EMERGING Adelaide midfielder Nathan van Berlo has become an unlikely ally for St Kilda's Robert Harvey, rejecting recent claims the ageing champ may have played on a year too long into 2008.
After chasing around the AFL's oldest player for a vital period during the third term of last Saturday night's NAB Cup grand final, van Berlo handed a glowing endorsement to the Saints' living legend.
Just a week earlier, Harvey's former coach Grant Thomas and five-time Hawthorn premiership player Dermott Brereton had both questioned whether the 36-year-old dual Brownlow medallist still had the pace and physical strength to compete into a remarkable 21st AFL season.
But van Berlo, one of his team's best players in a five-point loss to the Saints, was in no doubt.
"Don't write him off," the Crows recruit said after the match.
"He's a champion player and has been for a long period of time now. He might not be able to kick as far as he would have in his earlier days, but he certainly still uses the ball exceptionally well.
"It was pretty humbling just to be playing on him. He's just really smart and it's a credit to him to still be playing (in the AFL) at his age.
"You can't under-estimate him and anyone who has said Harvey's finished hasn't had a good look at him because he played all right tonight."
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon, who encouraged Harvey to play on this season as the 359-game warrior pondered his future, was also pointed in his support when asked about Harvey's worth to the Saints after their pre-season premiership, which came 50 years after their first in 1958.
"It's an opinion business," Lyon said in a thinly-veiled swipe at Harvey's critics.
"That's really healthy, but I can tell you about my opinion of Robert Harvey. He's a damaging player and disrespect him at your peril."
Harvey debuted with four games in 1988 and has proven to be a consummate big-game player averaging more than 27 possessions in 14 finals matches, including a memorable 36-possession performance in the losing 1997 grand final against Adelaide — the year of his first of two consecutive Brownlows.
The nine-time All-Australian and four-time St Kilda club champion could this year pass John Blakey (359 matches) Bernie Quinlan (366), Craig Bradley (375) and Simon Madden (378) to become third on the all-time list of games played, behind only Michael Tuck (426) and Kevin Bartlett (403).
And as he rollicked around AAMI Stadium on Saturday night he proved that his twilight was still more than simply flickering.
He had five possessions in the first four minutes of the NAB Cup grand final, including a vintage Harvey baulk around bemused Adelaide youngster Richard Douglas to drive the ball into the Saints' forward 50-metre zone. Then at the three-minute mark of the second term, the seemingly tireless veteran ran onto a trademark handball receive through the corridor and delivered a precise stab pass to Nick Riewoldt to set up his team's first goal of the match.
It was a play he repeated in almost mirror-image fashion in the third term which led to another Riewoldt goal. Harvey later shrugged off a painful thumb injury to play a key role in the tight final term with two crucial target-hits which ended in a Stephen Milne goal.
