Assistant coach Mark Harvey enjoyed a decorated career at Essendon and played along side some of the greatest players that this club has seen. According to Harvey, none so great as his 1993 premiership teammate James Hird. ""I am sure Tim Watson and Michael Long and these sort of players were not playing that well at 31. I think for sustained playing performance James is right up there in my opinion and probably the best player I have ever seen,"" Harvey said.

Without doubt Hird was the match winner yesterday and Harvey said he thoroughly deserved his third Anzac Day Medal. ""There has to come a time where eventually someone else has got to do that (be the match winner). It is a credit to James at 31 years of age that he still has the capacity and the aerobic fitness and ability to turn the game like he does. He has sensational football smarts and he is a big occasion player,"" Harvey said.

As we have seen on many occasions, Hird was the difference between the two sides yesterday. He sparked the Bombers in the third term when Collingwood looked in danger of taking the lead. Hird covers a lot of ground during a match and always is in the thick of the action. ""If James feels that we are in trouble in a certain area of the ground he can basically go and try and make that a positive area for us.""

Hird gathered 26 possessions against Collingwood – he had 20 kicks, six handballs, nine marks and booted two goals. ""He looks like he is moving like a 20 year old and that is a credit to the way he prepares himself, his pre-season and the way he goes about his work. It is not an accident that he goes out and plays the way he does. He works hard in everything on his game,"" he said.

""If anything you probably don’t appreciate James as much as supporters from other clubs because you see him week in and week out. You tend to rely on him all the time and you don’t fully take in his brilliance.

""Certainly as his career has gone on and the achievements he has got – to have three Anzac Day medals, two premierships, a Brownlow and the list goes on – it just keeps adding up and time passes you by and you realise that he has had one of the most stellar careers of all time. I don’t think it will hit us until the day that James decides to hang his boots up. He has certainly exceeded a lot of players that I have had a higher opinion of,"" Harvey said.