In the hype surrounding Boomer Harvey's extraordinary accomplishment of breaking Michael Tuck's record for the most VFL/AFL games, one vital point has been forgotten.

His name - it's not Boomer, it's Brent.

Brent Harvey, not surprisingly for someone who has played 426 games and counting, comes from another era. An era when footballers were called, well, Brent.

Harvey is the last of a dying breed of Kelvins, Garys and Barrys.

I was reminiscing about the changing nature of footy names recently and so decided to do a random experiment. I looked up a team from the 1970s and in honour of Harvey, I chose the Kangaroos' 1975 Premiership team. It turned out to be a classic.

It reads: Ross, David, Frank, Brent (Croswell, genius), Malcolm, Keith, Peter, Wayne, Arnold, Sam (admittedly Kekovic), Doug, Paul, Mick, John, John, Gary, Gary, Barry, Barry, Barry. Coach: Ron.

Nice, solid, simple, classic. Like the footy.

Their opponent Hawthorn had a couple of Peters, two Kelvins, three Michaels, a Bernie and a Des. The slightly exotic outliers were a Leigh (albeit one of the greatest and most ferocious players ever) and a Bohdan.

When North Melbourne won the Grand Final two years later, it had snuck in a Xavier, but apart from that it was situation normal. John, Gary, Barry, Stan, Frank, Daryl and Ken.

Fast forward to the Kangas next grand final win in 1996 - the year Brent Harvey debuted - and little has changed. Mick, Wayne, Brett, David, Robert, Mark, Peter and Stuart. The only hint of change in the wind was a Corey.

Things started to change in the early 2000s.

Biblical, but with a twist.

Call it the era of the Luke. There were three taken in the top nine picks from the famous 2001 draft.

Ashley was big - two in the top 14, three in the top 40.

Yes, there was a Brent and a Barry, but also a Lewis, a couple of Jarrads and a Dane.

By 2015 all sense had been thrown out the window. The draft of that year had not one single Brent. No Barry. No Gary. Not a Kelvin in sight.

Instead we got Callum - actually quite a few Callums.

Our new AFL footballers are called Clayton, Darcy, Harrison, Jade, Brayden, Mason, Riley, Aidyn, Tyrone, Mackenzie, Declan, Yestin and Wylie.

They have joined Majak, Lin, Heritier and Aliir.

The Franks must be crying into their beers.

And if my son's junior footy team is anything to go by the next generation of AFL footballers will be called Atticus, Remy, Django, Zoey, Layla, Harper and Scarlett.

And they will be chipping the ball around and kicking the bloody thing backwards.

Kick it long I say. Tell Barry to pump it long to Kelvin. And if he doesn't mark the bloody thing, Brent will pick up the crumbs.