Barring some disaster like flood, fire or Cylon attack a little bit of history will be made at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday night. The 33 year old Jamie Harnwell will make his 242nd appearance for Perth Glory, a new record for the club and a fitting one for the true piece of furniture of the proud West Australian club. When I say he's like a piece of furniture I mean that he's your favourite sitting chair, he's that rug that really ties the room together, he's the oil lamp that was on the mantelpiece in your student sharehouse.

Harnwell was first brought in to the side in 1998 when ex East German boss Bernd Stange took over.

"Perth Glory wear Purple and Orange? Oh mein Gott!"

Harnwell had been marked as a ‘talented youngster' in his time with Kingsway Olympic and his youth club Sorrento (where he won a league title) but it was expected he would find it hard to get in the starting XI ahead of Kiwi internationals Gavin Wilkinson and Danny Hay with cult hero Vinko Buljabasic having a monopoly on the sweeper position. A horror leg break to Buljabasic in late 1998 meant that Harnwell was thrust in to the back three for Glory in what was a baptism of fire, more so when you must remember Stange's defensive tactics when coach of Glory could be filed under ‘suicidal' for want of a better word.

You could say that Jamie's career mirrored that of the Glory for the early part of his career. He announced his arrival as a key player in a major way in the finals series of the 1998/99 NSL season when his maiden goal for Glory came in front of some 25,000 people at the WACA to help the Glory knock out Adelaide City (current Glory games record holder Bobby Despotovski getting the winner). The rapidly rising Glory had their poster boy for all those wrap around articles in the West Australian before big matches and publicity appearances around town when Perth was falling in love with the fledgling side and its German coach. With his starting spot at the back guaranteed and the good looks of an All-American Quarterback from a teen movie Harnwell went on to play more than 100 matches for Glory in the next few years and score over a dozen goals. He scored vital goals in the 1999/2000 season including a goal in that most heartbreaking of grand finals against the Wollongong Wolves at Subiaco Oval and then scored an amazing 35 yard screamer against the same side in the grand final rematch in January 2001 which built his reputation even more as a physical central defender with a trademark powerful header at set pieces.

In June 2003 he scored the first goal in Glory's emotional maiden championship win at Subiaco Oval with another one of his strong headers from a corner, his undershirt reading ‘Goodbye Shed, Goodbye Perth' as he said his farewells and looked to make a name for himself in Europe, he didn't. Jamie was back at Glory within 6 months after failing to get a contract with East London club Leyton Orient and trying out for non-league clubs like Welling United, perhaps he was finding himself so like so many antipodeans before him in the UK. We Glory fans knew he had been a spectacular failure in the UK and wasn't up to scratch but he was our hero and we pretended it never happened, the arms were outstretched by one and all to welcome back the prodigal son. After re-signing for the Glory he eventually earned a spot back in the side and was part of the back-to-back title win in the final NSL season, his pairing up with fellow Sorrento junior and one time Socceroo Shaun Murphy in defence being pivotal in the win.

In the A-League Jamie was fittingly made club captain but his star (like Glory's) began to wane as the clubs in the Eastern states got themselves together. He only missed one game in the first two seasons but the injuries began to mount up as younger and faster strikers began to expose his failings. Harnwell also saw his club dying from on the pitch with dwindling crowds, FFA ownership, an unbelievably dour coach in Ron Smith and teammates that were mainly duds of the highest caliber all coming together to form a nightmare. There was also an on field incident following a 0-0 draw with Adelaide United where Harnwell and Kiwi teammate Adrian Webster came to blows on the pitch, the cameras capturing the embarrassing moments and news telecasts Australia wide showing the altercation, a new low for Glory fans and players. In the same season that the fight occurred (2006/07) a switch by Smith to play Harnwell up front in the darkest of times for the club proved to be a winner with Harnwell's large frame managing to net 15 goals from 38 appearances over two seasons thanks to the ‘tradional centre forward' role being played.

As the Glory wallowed on in the A-League Harnwell was most definitely the hero of the squad even after his captaincy was given to the serial sook Simon Colosimo. His appearances were the one link from the days of the NSL, a shining light for those of us hanging on like grim death to the hope that the Glory would get back to somewhere near those heady days of the late 90s/Early 2000s. The chant of ‘Jamie, Jamie' from the Shed one of the only worthy chants during a time when his header in front of over 40,000 at Subiaco Oval in June 2000 seemed to be 50 years ago with Vera Lynn singing the national anthem before the match. It did seem as though he would be shunted out as the club looked to rebuild under the new ownership of Tony Sage but to his credit Harnwell worked hard and despite now having the speed of a tortoise and turning circle of the QEII he's still a required player. It was proved in the first few weeks of this season with the good Coyne and Andy Todd missing from defence meaning that Harnwell had to link up with the bad Coyne at the back, the two Jamies came out of it with a decent enough effort put in with even a few clean sheets achieved.

Jamie Harnwell is as much Perth Glory as The Shed, overpriced midstrength beer at the games or Perth Oval. He's been through the quite decent highs and massive lows of the club throughout his career and it would be brilliant, magical and so emotional that I would almost have a little bit of pee seep out if he got a winners medal this season before he retires from the elite level and goes back to his beloved Sorrento SC in the Northern suburbs of Perth. Congratulations on getting the record Jamie, if this can't inspire the boys to get something from the match against the league leaders then nothing will. OK, maybe if Vinko made a come back out of the blue it might inspire us but nothing else.