Why axing Brent Harvey is like shooting Bambi

Patrick Smithers
Aug 24, 2016, updated Aug 25, 2016

Brent Harvey has not been offered a new contract for next year. Photo: Getty

ANALYSIS

A wise man from Scotland who knows a thing or two about sport once told me that he had never heard the expression ‘one-club player’ until he emigrated Down Under.

That sort of sentimentality was an unaffordable indulgence in his tough neck of the woods. Hard-nosed footballers from working class neighbourhoods chased a quid where they could get it, never mind the colour of the shirt.

Australian football has never been immune from such pragmatism.

Revered names spanning all eras – Cazaly, Barassi, Jesaulenko and Ablett among them – switched camps.

Just as many, though, have stayed through thick and thin: Reynolds, Whitten, Skilton, Flower, Richardson, Riewoldt … and the list goes on. These players earned a special place in the heart of supporters and the complimentary epithet ‘one-club player’.

In an increasingly globalised sporting market place, Australian football would do well to protect this rare breed. Along with the sport’s obvious attractions, it could remain a somewhat romantic point of difference.

Obviously, money talks and altruism will not do the trick. The AFL needs to legislate. Restraint of trade means that ‘compulsory loyalty’ won’t work either. What we need is exemptions for clubs to make it attractive for them to retain loyal servants.

The 400 club … Dustin Fletcher, Harvey, Michael Tuck and Kevin Bartlett. Photo: Getty

Clubs should be allowed to make payments outside the salary cap on a pro rata basis, depending on a player’s length of service. Further, stalwarts who have played, say, 200 or 250 games for a club, should be allowed onto a separate veterans’ list.

They would not be taking money or a place on the list from young blood, reducing the need for the culling of club champions in the name of rebuilding.

Steve Johnson is now running around for the Giants, much to the chagrin of Cats fans. Photo: Getty

While this will not stop players chasing big contracts (Franklin), a fresh start (Cloke) or from heading home (Dangerfield), it would help spare the game from some of the unpleasantness associated with terminating greats when they are still playing good football (think Hawthorn over the next year or two).

Geelong supporters, for example, might have been saved from having to watch their beloved Stevie Johnson playing out his days in the garish orange of Greater Western Sydney.

It might also have saved North Melbourne from some of the excesses of Bloody Wednesday, in which Brent Harvey, Drew Petrie, Michael Firrito and Nick Dal Santo were all sacked in the name of regeneration.

Specifically, it might have saved 38-year-old Boomer Harvey from the indignity of the axe, surely the most unedifying moment of the 2016 AFL season.

Brent Harvey lifts the premiership cup after the Kangaroos beat Carlton in the 1999 grand final. Photo: Getty

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott, announcing the “horrific” decision, acknowledged what we all know: Harvey is still worth his place in the Kangaroos’ side.

“He’s burst through the 400-game barrier and is still playing at a really high level,” Scott said of the 430-game veteran.

If that’s the case, the rules should allow Harvey to stay at Arden Street without taking up a spot on the list or any of the salary cap pool.

Harvey is now entitled to sell his wares and see if any other club wants a top-up small forward for a season. If he ends up elsewhere, it will be another dagger in the heart of the game and we will all be diminished.