Squizz
Brownlow Medallist
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2007
- Posts
- 14,562
- Reaction score
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- AFL Club
- St Kilda
Lot to like about this bloke. I've put the whole article in, but the highlighted bit gives me great comfort.
THE GOSPEL, as told by Saint Robert
Emma Quayle | August 23, 2008 - 8:00PM
CLINTON Jones will remember watching Robert Harvey train, pushing himself past every training cone even in the middle of January. He'll remember him hunched over at bounce-downs, waiting for a tiny glimpse of where the ball is intending to go before taking off after it. He will also remember being in the St Kilda rooms before games, getting himself ready, then getting a tap on the shoulder from his quiet, understated and most legendary teammate.
"Sometimes, he'll come over before games, just walk over to you. You're never really expecting it, but he'll just come up and say, 'We really need you today', or something simple like that," the 22-game Saint said this week.
"I think with Harvs, when he does something like that, you really take it seriously because of the man that he is. If he says something positive, it can give you a really big lift. You feel like it means something, because it's coming from him."
Harvey will wear the red, white and black perhaps only one more time, but he will not easily be forgotten, not least by the young St Kilda players who are starting out as the 37-year-old departs. Some of them are half Harvey's age; many of them have played in around 1/37th of the games he has. But all are trying to figure out how to follow in his steps, examining each footprint very closely.
"We're always hearing about how the average AFL career lasts four years, and that tells you how tough it is for most players. None of us are even near that, and to think that he's been playing for 21 years is just amazing," said Jarryn Geary, who has made a 10-game debut this year.
"Sometimes it just seems like a number, but then other times I think it's so hard just to get here to the club, then to get a game. It makes you wonder how he's been able to do it for so long. You look at him for the answers."
The big answer, it seems is work rate. Ben McEvoy, St Kilda's first-round draft pick last year, can remember Harvey coming to him in his first week at the club and telling him how important it was to take the right attitude into every single training session, while Brad Howard can recall wondering how Harvey could possibly look so exhausted one moment, and be on the other side of the oval the next. "He's always thinking of the next contest, and figuring out how to get there," he Howard.
Jones' memories, meanwhile, are of easing towards each orange cone while running laps of Moorabbin in his first-ever summer sessions, only to watch Harvey run past him, bursting towards the line each time. "In your very first training session with him, you realise how hard he works and what it takes to be an elite footballer. It'd be January and he'd be flying straight past you," he said. "You'd think, 'I'd better get moving here, if I want to play in this team'."
Harvey is not a huge talker but, like Jones, McEvoy has listened wherever possible. "He doesn't say a lot, but he sort of knows the right things to say," he said. "He has time for everyone, and it's a credit to him. He would've had so many people and players go through here in his time, but he still treats everyone like an individual and with so much respect. It's excellent, really."
As David Armitage explains it, Harvey is able to "somehow realise the things you want or need to know, and give you all the help he can." The inexhaustible midfielder has also helped Robert Eddy, with improving his mind as much as his body.
Eddy arrived at St Kilda as a rookie at the end of 2007. When he walked through the door, he thought about how much work he'd done to get there, then had a similar experience to Jones and was hit with how much further there was to go - to get on the senior list to start with. He made his way into the team against Fremantle eight weeks ago and has held his spot since, with Harvey helping him work out how to get there.
Working as hard as possible physically, Eddy has realised, is only one part of trying to push himself to a new level. "Like everyone says, he doesn't talk a lot, but when he says something he always seems to be on the money," he said.
"When he says something I think he really means it, and he's helped me out a bit with my mental preparation, just being prepared to play games and even to train well. It's pretty hard to keep your head right all year, so he's given me a few good pointers with that and he's always willing to share whatever he has; all the knowledge he has he's willing to give to us young guys.
"I suppose when you first come to the club, you're thinking, 'How can I work harder, even harder than I have?' But there are a lot of little things that you just don't realise, like little training habits.
"But he's mostly helped me with the mental side of it all - how to pick yourself up in the second half of a game if you're not going too well, and other things like that. It's definitely helped me this year, so that's something he's given me that I'll sort of try to take with me."
