Brent Harvey, Drew Petrie, Michael Firrito, Nick Dal Santo finish with big loss

IT was billed as Boomer’s last stand in Kangaroos colours, but as so often happens the resistance was only ever going to last for so long.

North Melbourne’s season ended in Adelaide with a big loss.

IT was billed as Boomer’s last stand in Kangaroos colours, but as so often happens with those old-fashioned showouts, the resistance was only ever going to last for so long.

And so it proved as Brent Harvey’s 432-game, 21-season career with North Melbourne came to a sombre, tearful end in the most inhospitable venue in the country as the Kangaroos crashed out of the AFL finals at the hands of an Eddie Betts-inspired Adelaide.

In what will undoubtedly be seen as the end of an era for North Melbourne, Harvey, Drew Petrie, Michael Firrito and Nick Dal Santo played their last games for the club.

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Those hoping that fact might have proven a motivational spark for the team that has been “missing in action” for more than half of a rollercoaster season had dreams crushed in the space of an eight-goal third term.

That wasn’t Harvey’s fault. He tried his heart out - as always - and he might yet get to play on at a new club next year, given that at least four Victorian clubs have inquired about him for 2017.

But it was a cruel way for the 38-year-old to bow out a Kangaroo. A premiership loomed as a possibility after the first nine rounds of 2016 when North Melbourne was undefeated, but that hope evaporated before his eyes as his team won only three of their last 14 matches.

Brent Harvey wipes the tears away as he walks off for the last time. Picture: Michael Klein

The man whose AFL games record he claimed earlier this year - Michael Tuck - at least went out with a premiership in his last game; Harvey deserved better than what he went out with last night.

His wife, Shayne, and three kids, Cooper, Lacie and Hudson, flew across to Adelaide yesterday afternoon with the hope that his career with Kangas could stretch into another week in Sydney. Sadly, that was never going to be the case.

Dal Santo tried desperately hard for his team, and finished with the most disposals for his side. He might earn another shot with a new club next year.

Petrie struggled to make an impact as Majak Daw - eight years Petrie’s junior - turned in what could be the defining game of his career with four goals.

Firrito also bowed out, and after setting the scene of confrontation in the opening minutes when he downed Charlie Cameron after the Crow kicked a goal, he and others were swamped by the Adelaide attack.

Drew Petrie, Michael Firrito, Brent Harvey and Nick Dan Santo are clapped off.

In Harvey’s first game in Round 22, 1996 - when John Howard was Australia’s Prime Minister, Bill Clinton was US President, and when teammate Luke McDonald was only one - he started on the bench and only had one possession, a handball, in his limited time on the field.

Fast forward to last night, and the 38-year-old had his first kick within 90 seconds. By half-time, he had the most disposals on the ground, even if he didn’t quite the same sort of efficiency.

Fittingly, the four veterans leaving the Kangaroos combined in a passage of play in the dying moments of the game, and they were together again at the end as they walked off with the Crows and the Kangaroos players forming a guard of honour.

Harvey must make the hard decision on whether he plays on again elsewhere next year.

Form says he should definitely play on; emotion might yet dictate otherwise.

Originally published as Brent Harvey, Drew Petrie, Michael Firrito, Nick Dal Santo finish with big loss