EVERY year now for a while, an ageing group of former St Kilda players from the time of the late, great Trevor Barker hold a gathering at Ricky Nixon's Flying Start offices at Telstra Dome. This well-lubricated and informal function is timed for St Kilda's first evening home game and, as it happened, it took place last Friday night when the Saints met Carlton.

Danny Frawley was there, and Nathan Burke and Stewart Loewe, whose names still seem to go hand in hand. Rob "the Eel" Elphinstone turned up and even Rod Butterss, player of a few undistinguished reserves games in the red, white and black in the '70s, came up for a while as they mixed the imbibing and chatter with a look at the footy, both on the television screen and through the glass at Nixon's offices.

It was Robert Harvey's game that caught their eye, of course, for many of them had played alongside the great No. 35. "We all went out at different times, and it was mentioned: 'Have a look at this bloke keep running!' " said Frawley this week. "He was running on top of the ground better than most out there."

Harvey had a superb game, gathering the ball 30 times and kicking a goal in St Kilda's victory, chipping away at the Blues, finding space where others could not. But it was a single moment that said it all for his mates up behind the glass.

"He came through the centre and he put the ball out in front, a bit to the side, just holding it in a particular way," Frawley said. "The (Carlton) players coming at him. We're all going: 'Here it goes, for the 1700th time, he's about to sell the dummy.' For the life of me, I cannot work out why players run at him. Why don't they corral him and backpedal? We just sat there and said: 'Here comes another sucker.' And that's what happened. We called it."

Robert Harvey is 35 and still side-stepping opponents. It has been one of the feel-good stories of the 2007 season that Harvey, the oldest man in a competition that otherwise is meant to have a premium on youth and speed, is flourishing. He is second in The Age footballer-of-the-year award and, by most accounts, would be close to leading St Kilda's best and fairest after six rounds. All this in a league that contains 42 players — including two of Carlton's young lads, Bryce Gibbs and Joe Anderson — who were not yet born when Harvey made his debut at Whitten Oval on August 6, 1988.

Old Man River just keeps a rollin' along, as the song goes. But Harvey is not merely rolling along. It raises the question of how long a player can play at this level in the modern game. The three most durable players of the past 30 years — Kevin Bartlett, Michael Tuck and Craig Bradley — all believe that Harvey can go on beyond 2007 if he wants to.

Bartlett, player of what was then a league record 403 games for Richmond, believes it is a myth that the modern game cannot brook older players. The key, says Bartlett, is motivation.

"I think they've got a greater opportunity now than they have ever had before," he said this week. "They can play longer. I might think differently there. People talk about the speed of the game, but my theory is that players have never had a better opportunity because of the interchange bench.

"Some players have played 100 games and never played a full game. Training is tailored to the individual and it's tailored to his age. If people's enthusiasm remains, I can't see why they can't play to 35, 36, 37, 38."

Bartlett played until he was 36, tying Michael Roach for the Tigers' goalkicking award in his final season, 1983. But times were different. Then, coaches believed that everyone should train the same way. "If you had a bad loss, Tuesday it was competitive training," recalls Bartlett. "It didn't matter if you were 18 or 36."

In the end, it was the thought of another pre-season that stopped him from continuing, rather than the game itself. "I just thought it would be horrific. I felt that there was no way I could do all the training and then turn up fresh."

The indefatigable Michael Tuck, still the league record-holder with 426 games for Hawthorn, believes there are other reasons why players might be tempted to go on. "In my case, I just loved playing football. But (now) it's the money, too. That's a big incentive. If you went out into the street and tried to earn three or four hundred grand a year, you couldn't do it."

Tuck, who retired after the Hawks won the premiership in 1991, is not the slightest bit surprised that an athlete such as Harvey can continue for so long. "Nowadays, if you can run, you'll keep getting a game," he said. "That's what it's all about now. Nobody picks anybody up anyway and the umpires frown on anyone giving out a shirtfront. There's four interchange and they rotate a lot."

There was an irony in Harvey's fine performance last Friday night. For up in the Carlton coach's box, one of the game's great warhorses was plotting his downfall. Bradley, player of 375 games for Carlton and a man who wore the navy blue until he was 38, is on the Blues' coaching staff.

Like Tuck, he sees no miracles in what Harvey is doing, although he admires it. "It doesn't surprise me one bit and it wouldn't surprise me if he was playing as well next year," said Bradley this week. "I've got no doubt he can go again. It's up to Rob. His running is fantastic and his greatest strength is his willpower and his ability to push himself. He's obviously very motivated."

Late last Friday night, Harvey made his way up to Nixon's office after St Kilda's win. Frawley the prankster and others had been rummaging around to find a piece of memorabilia to present to him as their best-on-ground. In the spirit of things, they settled on a tatty country championship guernsey worn by Nixon in his Bendigo days. Nixon signed it, and Frawley presented.

And the funny thing was, the old man of footy was in fine fettle. "At 35, you'd nearly expect him to come over in a wheelchair, but he was unbelievably fresh," said Frawley. "Wouldn't blow out a candle."