Mark Harvey

Yeah.

Uh, it's been, uh, uh, Darren Beuck and Mark Harvey try to start Bart.

Bart Cummings.

Yeah.

And being, you know, 25 years on, it's a good chance to reflect on, on that list and what's happened since and, and, and what changes we could potentially make to that.

So for those who, who aren't familiar, the list from one to 25 are Dick Reynolds, John Coleman, James Hird, Bill Hutchison, Simon Madden, Tim Watson, Ken Fraser, Jack Clarke, Albert Thurgood, Tom Fitzmaurice, Terry Daniher, Wally Buttsworth, Reg Burgess, Bill Busbridge, Barry Davis, Keith Forbes, Graham Moss, Mark Harvey, Gavin Wanganeen, Mark Thompson, John Birt, Matthew Lloyd, Michael Long, Fred Bering, and then Harold Lambert rounded out the 25.

So an absolute star-studded list there, really comparable to the top 25 players from any c- club in the competition's history.

Absolutely.

Yeah, if, if Reynolds was alive today, he'd be- he'd have him in his best team, I'd say, 'cause he was outstanding.

Yeah.

I think the, the other major thing that stood out to me again, as, as someone sort of growing up through that, that '90s period, and I probably missed the peak of these two players' careers in, in Mark Harvey, Harvey and Bomber Thompson.

But you know, I think looking back today, I think given the legacies of, of the players that we're about to talk about, it is a surprise to see both of them ahead of Michael Long on the list.

Oh, he was just a nasty, nasty fullback.

So, um, he was someone that, uh, I played my, one of my first games on him down at, we played at, uh, Princess Park, Icon Park, and he just terrorized me in terms of, you know, pushing and shoving, and I had two touches, uh, in the game, and I just slumped down on the wall, you know, close to tears, and it was actually Kevin Sheedy who I saw talking about me after the meeting, and he grabbed Dean Wallace and Mark Harvey, and next minute they grabbed me, took me into a side room, and they just pretty much said, uh, the whole competition...

Sheets, during the last quarter sent a guy by the name of Ryan O'Connor, um, down and just tried to get him in the middle of me and Credieuk just to try and look after me because of the way Credieuk was going after me.

And they said the whole competition would've watched today, and how you just couldn't handle the, the-

Yep.

Mark Harvey.

Thank you.

He's the one for me.

Mark Harvey.

Mark Harvey, had to be mentioned.

And eventually we got there, Andrew.

Rowan's in North Aubrey.

[laughs] Anyway, and then he's pushed me off and he's like, "Get off" And I was like, "Fuck that, I'm staying on." He's like, "Nah, get off." Anyway, so I ran off, jumped onto the bench, and got given the phone.

It was Mark Harvey.

He's like, "Right, you need to settle the fuck down or you're not going back on."

[laughs]

So losing Merritt's massive.

I ran into Mark Harvey recently at Epworth Hospital, and he was saying that it's going to be a big struggle next year, because the fact that we're going to lose Merritt and probably Ridley, So, yeah, it's going to be a very young team.

But I would start at the midfield.

We need to really improve in that area.

And they've kind of ridden the wave.

I mean, they're completely down when you think about it in the early 2000s when they were winning wooden spoons and then When they moved on from Mark Harvey and Ross Lyon came in, they found a bit of a different, a bit more ruthless edge through that period of time.

They made a grand final, but they didn't quite get there.

And then they dropped off again and had Justin Longmuir come in.