But a career in finance meant he was drawn to Melbourne, missing the Blues’ drought-breaking premiership last season.

Harkness is now hoping to join long-time Blues, including captain Peter McDowall and defender Luke Parsons, in tasting finals success.

“I was talking to some of the guys I’ve played junior football with the other day, I reckon it’s the first final I’ve played at Nirranda,” he said.

“It’s my eighth or ninth year at the club, including juniors. It’s really exciting (to play finals). 

“I think there was a similar feeling with guys like Peter and Luke last year, who have been at the club for a long time.”

Harkness, an assistant coach under Shane Threlfall and Shane Quick, said Nirranda would focus on playing to its strengths against Kolora-Noorat in Saturday’s qualifying final.

Despite the absence of mobile tall forward Jack Primmer, the back-flanker backed the Blues’ depth to fill the void.

Mercurial forward Robbie Gregg is headlining three inclusions for Nirranda, with Damian Moloney and Reagan Nutting also set to return.

“We’ve had such a good spread of players exposed to senior football this season. Our reserves are also playing finals, so we’ve got really strong depth,” Harkness said.

“We’re really lucky to have good coaching and leadership around the club and our messages have been pretty simple.

“We know finals is about contested footy and we think that’s a strength of ours. We’ve just got to come to play.

“We won’t be changing anything too drastically, I think that held us in really good stead last season.”

Blues co-coach Shane Threlfall said his side had prepared well for the qualifying final. “They’ve done as much as they can at this point of the season. There’s a buzz around,” he said.