Neville Stibbard, the man who drafted Harvey at No. 47 in the 1995 draft, can remember coach Denis Pagan and his assistant Tony Elshaug calling out to Ray 'Slug' Jordan during an ad break in the draft telecast.

The pair wanted to know what Jordan, a famed junior coach, thought of the 167-centimetre Northern Knight who had been voted best on ground in the under-18 final that year.

"They called out to Slug: 'What's this kid Harvey like?'. The reply came back: 'He'll be able to ride your horse at track work Denis, if you pick him," Stibbard recalled.

Neville remembers sitting at the table that year with Denis Pagan, 'Trout' Eshaug and chief executive Greg Miller, as well as a couple of part-time scouts.

"From there I think I was the only one at the table who wanted him. I can remember Trout tearing my list up and having to grab Greg Miller's list so that I could read his name out.

"We were debating whether we should pick him or not and it took right until the last second for us to go ahead and do it.

"Trout ended up coaching him in the reserves the next year, and he played a big part in what he's gone on to do."

Stibbard, North's only full-time recruiter back then, used North's first round pick that year on Scott Welsh, who played 205 games with the Roos, Crows and Bulldogs.

Delisted Fremantle forward Chris Groom was the coach's pick in the second round, Pagan looking for some established talent given North had been beaten in an elimination final a few months earlier.

Groom did his knee one week before the 1996 season started, missing that year's grand final, and ended up playing just five games in the next two years.

Sam McFarlane was the club's third selection at pick 33, and Eric Lissendon was their final selection at No. 65. Both players played two games for the club, in 1996.

Like many, Stibbard had doubts about whether Harvey's size, or lack thereof, would make it difficult for him to survive and succeed at AFL level.

Without access to the mountain of stats, physical and mental test outcomes, and other associated player data that clubs use to guide their decisions these days, it was a matter of gut-feeling.

"He's a little bit lucky because if he was coming through these days there'd be all sorts of stats telling you why he couldn't make it because of his height. Back then there was none of that," Stibbard said.

"His footy IQ was elite, his hands were elite, his decision making was elite, his speed was elite and the only knock you could have on Boomer as a player was his size.

"The draft camp was still new back then but he held the beep test record for three, four or five years and his speed testing was in the top one percentile, so he was always athletic enough.

"I was worried about his height too, but he had a lot of other things going for him. He wasn't quite in my top 10 that year, but he was in my top 20 and the only query was really his size."

Harvey called Stibbard this week to thank him for calling his name out, something the recruiter did with absolutely no idea that he would still be playing so many years and so many matches later.

"The coaches always ask, 'can he play AFL footy?' You say 'yes', and then it's up to them to take over and you never know what's going to happen or where they'll end up," he said.

A former father-son pick - whose career ended after 27 games because of a horrible ankle injury - makes that case for him.

"Jesse Smith is probably the best player I ever picked. He was the most talented player, and he had no luck at all," Stibbard said.

"Jesse's injury was like a car accident. It was so sad for him and it shows you that it does go both ways."