Leading WA reignites coaching flame for HarrisThursday, May 21, 2015 - 9:28 PM - by Chris Pike

HE IS a WAFL premiership captain and coach, AFL premiership assistant coach and an innovator in the Leading Teams program, but being in charge of Western Australia against South Australia in Saturday's State game has whetted Darren Harris' coaching appetite again.

Harris arrived at West Perth in the early 1990s and went on to become a premiership captain in 1995, then coached the Falcons to the flag in 2003 and was a premiership assistant coach with West Coast in 2006 before spending time as a development coach with Carlton.

He has now been back in Perth for a couple of years working with the Leading Teams program and that hasn’t allowed him too much time to consider a return to full-time coaching despite several WAFL clubs having made serious approaches to him.

However, once the WAFL State team coaching job became available for this Saturday's clash with the SANFL at Lathlain Park, and he realised he could find the time to do it, Harris was quick to say yes and has taken the chance to reacquaint himself with some old successful friends.

Harris' coaching team includes his premiership coach at West Perth John Dimmer, fellow West Coast premiership assistant Tony Micale, West Coast premiership player Adam Selwood, and his old West Perth mates Corey Johnson, Craig Smoker and Geoff Valentine.

As much as Harris has enjoyed that and he is throwing himself fully into the coaching role, he knows the No. 1 goal is to come away with a victory for the WAFL to back up the wins in 2013 over the VFL and 2014 over the NEAFL following a 14-point loss to the SANFL in Adelaide in 2012.

And Harris has been tremendously impressed with the camaraderie he has seen within the WAFL playing group and has no doubt they will be putting everything into getting the win on Saturday over the SANFL.

"It has become a bit more real this week with the boys coming together to train even though at the start of training on Tuesday at Lathlain the lights went out so we didn’t know if we'd have any lights. But once they came on it was great to see the spirit and skill level of the lads at training," Harris said on 91.3 SportFM.

"I guess you think about how they will all gel together as a group before you take on the job, but from the first night they came together down at Fremantle Oval, they were just straight into the conversation with each other and it was obvious they enjoyed each other's company.

"There's been a lot of humour around the place and I think the fact that they are all elite WAFL players and are at the top of their craft means that they all just respect each other and know they all belong at the state level. It's been fantastic to watch and I think that will be a strength of ours on the weekend the fact that I have no issues knowing they will play for each other."

With Western Australia and South Australia such proud footballing states, and the WAFL and SANFL strong and traditional competitions, there is plenty of pride at stake in Saturday's game at Lathlain Park as well, with Harris fully aware that after 92 matches between the two the ledger is all tied up.

"It's a great stat isn't it knowing it is 46-all so I guess you will have some bragging rights if you go just in front after winning this weekend, but we have enormous respect for South Australia and they have done a lot of things well over a long period of time," he said.

"We know that it's a very mature competition the SANFL, they recruit a lot of players out of the AFL and it's a very financial competition. We know that it is an elite state league and the fact that it's 46-all is a lot of credit to WA too because we hold them in the highest regard and to be able to be on the same amount of wins says a lot for WA footy as well."

When initially asked to coach the WAFL team in 2015, Harris wasn’t sure if he could find the time mixed in with his work commitments, but he has thrown himself fully into the role, has surrounded himself with men he knows, trusts and respects, and is now looking forward to Saturday.

"My initial reaction was to wonder if I had the time to do it to tell you the truth, but once you break it down and it's just three Monday nights, a week of training and then just watching some games," he said.

"It's really just great to be back involved in footy and to start thinking about what to do strategically and the thing I've really enjoyed has been reconnecting with people like Tony Micale, John Dimmer and Adam Selwood.

"They are people I've worked with in the past both as a player and coach, so to have to those people together again along with Geoff Valentine, Craig Smoker, Corey Johnson and Brett Barber, it's just been great to reconnect with those people as well.

"To come together and plan for a win against South Australia with people who I've had an association with in footy who are great people is something I've really enjoyed. It's not about us, though, we are doing it because we want to give these players the best opportunity to have success."

The one thing that Harris hasn’t necessarily enjoyed in his return to coaching a team in his own right has been able to pass on the disappointing news to some players that they unfortunately won't be taking to the field on Saturday and representing WA.

While some of the decisions were taken out of his hands with the likes of Tallan Ames, Brendan Lee, Ben Saunders, Andrew Stephen, Bradd Dalziell, Kyle Anderson and Jay van Berlo unavailable, there were always going to be some difficult decisions to be made.

And those players that had to receive the disappointing news included Sandover Medallist Rory O'Brien, West Perth premiership ruckman Chris Keunen, Peel Thunder captain and 200-gamer Brendon Jones and former Essendon small forward Leroy Jetta.

Harris knows that it has to be part of the job, though, because he simply can't take 30 players into the State game on Saturday with him as much as he would like to.

"Having to tell some of the boys that they were unlucky is something I really didn’t enjoy and it took me back to what it was like as a coach every week. You have a lot of respect for these players and it really becomes line ball at the end of the day, and you are trying to pick your fittest and most in-form group," Harris said.

"We judged it on who was in the best form right at the moment, and there's been some unlucky players. I had to ring Chris Keunen on Tuesday and we decided that we had enough second ruckmen and went with Paul Johnson to lead the ruck.

"Chris Keunen was best on ground on the weekend and is a quality WAFL player, but we felt that Johnno's form over the last month has been at the level that he just pipped him.

"Leroy Jetta we ruled out on Tuesday because he's been under duress for three or four weeks injury-wise and getting through, but we just felt he wasn’t quite at the peak of his fitness and right to go with his hamstring so we had to make that hard call. It's been really tough and getting it from 25 to 22 or 23 will be even more difficult again."