Brent Harvey will wear long sleeves in honour of record holder Michael Tuck

BRENT Harvey will wear long sleeves on Saturday night - a tribute to the man whose name he will replace in the record books.

BRENT Harvey will wear long sleeves when he crosses the white line and moves into uncharted territory at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night — a tribute to the man whose name he will replace in the record books.

Hawthorn champion Michael Tuck and sleeves became synonymous in a storied 426-game career that ended with victory in the 1991 Grand Final.

Harvey said he wanted to honour the 63-year-old icon.

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“My son never got to see Michael Tuck play footy but he knows who he is because he was the games record-holder,” Harvey said.

“To me, I just wanted to pay tribute and when you think of Michael Tuck, what do you think of straight away - to me it was long sleeves.

“To wear a long sleeved jumper in the warm-up ... is paying tribute to the good man and I thought it was certainly worthy of that.”

Michael Tuck in his long sleeves. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Brent Harvey in his long sleeves. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Tuck, who is recovering from recent heart surgery, admitted there was a pang in losing the record, which he has held for a quarter of a century.

“I’ve had my day, 25 years of it, and he has got his chance now,” Tuck said.

To wear a long sleeved jumper in the warm-up ... is paying tribute to the good man and I thought it was certainly worthy of that.

Brent Harvey

“Time goes and that’s the way life is. It will be like the Olympic Games, records will be broken.

“Boomer is playing very well at the moment and deserves to have the record and wearing the jumper is a nice touch.

“I am little disappointed for my little ego, not that I’ve got one anyway, but I never used to go out skiting about it, but when you went to a function they’d say you’d played the most games of AFL and it meant something.

After playing his 400th game against North Melbourne in 1990 and then passing Richmond great Kevin Bartlett’s then 404-games league record a year later, Tuck admitted he believed like everyone that his mark would be hard to surpass.

“I always thought it was going to be hard to break, but also realised it could happen,” Tuck told the Herald Sun.

“I would have liked to have played one more year and while you still think you can play, you mightn’t be able to and at the time the match committee said `You’re 38, you’re the captain and you have just won a Grand Final, so why not go out on a good note’.

“And while I would have liked one more year, in hindsight you don’t know if you can hang on or not but I can’t complain because I just wanted to play one game.”

The wiry Tuck, who captained Hawthorn from 1986 to 1991, holds the record for the most premierships (seven), most grand finals (11) and most finals (39).

He had planned to be in Darwin this week for the racing carnival but said a recent heart scare had required several stints in hospital.

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Tuck, who will be watching the North game from home, explained why he wore that famous long-sleeve No.17 guernsey.

He said he felt comfortable in it — and there was also mention of a couple of scrawny arms.

Tuck said he was lucky to play in two of Hawthorn’s most sensational and successful eras of great players when in the 1970s first he played alongside greats like Don Scott, Leigh Matthews, Kelvin Moore and Peter Knights and then in the 1980s his superstar teammates included Dermott Brereton, Robert DiPierdomenico, Chris Langford, Gary Ayres, Jason Dunstall and John Platten.

Brent Harvey and his commemorative Mark Knight poster. Picture: Alex Coppel

“I was very lucky to have two careers in one, more or less,” he said.

“And a lot just got down to the organisation of Hawthorn.”

Tuck explained his recent heart issue.

“The best way I can explain the problem that it’s an electric type set up where the wrong messages are sent to the heart,” he said.

“It wasn’t life threatening, but it was very uncomfortable. It’s going all right now but we won’t know until a few weeks whether it’s 100 per cent.”

Tuck said the problem was hereditary.

In an unrelated problem, Tuck tore a groin muscle but because of the blood thinners he’d been prescribed after the heart procedure, he was in a lot pain because of the bleeding into the groin. He is just out of hospital after a four day stay.