LAST Monday Brent Harvey told AFL.com.au he wanted to play on for at least another season.
After Harvey inspired North Melbourne to a brave 24-point win over Essendon on Sunday his coach Brad Scott will probably want him to play on for as long as his 34-year-old body allows.
The Roos were undermanned against the Bombers after game-ending injuries to Leigh Adams (dislocated left shoulder) and Daniel Wells (calf) left them one short on the interchange bench from late in the first quarter.
When North kicked just two goals in the second quarter to trail the Bombers by two points at half-time, betting agencies reported punters were rushing to jump on the Essendon bandwagon.
But from the seven-minute mark of the third term Harvey needed just three minutes to completely change the mood of the game.
PRESS PLAY above to watch Harvey's highlights | YouTube
First, he marked in front of Bomber defender Michael Hibberd, 55m out from goal, and then left him standing on the mark with a trademark baulk as he ran inside 50 and kicked truly.
A minute later he snapped another major after a robust marking attempt from Robbie Tarrant created a spillage.
He then completed a three-minute treble, pouncing on the crumbs of a Drew Petrie-Dustin Fletcher marking wrestle in the goalsquare.
Harvey's burst took North from four points down to 14 up. It also seemed to convince his young teammates that they could beat the Bombers despite their injury toll.
After the game Harvey downplayed his role in the Roos' win, saying the team had drawn on its belief it was "super fit".
Harvey admitted he had run to the bench a couple of times for a breather but hadn't found a teammate ready to replace him on the ground.
Not that it particularly bothered him.
"That's part of football," Harvey said.
"If I had it my way I probably wouldn't want to come off anyway. Rest forward and play in the midfield, that's old-school football and that's probably the way I would prefer it.
"But in today's game you can't do that, you've got to rotate. As it worked out, we knew that we were fit enough to run it out."
Harvey was also keen to defer credit to the young core of North's team, whose development has been critical to its streak of eight wins from the past nine rounds.
Harvey singled out Sam Wright, Ryan Bastinac and mature-age recruit Sam Gibson for praise, but said he now had confidence the North team as a whole could perform consistently.
"With our group you just know what you're going to get every week now. Going back two or three years ago I wasn't too sure," Harvey said.
"But right now there's a pretty steely look in the eyes every time you look at somebody in the eye and that's a fantastic feeling I can tell you.
"It means that we're going forward and that's pretty exciting."
Scott, however, was in doubt just how important Harvey had been to the Roos' win over the Bombers.
"The cream just rises to the top particularly under pressure. He never ceases to amaze, does he?" Scott said.
"[He's] a real competitor, loves to win, hates to lose and those efforts in the third quarter just typify what he's done for over 330 games now.
"[It was] just a fantastic effort [from] a great leader and you run out of superlatives when you talk about 'Boomer'."
You suspect Scott hopes to be able tap into Harvey's leadership qualities for as long as he can. Even if they continue to leave him grasping for the right adjective.
Nick Bowen covers North Melbourne news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nick
