Past #28: Shane Harvey - 3 games for North

WHY SHANE HARVEY WOULD HAVE PREFERRED TO GET DRAFTED AS A 25-YEAR-OLD
BY SEN

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Former Essendon and North Melbourne forward Shane Harvey says he wishes he had been drafted as a 25-year-old rather than at 18 years of age.
Harvey managed just 14 career games across both clubs but when he went back to play local footy, he kicked 100 goals in a season on nine different occasions for three different clubs.


The 36-year-old has been playing at North Heidelberg in the Northern Football Netball League, which is the same club that brother Brent plays at, for over 10 years.
Harvey says this success may have translated to his AFL career if he was drafted at a later stage of his life.

“A lot of people talk about the draft age but if I had have got drafted at 25, I reckon I would’ve been a hell of a lot better player than getting drafted at 19,” he told Kevin Bartlett and Terry Wallace on SEN Drive.

“I was a lot more mature and enjoyed my footy a lot more.
“It was obviously a little easier, local footy, than the AFL ranks.
“Now at 25, 26 (years of age), a lot of players nowadays get an opportunity I think just because they mature a lot more and they’re bigger bodies and they’re ready to go, ready-made AFL players.”
Mature-age recruits that currently play in the AFL include Carlton’s Michael Gibbons, St Kilda’s Matthew Parker and Melbourne’s Marty Hore.
 

amaz199

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 5, 2015
7,675
19,644
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Places a bit of perspective for teams to consider.

Sam Gibson got drafted at mature age and immediately had an impact. The guy could run, cover defensive deficiencies and kicked some nice goals in his debut season. Sounds remarkably similar to Dumont and he's quite close to mature age as well. Funnily enough he is having his best season stats wise so far.

Nothing wrong with mature age recruitment as long as the player isn't injury prone and can slot right into the core group of players that build a premiership.
 

Kangaroo Cat

Club Legend
Jun 2, 2019
1,331
5,465
AFL Club
North Melbourne
As an immigrant who is relatively new to AFL could someone please explain to me why the bulldogs supporters hate north so much? I mean I always liked the doggies ..
 

Quintero

All Australian
May 16, 2019
829
969
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
River Plate
As an immigrant who is relatively new to AFL could someone please explain to me why the bulldogs supporters hate north so much? I mean I always liked the doggies ..

Well up until 2016 we were more successful than they were. 1998 round22 is a good game to check out.

Probably the best game I've been too, certainly the highest quality wet weather game I can remember.

2 inner city smallish clubs who hate each other's guts.
 

Kangaroo Cat

Club Legend
Jun 2, 2019
1,331
5,465
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Well up until 2016 we were more successful than they were. 1998 round22 is a good game to check out.

Probably the best game I've been too, certainly the highest quality wet weather game I can remember.

2 inner city smallish clubs who hate each other's guts.
Thank you :) I feel sad i missed the whole 90's, seen a few of the games where I can and wow, i ache to see more of that style
 




‘Freak of nature’: Shane Harvey, brother of Brent, has also enjoyed a remarkable footy career​

Brothers Shane and Brent Harvey took very different career paths in the AFL. But to this day, Shane is a giant in the Victorian local leagues, writes PAUL AMY.

Paul Amy

@paulamy375

8 min read
August 17, 2022 - 6:00AM
[PLAYERCARD]Shane Harvey[/PLAYERCARD], brother of Brent, has also enjoyed a remarkable footy career.

Shane Harvey, brother of Brent, has also enjoyed a remarkable footy career.

One of Victorian local football’s great goalkickers was booting them long before he ran onto a ground.

Shane Harvey and his brother, Brent, would kick the ball through bedroom doors and gaps in the couch at the family home in Preston.

Trees in the front yard were another target for the knee-high Harveys.

In the hallway and the driveway they made their own angles and their own fun.

“I think we started doing it when we were babies,’’ Shane Harvey says.

He’s still doing it. At age 39 the North Heidelberg forward remains one of the local game’s most prolific goalkickers and exciting players.

His former coach at North Heidelberg, Steve Saddington, calls him a “freak of nature’’ and says it’s ridiculous how much talent he has.

Harvey, he says, “does things I’ve never seen other players do’’.

[PLAYERCARD]Shane Harvey[/PLAYERCARD] (right) is a “freak of nature”. Picture: Hamish Blair

Shane Harvey (right) is a “freak of nature”. Picture: Hamish Blair

His current coach, former AFL forward Jason Heatley, says he’ll go down as “one of community footy’s all-time greats’’.

