That midfielder was Daniel Kerr and the person responsible for his timid outing was a teenager named Ryan Bastinac who was playing his third AFL game.
Bastinac - a second-round pick in last year’s NAB AFL National Draft - was given the herculean responsibility of minding Kerr. He kept his man to two touches to half time and passed the test with flying colours.
So outstanding was his performance that North coach Brad Scott was practically gobsmacked.
“I must admit, he surprised me because it was a better performance than even I thought [was possible]” Scott said.
“His game was outstanding. I can’t recall…a third-game player playing as well as that on one of the great midfielders of the competition.
But there was more to come for the youngster and after nullifying Kerr the coach decided to up the ante.
“We thought [Matt] Priddis was getting away from us in the clearance part of the game so we threw him that challenge in the second half.
“And to throw that on the shoulders of an 18-year old was fantastic…Ryan has been picked on form and he’s played the first two games because his form in the pre-season has been fantastic and it showed again today why we are very confident to throw him those tasks.”
Bastinac said he was in awe of Kerr and just thrived on the challenge.
“Brad Scott gave me the challenge to play on Kerr and I was pretty excited to get thrown that challenge because it would be a great experience to play against such a great player,” he said.
“I have a lot of respect for [Kerr]. He is just a champion.”
Bastinac’s number on Kerr was arguably as important as Harvey’s 44 touches in setting up North’s first win of the season, and the youngster was thrilled.
“It is fantastic to get a win on the board after the hard work that we’ve done this week,” he said.
“We had a great week on the track and off the track, we just came into this game with a positive mindset and we were just trying to do everything that we could to get over the line this week.
“It has been a great experience (playing AFL). You see Boomer and he didn’t have his best game last week but he did what real champions do and bounce back and it is just awesome."
