Mark Harvey

Mark Harvey (born 11 June 1965) is a former Australian rules football player who played for the Essendon Football Club. In August 2013, he took over as interim senior coach of the Brisbane Lions following the resignation of Michael Voss as senior coach but on 3 October 2013, he resigned from the Lions. He returned to Perth with the intention of taking a year away from hands-on involvement in football. Harvey is currently serving as an assistant coach at the Essendon Football Club.

Harvey was originally known as a skilful forward, playing that role in the 1984 and 1985 premiership sides, including kicking four goals in the 1985 premiership win. However, injuries in his later career (particularly to his ankles) meant he was used more as a defender, which reduced the stress on his body. In his role as a defender he often played as centre half-back against much taller opponents, making up for his lack of height with his aggressive attack on the football.

Harvey finished in the top five of the Essendon best-and-fairest on four occasions, winning the award in 1992. He was named in the All-Australian team in 1985 and 1993; he also played in premiership sides both those years as well as in 1984. He was also the side's leading goalkicker for the 1985 season, an unusual feat for a medium-sized forward in a premiership winning team. In 2002 he was named as the 18th greatest player to play for the club in the "Champions of Essendon" list.

In 2001 Harvey admitted that he suffered from bulimia for 3 to 4 years of his playing career, after he gained weight following a broken leg.

Harvey retired in 1997 after realising injuries had taken their toll on his body and he could no longer contribute to the side in the way he would like. He remained at Essendon as an assistant coach under Kevin Sheedy, and in the years since was often suggested as a possible senior coach. At the end of the 2004 season Harvey was a front-runner for a number of coaching jobs, but either wasn't offered or chose not to take each of them, and continued to be an assistant at Essendon.

However, after the end of the 2005 season, Harvey resigned as Essendon assistant coach to take up a job at Fremantle as an assistant coach to Chris Connolly. He helped Fremantle have their most successful season to date in 2006, reaching the preliminary final, but following a poor start to the 2007 season, Connolly resigned as senior coach after round 15. Harvey was then offered the caretaker role for the remainder of the season. After taking two days to consider the offer he accepted and was senior coach for the first time against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on 21 July 2007. Fremantle performed very well, scoring their highest ever score in South Australia and winning by 25 points. Harvey led Fremantle to win four of the seven remaining games in 2007 but it wasn't enough to make the finals, finishing in eleventh place.