By Michael Whiting
Former North Melbourne midfielder Daniel Harris says he hopes Gold Coast SUNS can play "fun police" on Saturday night and spoil the celebrations for Brent Harvey in his games record match.
The Kangaroos have a terrific record in milestone matches and continued that on Sunday against Adelaide, handing them a 47-point hiding in Harvey’s 311th match - equalling the club record held by Glenn Archer.
They travel to Metricon Stadium on Saturday night to take on Harris' new team as Harvey sets the new games mark.
"Hopefully we're the fun police this weekend and stop Boomer's record-breaking effort," Harris said.
"He's been such a great player for such a long time, but hopefully not this weekend.
"You can look back on most milestone games. I think every milestone game Arch played in North won.
"Even his 250th when we were 40 points down in Sydney we won. They have a pretty good record for milestones but hopefully they played it a week early."
North Melbourne hold a formidable record in milestone matches over the past decade, with victories in Archer's 200th, 250th, 300th and 307th match, when he passed the former games mark held by Wayne Schimmelbusch.
They also had wins in Harvey's 200th, 250th and 300th match.
"I've got no idea why. They just love playing for one another," Harris said.
"They've had a lot of injuries over the pre-season and they're starting to get back to full strength now which will be a great test for us and our young team.
"Who knows what the reasoning is behind milestone games but hopefully not this week."
Harris, 29, played 149 games for the Kangaroos before being delisted at the end of 2009 and said he still kept in touch with plenty of friends at the club, including Harvey.
He said there were no hard feelings about his exit from North Melbourne.
Gold Coast SUNS threw Harris a lifeline by selecting him No.1 in the 2010 NAB AFL Rookie Draft and the inside midfielder has not looked back.
"As soon as I walked into the club, even though it was VFL, these kids had come through a program where they're all super professional and ready to go," Harris said.
"I've actually learned a lot off the kids in how to prepare and how to become professional. I know it sounds strange but that's the standard they brought to the club and I was blown away by that.
"I probably haven't enjoyed my footy so much in a long time."
With wins against Port Adelaide and the Brisbane Lions, plus dominant patches in their past three losses to Adelaide, Geelong and West Coast, Harris said there was an increased expectation on the GC SUNS.
"We only lost by three goals on the weekend but the first three or four rounds we would have taken that, but now there's a feeling in the rooms we're not happy with that. We thought we could have won the game," he said.
"It's a bit of a cop-out if you talk about the age group because we've shown we can play a four-quarter effort.
"We've definitely shown against Geelong in that first half that we can match it with any team."
And that includes North Melbourne. Harris said he loves playing any team in the competition but was excited at the possible midfield match-ups on Saturday night.
"Andrew Swallow is in career best form - last week was just phenomenal – [he could play] against his brother (David) who is going very well, that's a good match-up," Harris said.
"Maybe the two captains going head-to-head, Boomer and Gaz, I'm not too sure.
"We're No.1 in clearances I think and North are right up there with contested footy so it's going to be a hard, tough slog and very exciting."