Like Eddy, Jones made his way into the senior team after a season on the rookie list, playing six matches at the end of last year and making an instant impression with his liking for laying tackles. This year, he proved his courage further with a brave first-round mark and has played another 15 games, feeling a little more comfortable among his senior teammates.
"I think you do feel a bit better when you play a few in a row," he said. "The only way to really earn respect is to play a few games, and you also work out whether you can fit in the team. You start to get a better idea of what you have to do."
He, like the others, has a career to forge now as Harvey leaves, and leaves them to it. McEvoy sampled senior football against the Dockers in round 13, and has gone back to the VFL feeling like he has a better idea of what life is like up there, and what he'll need to do to get back and stay there. "It makes you want to work harder," he said.
Howard hasn't added to the two games he played last year, but feels a better, improving player for what he's done and experienced this season.
"The way you learn is through experience, so to get a couple of games last year was good, it gives you a pretty good idea of where you need to get to," he said. "I think all parts of my game are starting to come along a bit better, just having more time here and knowing what I need to work on, and just feeling more comfortable around the place."
Armitage also notched his first few games last year, but has slipped in and out of the side in his second season, an 11-game year so far. It has been frustrating at times, but the 20-year-old is certain that even if he can't play until he's 37, he wants a long career. It means he is learning to be patient, and trusts in coach Ross Lyon's plans for him.
"I think in the long run, it's a good thing to earn your games. Rossy says he gives most guys a four-year apprenticeship, that's what he likes to call it, so there are no easy games or anything like that," he said.
"You know you have to work really hard even to get a look-in, but it's definitely a good thing to do that because, in the long run, it might mean you're going to be at the club and playing footy for a long time. It doesn't need to happen all at once.
"Something Harvs said the other day when he retired, which stuck in my mind, was that after 21 years he still didn't feel like he'd made it. He said he never reached a point where he thought he was there and that surprised me a bit.
"I suppose now I want to go down that line and never think I've made it, that there's always something you can work on, work harder at. You can see that in him even now, with the way he trains he's always working on particular things and trying to improve and help other people improve. That's something I'll try to remember."
THE GOSPEL, as told by Saint Robert
Emma Quayle | August 23, 2008 - 8:00PM
CLINTON Jones will remember watching Robert Harvey train, pushing himself past every training cone even in the middle of January. He'll remember him hunched over at bounce-downs, waiting for a tiny glimpse of where the ball is intending to go before taking off after it. He will also remember being in the St Kilda rooms before games, getting himself ready, then getting a tap on the shoulder from his quiet, understated and most legendary teammate.
"Sometimes, he'll come over before games, just walk over to you. You're never really expecting it, but he'll just come up and say, 'We really need you today', or something simple like that," the 22-game Saint said this week.
"I think with Harvs, when he does something like that, you really take it seriously because of the man that he is. If he says something positive, it can give you a really big lift. You feel like it means something, because it's coming from him."
Harvey will wear the red, white and black perhaps only one more time, but he will not easily be forgotten, not least by the young St Kilda players who are starting out as the 37-year-old departs. Some of them are half Harvey's age; many of them have played in around 1/37th of the games he has. But all are trying to figure out how to follow in his steps, examining each footprint very closely.
"We're always hearing about how the average AFL career lasts four years, and that tells you how tough it is for most players. None of us are even near that, and to think that he's been playing for 21 years is just amazing," said Jarryn Geary, who has made a 10-game debut this year.
"Sometimes it just seems like a number, but then other times I think it's so hard just to get here to the club, then to get a game. It makes you wonder how he's been able to do it for so long. You look at him for the answers."
The big answer, it seems is work rate. Ben McEvoy, St Kilda's first-round draft pick last year, can remember Harvey coming to him in his first week at the club and telling him how important it was to take the right attitude into every single training session, while Brad Howard can recall wondering how Harvey could possibly look so exhausted one moment, and be on the other side of the oval the next. "He's always thinking of the next contest, and figuring out how to get there," he Howard.
