It was all a charade. Hunched over, handfuls of his shorts clenched between his fists, gasping for air, seemingly out of gas. And then, almost miraculously he was away again, ticking the odometer over like a Tour de France cyclist flying up the Pyrenees.

That is the eternal image of St Kilda champion Robert Harvey, a timeless vision forever lodged in the minds of worshipping Saints fans who adored the No. 35 for every game of his glittering 21-season career.

On Saturday night, the dual Brownlow medallist will become just the eighth player in St Kilda Football Club’s history to be elevated to legend status in the Saints Hall of Fame, joining an exclusive clique comprised of Ian Stewart, Darrel Baldock, Tony Lockett, Allan Jeans, Ross Smith, Neil Roberts and Trevor Barker.

Harvey’s first captain at Moorabbin - and for his first eight years at the Saints - Danny Frawley, remembers a shy teenager from Seaford walking into the club and quickly demonstrating his enormous appetite for hard work.

“Rob used to always say: ‘The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary’. Rob is a perfect example of that,” Frawley told saints.com.au.

“The famous (image) grabbing the shorts at the boundary line, looking absolutely knackered, but that was just a sign to bring it on.

“When he first came to the club he wasn’t the most boisterous guy floating around. It’s fair to say Humphrey Bear would talk more than ‘Harvs’ early on in his career. But he was always a doer, always a man of action.

“He had a sheer desire in him to get the best out of himself. I remember one particular pre-season, his running ability as a youngster - like all youngsters - his endurance wasn’t great, but then we found out the following pre-season he’s coming second or third (in the time-trials).

“We found out he ran a marathon with his old man because he didn’t want to be embarrassed or let his teammates down. I think that says a lot about Rob’s work-rate and desire and the way he got the best out of himself.”

Harvey’s insatiable thirst for work didn’t always work in his advantage, with his fanatical approach to training leading to overuse soft tissue injuries. A series of hamstring and quadriceps tears forced the club to put the brakes on a young Harvey, or at least try to.

Frawley revealed the eight-time All Australian would hop in the car after training and head to Trevor Barker’s gym and do anything that would give him an edge with his football. As he matured, Harvey’s mindset evolved, but he always sought more work, adding yoga and meditation to his routine later in his career.

“I think his work-rate and his recovery was great, but I think early days the club had to really pull him back,” Frawley said.

“For a few years there he had some hamstrings and quadriceps tears and it only became evident, that whilst he wasn’t training on the track at Moorabbin he would then get in the car because he thought he was letting himself down and his teammates down and head to the late Trevor Barker’s gym at the King Club.

“Once there, he would get on this thing called the versa climber which basically worked your upper body and your legs and Rob would stand on that for about two hours on end after training because he thought that was what he needed to keep fit and that’s what made him so great.

“His professionalism probably early days was more is better, and then obviously later on in his career quality versus quantity was super.

“He would always get massages; he did a lot of meditation, a lot of yoga late in his career. He was really professional in his preparation leading into game day to make sure that he was able to give it all to his teammates and more importantly to his club.”

Unlike the modern game, throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s the best midfielders would face off, presenting mouth-watering encounters between the likes of Harvey, and fellow Brownlow medallists Michael Voss, Nathan Buckley, Shane Crawford, James Hird and Ben Cousins, amongst a plethora of other greats.

Frawley recalls a time where opponents would roll out to Harvey with trepidation, knowing the sheer volume of mileage they would have to cover in order to not be embarrassed by the Saints’ games record holder.

“I can remember back in the day in the early ’90s when midfielders would go head-to-head, you’d see Michael Voss, Mick McGuane and these guys running on Rob and they knew they’d have to run half a marathon to keep up with him. His sheer desire to keep his work-rate up was just phenomenal,” Frawley said.

Inside St Kilda, Harvey’s commitment to the team was revered. His desire to steer clear of the typical attention bestowed on players of his ilk was infamous, with the four-time Trevor Barker Award winner preferring to palm the praise off to Tony Lockett or Nathan Burke or Lenny Hayes. Anyone but him.

“I think his quiet demeanour belied his attitude out on the ground. I think what a lot of people didn’t realise was he was very competitive, courageous and the ultimate team man really. He would always pass the limelight on to someone else,” Frawley said.

Book your ticket today to St Kilda's Hall of Fame & 1966 Premiership Anniversary Celebration