North Melbourne’s 87-point thrashing at the hands of Collingwood would have been enough to send any club into lockdown mode.
It was never meant to be like this for North Melbourne; they had their chest thumping, call-to-arms “Earn your stripes” campaign that was meant to unify the club and solidify the clubs never-say-die attitude.
That’s why, when Brent Harvey came out on ABC radio and stated his young players are “not towing the line”, he jeopardised all the hard work to stabilise the footy club.
When ABC’s Mark Maclure questioned Harvey about the poor performance of several experienced players such as Daniel Wells and Aaron Edwards, Harvey responded by saying they are entitled to have an off-day, whilst identifying by name Sam Wright and Lachie Hansen as players that need to stand up.
Furthermore, Harvey went on to say that if the younger players are not performing, the senior group will approach Brad Scott and tell him they won’t want them in the team.
The facts are Daniel Wells has 151 games under his belt yet he seems to get by on the promise that he may become the game-changing, line breaking midfielder the Kangaroos desperately need to compliment the inside grunt work of Andrew Swallow.
During his nine-year career Wells has never averaged over 22 disposals for an entire season.
Whilst injury has curtailed his performances for the Kangaroos, that is a damning statistic for a player who was rated highly enough to be the #2 selection in the national draft.
The cost of that selection to the club cannot be underestimated as other 2002 AFL draft selections such as Brendan Goddard and Jarrad McVeigh (#1 and #5 respectively) have gone on to become premier players in the league.
Aaron Edwards was also defended by Harvey stating his work off the ball, not so much his output with the ball is what he brings to the team.
On the weekend he had just one tackle, no tackles the week before and a career average of 1.3 tackles per game.
To put it into perspective, two of the most recognised tacklers of the game, Lenny Hayes and Joel Selwood average 4.9 and 4.4 tackles per game respectively.
Harvey is not exempt from criticism either, with a poor opening round showing of 11 possessions and exerted little influence against last year’s wooden spooners the West Coast Eagles.
In the blink of an eye the football world can turn on you, one week the villain, the next week the hero.
In a week where North Melbourne asked their supporters to come out in their droves and proudly wear their stripes in a showing of solidarity, Brent Harvey’s ‘senior tier versus young guns’ interview has created a potential rift within the playing group.
Brent Harvey needs to worry about his own game not only as an individual, but as a leader of the footy club.
People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones Brent, especially when the house is the one you live in.
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