North Melbourne coach Dean Laidley says his champion rover Brent Harvey will go down in history as an AFL great.
Harvey, one of the smallest players in the AFL, will become only the eighth Kangaroos' player to reach the 250 game mark on Sunday when the Roos take on the unbeaten Western Bulldogs at Telstra Dome.
And the Roos are hoping to reward their three-time best and fairest with the sort of stirring win they were able to deliver Glenn Archer last year, when he played his 300th game - also against the Bulldogs.
The Dogs have not beaten the Roos since 2005 with even Bulldogs' assistant coach Wayne Campbell admitting this week that Laidley's team have got 'the wood' over the Bulldogs.
Laidley said on Thursday he has no doubt his players will be determined to win for Harvey this week.
"He has just been a wonderful player," Laidley said of the little man known as 'Boomer'.
"I have had the privilege now to coach him for six years and since I have been coaching he has won three best and fairests."
"He has been a super player and he has really rounded off his game in the last 18 months."
"(And) by the time he has finished playing he will be one of the all-time greats, certainly at this football club and of the league."
Laidley said what the 172cm Harvey lacks in size, he makes up for in football smarts.
"The way he plays, he looks like a jockey but he is a very, very good player and he is a very smart player," Laidley said.
But despite the incentive of Harvey's 250th game, Laidley is in no doubt as to the huge task his team faces this week to inflict a first loss for the season on a Bulldogs' side enjoying its best start to a season since 1946.
"They (the Bulldogs) have played particularly well this year and have really improved in a lot of areas so we will have to be very best to beat them," he said, adding the Roos' recent record against the Dogs counted for little this week.
The Roos will be boosted this week by the return of defender Daniel Pratt from a groin injury - a huge boost for the Kangas' defence against the league's highest scoring team.
But Laidley said the Roos will need defensive pressure all over the field if they are to stop the free-flowing Dogs on Sunday.
"Our contested football last week (in the win over West Coast), we had 75 tackles and we are going to need to do this again on the weekend against the Bulldogs because they are a very slick and smart outfit."