SHANE Harvey was a little torn as he headed to Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

Much of the week leading up to the game between St Kilda and North Melbourne was spent highlighting the achievements of Harvey’s older brother Brent in the lead-up to his 350^th game.

While proud of his brother achieving a milestone that only 12 other players in the history of VFL/AFL had reached, Harvey was also part of the celebrations of a close friend on the other side of the ledger.

Harvey, who played 14 games for Essendon and North Melbourne, counts St Kilda midfielder Leigh Montagna as a close friend - so much so that his son Archie was dressed in a St Kilda jumper with no. 11 and accompanied the Saints on to the field as Montagna led the team out.

Montagna and Shane Harvey go back a long way with both having represented the Northern Knights in the TAC Cup before they were drafted in 2001.

“I actually played junior footy with Joey and we travelled to Perth together and roomed together and became good mates, and we lived close by as we were growing up.  (We) both played for the Northern Knights and have been mates ever since,” Shane told saints.com.au.

As soon as his duties as St Kilda mascot were over, Archie was hurried over to the other side of the ground to pay tribute to his uncle as he led the Kangaroos out.

“It’s a very unusual situation,” Shane said.

“We pencilled it in after my brother got a six week suspension (last year), we looked at it and knew pretty early that this was going to be the day!”

The day panned out to be a far more memorable milestone for the North Melbourne veteran than for Montagna. But for Archie Harvey it was the best of both worlds.