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NORTH Melbourne is confident former skipper Brent Harvey will quickly bounce back from his recent form slump.
North coach Brad Scott and Harvey's successor, Andrew Swallow, both concede Harvey's recent form, particularly in the past two rounds, has fallen short of the high standards he's set for most of his 331-game career.
After averaging 27 possessions and two goals over 2012's opening three rounds, Harvey has dipped to 18.6 possessions and one goal a game in the five rounds since. In the past two rounds, heavy tags from Western Bulldog Liam Picken and Port Adelaide's Kane Cornes have rendered Harvey largely ineffective.
But at Aegis Park on Thursday, Scott and Swallow backed Harvey to return to form. They'd seen him bounce back from poor games too many times during his career to start doubting him now - even if he turned 34 this month.
Scott said, in one sense, Harvey was a victim of his own high standards.
"Probably the reason you're asking the question [about Harvey's form] and we're talking about it is he's been so good at the start of the year and he's set a really high standard for himself as he has throughout his whole career," Scott said.
"His numbers haven't been what they are usually are over the last couple of weeks. [But] one of the hallmarks of his career has been being able to bounce back really quickly from a poor performance. He hasn't lost that ability."
Swallow said he had spoken with Harvey about coping with heavy tags and the need to focus on tackling and defensive pressure when kicks and goals were hard to come by.
"He's always been someone who's been good at getting a tag and in previous years he's been able to work through that and now he's just finding it a bit of trouble," Swallow said.
"But I still think he can provide things to the team - the tackling, the chasing, those sort of things - which are really valuable.
"We're hoping for a big improvement from him in the next couple of weeks."
Swallow said Harvey had been very receptive to such advice. This showed in the six tackles he laid against the Power, a tally that equalled his collective total from the first seven rounds and was his highest tackle count since round 19, 2010 (eight).
Harvey also recorded two one-percenters (a knock-on, spoil, smother or shepherd) against both the Bulldogs and the Power, having effected just two in the first six rounds.
Scott lauded Harvey's chase-down tackle on Port defender Jacob Surjan that led to a Drew Petrie goal last Saturday. He was also emphatic that Harvey was still a leader at North despite relinquishing its captaincy ahead of this season.
"While Andrew's the captain, 'Boomer' still sets the standard in how to prepare for AFL footy, so he's really important for us," Scott said.
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Nick Bowen cover North Melbourne news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter @AFL_Nick
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL
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