Harvey praised his playing group which had come under intense scrutiny after two losses to open the season.
And he took a swipe at the “sideshows” and “distractions” thrown up by the West Coast coaching group in the lead-up to the derby.
Harvey said the Dockers had simply stayed focused on the task of beating the Eagles on the scoreboard.
“The derby always has a finals type build-up and it just puts enormous external pressure on everyone,” Harvey said. “West Coast had brought up a lot of things during the course of the week about where they were at and there were a lot of distractions and a lot of sideshows leading into the game.
“Publicly, no-one said anything from our club. It’s how you handle it internally that matters the most and we had to remain confident about what we were doing. And it was that sort of behaviour that we had behind the scenes about how to beat West Coast.”
In addition to the public pressure, Fremantle also had to deal with the late withdrawals of key position players Luke McPharlin and Chris Tarrant and young midfielder Garrick Ibbotson.
Harvey said he could not be prouder of the way his charges stood up to the challenge to record the club’s first win of the season.
“You come under a lot of scrutiny in this game early, particularly if you have two losses,” Harvey said. “And the playing group remained composed under those circumstances.
“We had a bit of uneasiness leading into the game, losing three players (and) sometimes that can unsettle you.
“I thought the group really did everyone proud with the way they went about the game and continually fought off West Coast challenges.
“What was more important from a team aspect was to see some of our younger players and mid-range players have big influences on the result of the game.”
Harvey said a major bonus of the game was to see players like Matthew Pavlich, Josh Carr, Byron Schammer, Antoni Grover, Roger Hayden, Aaron Sandilands and Peter Bell all stand up and perform to the best of their ability.
But he reserved special praise for the courage of two of his younger charges – Rhys Palmer and Ryan Murphy.
“What people need to hear is what happens to players throughout the course of the game,” Harvey said.
“I think Rhys had 20 staples in his head from a knock and Murphy split the webbing in his hand, he would have had 15 stitches.
“But they go back on the ground and they play. And they are great courage attributes that you look for in players ... not once did they waver.”
Harvey said Tarrant, McPharlin and Ibbotson would all be available for selection next week along with Dean Solomon (suspension) and a number of players impressing in the WAFL.
He scoffed at a suggestion that Tarrant’s absence may have been due to trouble at the club.
“He’s not disgruntled at all,” Harvey said. “He had an injection to relieve pain out of his back yesterday and even as early as this morning he was with our physio getting manipulated. In the end he couldn’t move enough to play.”
Harvey said the club was already focused on a tough month ahead.
“You look no further than Richmond this week. And you’ve got to be able to put regular wins on the board. That’s what it’s all about.”
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