Jones' memories, meanwhile, are of easing towards each orange cone while running laps of Moorabbin in his first-ever summer sessions, only to watch Harvey run past him, bursting towards the line each time. "In your very first training session with him, you realise how hard he works and what it takes to be an elite footballer. It'd be January and he'd be flying straight past you," he said. "You'd think, 'I'd better get moving here, if I want to play in this team'."
Harvey is not a huge talker but, like Jones, McEvoy has listened wherever possible. "He doesn't say a lot, but he sort of knows the right things to say," he said. "He has time for everyone, and it's a credit to him. He would've had so many people and players go through here in his time, but he still treats everyone like an individual and with so much respect. It's excellent, really."
As David Armitage explains it, Harvey is able to "somehow realise the things you want or need to know, and give you all the help he can." The inexhaustible midfielder has also helped Robert Eddy, with improving his mind as much as his body.
Eddy arrived at St Kilda as a rookie at the end of 2007. When he walked through the door, he thought about how much work he'd done to get there, then had a similar experience to Jones and was hit with how much further there was to go - to get on the senior list to start with. He made his way into the team against Fremantle eight weeks ago and has held his spot since, with Harvey helping him work out how to get there.
Working as hard as possible physically, Eddy has realised, is only one part of trying to push himself to a new level. "Like everyone says, he doesn't talk a lot, but when he says something he always seems to be on the money," he said.
"When he says something I think he really means it, and he's helped me out a bit with my mental preparation, just being prepared to play games and even to train well. It's pretty hard to keep your head right all year, so he's given me a few good pointers with that and he's always willing to share whatever he has; all the knowledge he has he's willing to give to us young guys.
"I suppose when you first come to the club, you're thinking, 'How can I work harder, even harder than I have?' But there are a lot of little things that you just don't realise, like little training habits.
"But he's mostly helped me with the mental side of it all - how to pick yourself up in the second half of a game if you're not going too well, and other things like that. It's definitely helped me this year, so that's something he's given me that I'll sort of try to take with me."
Like Eddy, Jones made his way into the senior team after a season on the rookie list, playing six matches at the end of last year and making an instant impression with his liking for laying tackles. This year, he proved his courage further with a brave first-round mark and has played another 15 games, feeling a little more comfortable among his senior teammates.
"I think you do feel a bit better when you play a few in a row," he said. "The only way to really earn respect is to play a few games, and you also work out whether you can fit in the team. You start to get a better idea of what you have to do."
He, like the others, has a career to forge now as Harvey leaves, and leaves them to it. McEvoy sampled senior football against the Dockers in round 13, and has gone back to the VFL feeling like he has a better idea of what life is like up there, and what he'll need to do to get back and stay there. "It makes you want to work harder," he said.
Howard hasn't added to the two games he played last year, but feels a better, improving player for what he's done and experienced this season.
"The way you learn is through experience, so to get a couple of games last year was good, it gives you a pretty good idea of where you need to get to," he said. "I think all parts of my game are starting to come along a bit better, just having more time here and knowing what I need to work on, and just feeling more comfortable around the place."
Armitage also notched his first few games last year, but has slipped in and out of the side in his second season, an 11-game year so far. It has been frustrating at times, but the 20-year-old is certain that even if he can't play until he's 37, he wants a long career. It means he is learning to be patient, and trusts in coach Ross Lyon's plans for him.
"I think in the long run, it's a good thing to earn your games. Rossy says he gives most guys a four-year apprenticeship, that's what he likes to call it, so there are no easy games or anything like that," he said.
"You know you have to work really hard even to get a look-in, but it's definitely a good thing to do that because, in the long run, it might mean you're going to be at the club and playing footy for a long time. It doesn't need to happen all at once.
"Something Harvs said the other day when he retired, which stuck in my mind, was that after 21 years he still didn't feel like he'd made it. He said he never reached a point where he thought he was there and that surprised me a bit.
"I suppose now I want to go down that line and never think I've made it, that there's always something you can work on, work harder at. You can see that in him even now, with the way he trains he's always working on particular things and trying to improve and help other people improve. That's something I'll try to remember."