Last year Harvey became the first player in the Northern league to reach the 1000-goal milestone. Add in his goals in country ranks and he’s giving 1500 a nudge.

He just wishes he had kicked a few more in the AFL.

Brent ‘Boomer’ Harvey seemed to play forever. When he retired from North Melbourne at the end of 2016 he had up a record 432 AFL matches and enough medals to fill a museum.

Shane Harvey’s career in league football was far briefer.

“Just a little bit shorter, like 418 games shorter,’’ he says.

Like his brother, Shane Harvey came through Preston RSL juniors and was drafted from the Northern Knights.

Essendon selected him with its first pick, at No.18 in the order, in the 2001 national draft.

His debut came in round six against Fremantle in 2002 and he kicked the Bombers’ first three goals.


[PLAYERCARD]Shane Harvey[/PLAYERCARD] started his brief AFL career with Essendon. Picture: George Salpigtidis.

Shane Harvey started his brief AFL career with Essendon. Picture: George Salpigtidis.

He was Brent’s little brother, but everything pointed to him going on to make his own name in the game.

“Harvey was quite good for us today … that was a good little effort by ‘Harvs’ and we might find one there,’’ Bombers coach Kevin Sheedy had said after the Fremantle match, which was also notable for a serious facial injury to Essendon champion James Hird.

But Harvey didn’t last at Windy Hill. He was let go after 11 games and two years with the Bombers.

The Kangaroos took him on as a rookie in and he played three matches alongside his brother, booting four goals against Hawthorn at the MCG in one of them. His celebrations were as eye-catching as the colours in his hair.

Just like Sheedy two years earlier, Roos coach Dani Laidley had some good words about Harvey, calling him “every bit as talented as his brother’’.

“He’s got to decide whether he wants it bad enough, and he can be a good player if he works hard enough – it’s as simple as that,’’ Laidley said after Harvey’s haul against the Hawks.

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t waste his talent.’’

But he played only one more game for North, and was delisted at the end of 2005.

For that, Harvey blames no one but himself.


[PLAYERCARD]Shane Harvey[/PLAYERCARD] booted four goals against Hawthorn for the Kangaroos. Picture: Michael Klein

Shane Harvey booted four goals against Hawthorn for the Kangaroos. Picture: Michael Klein


“To play AFL, you’ve got to have the worth ethic, the talent, the will to succeed, and unfortunately from my own stupidness I didn’t work hard enough for it,’’ he says.

“I got to the system too early. Thought it was just going to happen without working. It doesn’t happen that way. I was out the door quick-smart.

“I wish I got drafted as a 23, 24-year-old. I think things would have worked out differently. I got there at 18 years of age and thought I was good and thought I’d already made it. I didn’t realise how hard you actually had to work to have a proper career.’’

His brother, he says, was “always there for guidance, but I suppose he wanted me to forge my own career and work it out for myself’’.

“I probably didn’t go to him as much as I should have,’’ he says.

“My first year at North, I saw what he did and I tried my butt off pre-season, ran as hard as I could and thought I was in really good shape and ready to go. I didn’t start off in the seniors and maybe dropped my bundle a bit until I got my opportunity. It took longer than expected. I suppose halfway through my last year I gave up on it and was ready to finish and head back to local.’’


Shane tried to follow brother Brent’s example at the Kangaroos. Picture: Michael Klein

Shane tried to follow brother Brent’s example at the Kangaroos. Picture: Michael Klein
*****


If Shane Harvey disappointed in the AFL, he has dominated in local football, kicking eight centuries of goals.

And he has done it as a 178cm player often appearing in the midfield, not a 195cm, 100kg spearhead.

As Harvey has seen it, he’s been able to beat smaller opponents in the air and taller opponents on the ground.

“I can be difficult to match-up on,’’ he says. “But I’ve definitely been beaten by a few blokes, that’s for sure.’’

Harvey’s first post-AFL stop was at Wakool, in the Riverina region of NSW, where he went with a group of mates from high school. He stayed for two seasons, kicking the century in both.

In 2008 he joined North Heidelberg (where his father, Neil, had played for many years), marking his arrival with a ton of goals and the Division 1 league best and fairest.

Two years later he accepted a too-good-to-refuse offer from Barooga.

