Brent Harvey

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.

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
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)
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
North Melbourne Captain: 2009–2011 AFL premiership: 1999 4x All-Australian team: 2000, 2005, 2007, 2008 5x Syd Barker Medal: 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010 Herald Sun Player of the Year: 2008 2x Lou Richards Medal: 2007, 2008 North Melbourne Team of the Century E. J. Whitten Medal: 1999 Jim Stynes Medal: 2003 Captain of Australia: 2008 AFL Hall Of Fame: 2022 Most senior AFL games: 432 NAB Cup (North Melbourne): 1998 AFL Reserves Premiership (North Melbourne): 1996
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

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.

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.

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.

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. Incidentally, Harvey holds the record for most career bounces, with 1,055. He is the only player to have crossed the thousand-bounce threshold. 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. 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.

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. At the time of the announcement, he was the AFL/VFL all-time leader in games played, with 432. Only five other players have achieved the feat of playing 400 AFL games: Tuck, Essendon's Dustin Fletcher, Richmond's Kevin Bartlett, Port Adelaide and Hawthorn's Shaun Burgoyne, and Collingwood's Scott Pendlebury.

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.

Statistics

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

• Team
  • AFL Premiership (Kangaroos): 1999
  • McClelland Trophy (North Melbourne): 1998
  • NAB Cup (North Melbourne): 1998
  • AFL Reserves Premiership (North Melbourne): 1996
• Individual
  • E. J. Whitten Medal: 1999
  • Syd Barker Medal: 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010 (tied with Brady Rawlings)
  • All-Australian: 2000, 2005, 2007, 2008
  • Australian Representative Honours in International Rules Football: 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2008 (C)
  • Jim Stynes Medal: 2003
  • Lou Richards Medal: 2007, 2008
  • Herald Sun Player of the Year: 2008
  • Archer–Hird Medal: 2009, 2011
  • North Melbourne F.C. Team of the Century
  • AFL Hall Of Fame (2022 Class)
  • Most senior AFL games: 432

See also

• List of VFL/AFL players to have played 300 games
• List of VFL/AFL records

External links

• Brent Harvey's profile on the official website of the North Melbourne Football Club
• Brent Harvey's playing statistics from AFL Tables
• Footywire profile