A week after the gritty win over West Coast, the return to the side of Tarrant, Dean Solomon, Luke McPharlin and Scott Thornton did little as the Dockers were mauled by an indefatigable Richmond outfit at Subiaco Oval.
However, Harvey was delighted with the way Tarrant started the game before a collision with Solomon and Tiger Luke McGuane that saw his teammate stretchered off.
Harvey was impressed with Tarrant's resilience to stay on the field and believes there has been a concerted media campaign to bring down the former Collingwood star, similar to what Trent Croad faced when he joined Fremantle from Hawthorn.
"The reason for the crowd getting on his back is people want to keep writing and putting him down and then supporters read that and that's the flow-on effect," he said.
"His first 15 minutes were fantastic before he copped that heavy knock that nobody wants to talk about.
"It was a real credit to him that he got up, because Dean didn’t. That's the toughness Chris has, he was really dazed and in trouble, but stayed on the ground. There has been a history of that with key forwards over here.
"The minute they have a bad game, everyone wants to write them off or challenge the club about selection, then add in that they are unhappy about living here. I'm not sure where it comes from."
The loss to the Tigers was the worst in Harvey's time as coach and he has ensured his players realise that.
"It was a game that we weren’t proud of," he said. "There was a lack of competitiveness in it and everyone has been put on notice.
"I have certainly [noticed a different attitude in the players]. They have taken the performance to heart, which they ought to do, and there have been a lot of home truths told the last couple of days. Yesterday (Tuesday) was their day off and, believe me, we needed that.
"I didn’t go into specifics about individuals. I just put the whole team on notice and let them know that performance was unacceptable."
Harvey confirmed that Des Headland is under a cloud with a knee injury, Heath Black has a partial tear in his quad muscle and the form of many others will be scrutinised.
However, Matthew Carr could return after 33 possessions in the WAFL for East Fremantle, with Marcus Drum, Brock O'Brien and Clayton Hinkley a chance to play for the first time in 2008.
Midfielders Andrew Foster and Andrew Browne have made strong returns from for their respective WAFL clubs, but won't be considered yet.
"Des is one of the guys that is sore, so we will see how he goes at training and work out whether or not he is fit enough to play," Harvey said.
"What we've noticed is that guys really have to play four or five full games in the WAFL before we look at them because of the pace and fitness of the game. With the rotations now, if you have a half-baked player that you know has the talent but not necessarily the match fitness, you can quite quickly be in trouble."
