THE AFL's oldest player Robert Harvey looks certain to extend his career by at least one more season following strong encouragement this week from St Kilda.
Harvey has indicated to the AFL that he should not be considered for the grand final farewell to retiring champions scheduled to take place in the middle of the MCG on Saturday week and is expected to announce his decision to teammates at St Kilda's best-and-fairest count at the start of next month.
Harvey should finish in the top six or seven in the club championship and, as a veteran for several years, only needs to record 50 per cent of his annual wage in the salary cap.
The Saints are expected to negotiate a new deal with the dual Brownlow medallist in the coming weeks, meaning that Harvey will turn 37 in August towards the end of his next one-year contract.
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon, who has to cover the sudden retirement of forward Fraser Gehrig as well as fellow veteran Andrew Thompson in round 22, is believed to have held talks with Harvey this week and encouraged him to play on.
Harvey, despite his long-time friendship with former teammate and now aspiring club director Nathan Burke, has no interest in the Saints' current political turmoil. Like most of his teammates and coach, he had no inkling that Burke and Thompson were planning to challenge Rod Butterss and his board.
The Butterss regime will learn its fate sooner than anticipated following yesterday's announcement by St Kilda Footy First that it will bring forward its scheduled extraordinary general meeting to October 23 at the Moorabbin Town Hall. The rebel ticket, led by transport boss Greg Westaway, has received more than 5000 votes of support already from disenchanted Saints.
The Butterss board meet yesterday in what proved a relatively uneventful meeting, which prohibited the presence of newly-appointed lawyer Richard Loveridge at the meeting — Loveridge has been brought in by the Saints' executive.
Saints vice-president Ross Levin, despite being at odds with the Butterss group and supporting Westaway, attended the board meeting although rebel director John Gdanski did not.
