WHEN the curtain came down on Brent Harvey's North Melbourne career on Saturday night, he walked from the Adelaide Oval as the Kangaroos' best player since Wayne Carey.
Accompanying Harvey on his walk into the football unknown were three veterans with outstanding records of their own: Drew Petrie, Nick Dal Santo – although his legacy was forged primarily over 12 seasons at St Kilda – and Michael Firrito.
But it was fitting Harvey came back out to spend a moment on his own acknowledging the gracious Adelaide Oval crowd before leaving the field of battle for – probably – the last time.
Because it will be 'Boomer', one of the game's shortest players, who footy fans remember longest – North supporters with a longing fondness and opposition fans with a respect that will become less begrudging with every year that passes since the Roos' No.29 last ran rings around their team.
They leave a huge hole, says Brad Scott
A VFL/AFL record 432 games, a club record five best and fairest awards, four All Australian selections, the 1999 EJ Whitten Medal and a runner-up finish in the 2007 Brownlow Medal is a fair return for someone many thought was better suited to a career as jockey when he was taken by North with pick No.47 in the 1995 national draft.
Harvey stood just 168cm and weighed 64kg when he reported for his first day of pre-season training at Melbourne's Tan running trail, alongside battle-hardened stars such as Carey, Glenn Archer, Anthony Stevens, Wayne Schwass, Mick Martyn and Corey McKernan.
That 'jockey' might have been part of Carey's support cast in North's glorious 1990s era – he missed the 1996 flag in his debut season and was an emerging star rather than the genuine article when the Roos saluted again in 1999 – but he would go on to outshine nearly all of that generation's stars, with Carey the only one who soared indisputably higher.
Once the Pagan-Carey era fizzled out in the early 2000s, Harvey really came into his own.
In this new age, North was never that bad, but never that good.
In the 14 seasons Harvey played after Pagan's exit at the end of 2002, the Roos finished below 10th just twice (14th in 2006 and 13th in 2009) but made the top four at the end of the home and season just once (2007).
They made seven finals series and reached three preliminary finals, but the closest they got to a Grand Final was last year's 25-point loss to West Coast at Domain Stadium.
But where North always fell short under Dean Laidley from 2003-09 and has done so, to date, under Brad Scott since 2010, Harvey always stood tall.
From 2003, he claimed five best and fairest awards in eight seasons, while he won the AFL Media Association MVP award in 2008.
Blessed with a seemingly ageless body and soft tissues that were anything but soft, Harvey remained one of the Roos' most damaging players right up until he signed off with 25 possessions against the Crows.
In 2014 and 2015, at the ages of 36 and 37 respectively, he finished fourth in North's best and fairest count, while this year he kicked a career-high six goals in the round three win over Melbourne en route to equalling his previous best season tally of 36 set in 2007.
Harvey at his best was simply exhilarating to watch. Quick, elusive and cheekier than a Jack Russell, he could break games open like with long jinking runs and thread the ball through the goalposts from seemingly impossible angles.
Take his first-quarter goal against the Western Bulldogs in round 19, 2008, for example.
After roving a ruck contest deep in North's forward line, Harvey attempted a quick shot on goal. It fell well short, and first Adam Cooney and then Lindsay Gilbee tried to rush the ball through for a behind. It was about to trickle over the goal-line when Harvey, who never stopped running, burst in and toe-poked the ball back into play.
He then scooped it up in one touch with his left hand and, with Gilbee on his hammer, fired off a handball to Nathan Thompson. He kept running around Thompson for the 'one-two' and, finally, snapped truly from 20m, just before Robert Murphy could apply a smother.
It was Harvey in a nutshell – tenacious, cheeky and brilliant.
Petrie, Dal Santo and Firrito won't be forgotten any time soon either.
An emotional Drew Petrie says farewell to North Melbourne. Picture: AFL Photos
Petrie played more games for North (316) than any player other than Harvey and his 428 career goals puts him sixth on North's all-time list.
Five times the club's leading goalkicker, he made the 2011 All Australian team and, barring his injury-plagued 2010 season, was the Roos' main aerial target under Brad Scott.
Dal Santo will principally be remembered for his deeds at the Saints from 2002-13, where he played 260 of his 322 games. In 12 seasons at St Kilda, he was a three-time All Australian and notched runner-up (2011) and third-place (2005) finishes in the Brownlow Medal.
The silky midfielder was a key member of the 2009 and 2010 Ross Lyon teams that went so close to snaring St Kilda's second premiership, but also left an indelible mark in three seasons at Arden Street.
Scott said recently he doubted North would have made preliminary finals in 2014 and 2015 without Dal Santo in its 22, while he signed off as the Roos' highest possession winner against the Crows, finishing with 29 typically effective possessions.
Firrito put the shinbone in Shinboner in his 14 seasons at Arden Street.
He was a run-with midfielder in his first full season, 2004, an undersized key defender when North's backline cupboard was bare around the mid-2000s but, most naturally, a third defender capable of playing on talls, smalls and everything in between.
Firrito drew level with North's greatest defender, David Dench, on 275 games on Saturday night, to sit equal ninth on the Roos' all-time games list.
His true standing at the club, though, was underlined when he inherited the No.11 jumper from Glenn Archer upon the Shinboner of the Century's retirement at the end of 2007.
The Roo who inherits Harvey's No.29 jumper will be following in footsteps just as big, if not bigger, than Archer's.
A hug from his wife for Michael Firrito as he leaves the Adelaide Oval. Picture: AFL Photos