“We had a young son. It really helped with the money side of things and whatnot,’’ Harvey says. He raised the century there too.

He was back at Shelley Park 12 months later, but in 2012 Harvey and his young family moved to the Gold Coast, hoping the warmer weather would help his eldest son’s health.

They stayed for eight months; Harvey started the season at Southport and finished it back at North Heidelberg.

He’s been there since, his name part of the Northern vernacular and his goal kicking often spectacular.

Saddington played with Harvey for two years and then coached him for four at North Heidelberg. He enjoyed every bit of it.

[PLAYERCARD]Shane Harvey[/PLAYERCARD] in action for North Heidelberg. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Shane Harvey in action for North Heidelberg. Picture: Andy Brownbill


“He reads the ball in the air, he’s a step ahead of everyone, he’s a freak of nature to be honest,’’ he says.

“You talk about all his goals, he’s kicked a lot of them as a midfielder. To be honest we pretty much let him play where he wanted – you just had to try to make out it was your decision! If he was quiet we’d move him to the wing. Then all of a sudden he’d be in the goalsquare. He’d find a way to get forward. And kick you a goal.’’

Saddington laughs as he remembers nights at training when Harvey looked injured and couldn’t get out of a jog.

Then the balls would come out and no one could catch him.

“When he needs to go he’s one of the fastest players around,’’ he says.

Saddington adds: “I wish he had gone to the next level and committed himself, because I don’t know how good he could have been.’’

Harvey figured in North’s 2014 and 2017 Division 2 premierships and went past the 100-goal mark in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

There was a club-record bag of 17 against Watsonia in 2017.

“I’m pretty proud of my efforts after coming back to local footy,’’ Harvey says. “I suppose when you look back at it and see the number of goals and the number of games, it works out to be pretty decent.’’

Brent’s career brought him fame and acclaim.

But he’s always found enjoyment in his brother’s football.


[PLAYERCARD]Brent Harvey[/PLAYERCARD] has always enjoyed watching his brother play. Picture: Michael Klein

Brent Harvey has always enjoyed watching his brother play. Picture: Michael Klein


“He’s kicked almost 1000 goals and probably set up half of that as well. When you take that into account he’s had a decent little career,” he told Leader last year, after Shane had raised his 1000th goal.

“He’s been an absolute star of the competition for a long period of time. Even when I was playing for North Melbourne I used to come and watch, and taking the brothers thing out of it, you just have to sit back in awe.

“I reckon there’s 300 in there that no one other person in the world could kick. He’s got some tricks, young Shane.

“You can’t help but actually laugh. He’ll get the ball on the boundary and you think that can’t go through but it does and you just think wow.

“People might think they’re a fluke but I can promise you they’re not; he does them at training, he does them at home, growing up with him he was always kicking balls through doors or up the driveway.”

North Heidelberg president Warren Haysom says Harvey is one of those rare players who attracts spectators, as distinct from club supporters, to local football.

He regards the club’s No.9 as “as good as any player I’ve seen at local level … incredible player … entertainment-wise, great value and against good opposition too”.

“So many tricks to him,’’ Hayson says, remembering Harvey’s performance in the 2012 Grand Final against Epping, when he kicked nine goals in a narrow loss.
*****


The Harvey brothers now play together for North Heidelberg. Picture: Michael Klein

The Harvey brothers now play together for North Heidelberg. Picture: Michael Klein

In 2017 Brent Harvey joined his brother at North Heidelberg, promptly winning the league medal. Shane finished second in the voting.

Best men at each other’s weddings, they are great mates as well as brothers and always said they would like to play one or two years together.
Five years later they’re still teammates, Brent still running relentlessly at age 44.

“It’s just amazing how he keeps on playing,’’ Shane Harvey says. “He probably would have had 45 touches last weekend. He’s still going pretty well! Just covers the ground all day … I suppose that comes from playing in the AFL for 20 years. He outworks everybody. He’s a footy nut. There aren’t too many like him.’’

Although five years younger than Brent, Shane Harvey says he’s $1.04 to retire before his brother, “no ifs or buts about that’’.

The twin thieves of age and time are kicking in.

“I’m not going as well as I used to but the passion is still there,’’ Harvey, a sprinkler fitter and the father of three sons, he says.

“I’m still contributing.’’

He is playing on in the hope of winning a Division 1 premiership with the Bulldogs.

“That’s the ultimate goal,’’ Harvey says.

 
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