Harris revels in honour to coach WAFL to memorable winTuesday, May 26, 2015 - 2:14 AM - by Chris Pike

HIS phone would ring off the hook the second he declared an interest in coaching again, but Darren Harris just revelled in the experience of guiding the WAFL to a State game win over the SANFL both to help the players achieve what they did and to work with some of his favourite people again.

Harris has made it clear that since returning to Perth from Carlton at the end of 2012 that he doesn’t have the time to coach a team in his own right given his work with Leading Teams, but he has again proven that he still has what it takes.

Having originally joining West Perth in the early 1990s and going on to be a premiership captain in 1995 and then returning to be a premiership coach in 2003, Harris became a premiership assistant coach in the AFL with West Coast and then spent time as a development coach Carlton.

Since 2012 he has worked with the innovative Leading Teams program, but was honoured to be asked to coach the WAFL State team this year and did a tremendous job in the lead up and on game day as WA scored the 45-point victory over South Australia at Lathlain Park on Saturday.

Harris enjoyed the chance to reconnect with some people who have been a big part of his career with his premiership coach at West Perth John Dimmer, fellow West Coast premiership assistant Tony Micale and Eagles premiership player Adam Selwood just some of his coaching team.

While that made it a memorable experience personally for Harris, what he and his coaching staff most enjoyed was the fact that they gave the 22 WAFL players the chance to experience what will be one of their career highlights with such an impressive win over the SANFL.

"I've got to work with some of my favourite people again and to reconnect with them has just been brilliant. And for them to give up their time and get involved in WA footy, I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did," Harris said.

"Right here, right now it's just good to really enjoy as a group of coaches that we've provided a group of young men the opportunity to play for WA, and to have a victory. We just took the opportunity to sit back and enjoy watching the smiles on their faces, and no doubt we were grinning as well."

Leading up to the game it was all business for Harris and he was focused on preparing his group to represent WA to the best of his ability.

But on game day on Saturday it actually hit him that he was coaching WA and come Saturday night, he was proud of what he was able to help the team achieve.

"It's a great honour to coach the lads. When I was leaving home I was saying to my kids that I was actually going to coach WA today, and that's when it hit home what I was actually doing because up to that point I was just enjoying being part of it," he said.

"But coming to the game I started to get a bit nervous thinking about representing my state but it has been a great honour. The thing for me is that we just have a lot of quality people in our game.

"And if you look at WA footy at the moment you have the Eagles, Dockers and WA State team who are all winning, the 18s won their first game as well and it's just a great vibe for WA footy. We just need the people to keep getting behind it, it's fantastic."

Saturday's win for WA sees them move one ahead in the overall ledger from 93 meetings between the two proud football states since 1904 and Harris is now proud to have been part of the strong recent form for the WAFL that’s seen them beat the VFL, NEAFL and SANFL the last three years.

"When you look at a stat that's 46-all you've got to take your opportunities. We had 15 years where we didn’t beat them, we beat them by a point, they beat us again over there and we came out here and it's a great win," he said.

"You don't often beat SA like that so we will take that one and put it in the bank. And to go 47-46 up in that long history is really positive. The other thing is that we have both beaten Victoria, and this game was a bit about bragging rights but the wheel will continue to turn and we will need to step up again next time we play them."

Harris didn’t have all the players he would have hoped available for selection due to injury with the likes of Brendan Lee, Ben Saunders, Kyle Anderson, Tallan Ames, Andrew Stephen, Bradd Dalziell and Kyal Horsley unavailable, but that didn’t make selecting a final 22 easy.

In the end, Shane Nelson, Chris Keunen, Brock O'Brien, Steven Payne, Brendon Jones and Matt Riggio were among those desperately unlucky to not be picked but it's difficult to argue with the final results.

Harris and his coaching staff picked a team in form, fully fit and that was capable of running South Australia off its feet, and that's exactly how it panned out in the eventual 45-point victory.

"We were really happy with selection. All the club's coaches were brilliant in their support for State footy and they really got involved, and made sure they told us who they thought were their best players," he said.

"We had a really simple philosophy and we tried to pick the most in-form and fit side. We didn’t play anyone we didn’t think was fully fit and that made for some hard calls, but we picked the fittest, in-form side so that when we matched up blokes we looked at who was better for that role and position. In the end, it's just a great win."

Harris couldn’t have been happier with the contributions of so many players in so many different throughout the game on Saturday as well.

Ryan Davis, Shane Yarran and Cory Dell'Olio combined for 11 goals with support of Subiaco big men Lachlan Delahunty and Clancy Wheeler in the forward-line.

Darren Rumble, Justin Simpson and Blayne Wilson holding the back-line together while Wayde Twomey and Andrew Strijk provided tremendous run and drive from the back-line.

And then captain and ruckman Paul Johnson held his own in the middle and Aaron Black, Liam Anthony, Chris Phelan, Ryan Neates, Ryan Cook and Ashton Hams were all terrific running through the middle driving the ball forward.

Given there were no passengers and the game panned out just how he and his coaching staff hoped, it certainly was an enjoyable experience for Harris to be part of as he dipped his toe back into the coaching game.

"We looked around at the whole team after the game and everyone contributed, but we thought that Ryan Davis was our best player. The impact he had in that second quarter and I reckon Davo would love to play in a five man forward-line regularly, and it suited him really well in this game," Harris said.

"Wayde Twomey came in as a late inclusion and it was a really tough call between him and Brock O'Brien but we just felt Wayde Twomey's form was just in front over the last couple of games so he got the nod.

"To then have 30-odd possessions across half-back says it all, but if you go through every line we had strong contributors. There was Clancy Wheeler at centre half-forward, Darren Rumble at full-back, Anthony and a lot of guys in the midfield, and we just didn’t have any passengers."