Brent Harvey’s record-breaking 427th senior game was certainly remarkable. But that it coincided with a slew of other career-service marks, including Matthew Pavlich’s 350th, Corey Enright’s new mark for a Geelong player and team-mate Jimmy Bartel’s 300th was borderline astounding. In successive weeks leading up, Sam Mitchell and Scott Thompson also notched their 300s.

It speaks to a developing trend – the AFL might begin to see its longevity benchmarks achieved with greater regularity. Melbourne coach Paul Roos is one who thinks so.

“I don’t think you can underestimate the depth of the achievement,” he said when asked about Harvey. “When Michael Tuck set the record, no-one thought it was being beaten.

“But players are full-time now … If players are prepared to take their craft seriously, look after themselves, you’d think they were going to get two or three more years of longevity. I think that’s going to happen. Can anyone break Boomer’s record? Unlikely. But we’re certainly going to see a lot more players break 300 and get to 350.”

Roos himself had a distinguished career over time, playing 356 VFL/AFL matches. He bridged the transition to full professionalism, becoming only a full-timer with his move from Fitzroy to Sydney. In his last four seasons with the Swans, he played another 87 games.

“I was fortunate. I played in the era where you worked, and that was certainly a lot harder: getting home from training at 8 or 9 o’clock and going to work the next day. But by 1996, I was full time, so that allowed me a bit longer to play.

“But there’s no doubt the way Michael Tuck did it was a lot harder. Blokes were brickie’s labourers and landscape gardeners. It was a lot harder then to continue to play. And training – Tuesday night training was as hard as a game, so it was like you were playing two games a week.”

There’s at least a half-dozen candidates for the 300 in 2017, with the likes of Gary Ablett, Luke Hodge, Brendon Goddard and Bob Murphy all closing in on the mark.