Year
Herald Sun · Player of the Year
VFL/AFL club games record holders
2000 All-Australian team
2005 All-Australian team
2007 All-Australian team
2008 All-Australian team
Brent Harvey in international rules teams
Victorian team – 1999 State of Origin
Victorian Team – 2008 Hall of Fame Tribute Match
E. J. Whitten Medal winners
1995 AFL national draft
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