Fremantle's emphatic win sets up a virtual elimination final at the MCG next Saturday between Essendon and Hawthorn, while Port Adelaide is still a mathematical hope of sneaking into eighth spot.
“I guess I’ll be getting a letter from Hawthorn and Port Adelaide saying ‘thanks very much’," Harvey joked after the game.
Fremantle has now won its past three home games, including victories over finals aspirants Essendon and Port Adelaide, to give Harvey confidence in the club’s future.
“The belief out of what we’ve been able to do in our two home games in recent weeks (where) we’ve been pitted against finals teams and beaten them can never be underestimated,” Harvey said.
Fremantle had come under intense public scrutiny over the last week following its 63-point drubbing by Melbourne in round 20, but outclassed the Bombers in every aspect of Sunday's game.
“I think every club will face scrutiny throughout the course of the year at some stage,” Harvey said.
“It’s very hard for teams to be up and viable on a regular basis, (but) having said that, I think today you saw our future.
“We like to play exciting football and get people to come and watch us play, and we did that today.
“We have been doing it more so at home than on the road, but we’ve still got to work on areas of our game defensively. We’re still letting (the) opposition score probably too easily at times.”
Fremantle’s sixth win of the season was also a tactical victory for Harvey and his coaching team, which got its match-ups spot-on against a side which had beaten ladder-leaders St Kilda seven days ago.
“There (were) a few different challenges out there,” he said.
“(Paul) Hasleby, his job was to keep out (Jobe) Watson, and I thought he did a terrific job there.
“Steven Dodd was to keep (Angus) Monfries quiet, Stephen Hill was to keep (Brent) Stanton quiet - not just quiet, but ... also go at the right time and expose them the other way. (Chris) Tarrant on (Jay) Neagle was (also) terrific.
“So we had some really interesting tactics that we had to make sure worked for us, and they did today.”
Harvey said the continued development of his younger players was beginning to pay dividends, reserving special praise for Nic Suban, who he suggested should get the nod for this week’s NAB AFL Rising Star nomination.
“They’ll certainly have to sit up and take notice of what he did today,” said Harvey of Suban.
“He was deadly, particularly by foot on top of the in-close stuff that we look at.
“When you have a look at his statistical output, forget about the disposals; you look more at hard ball gets and clearances. On top of that, he kicked a couple of goals. For him to be still doing that on the back of playing every game is terrific.
“I like to make it a competition among the younger players, because it drives them to excel and keep finding out about each other and challenging each other.”
