Wodonga Raiders premiership mentor Darren Harris on the coaching 'bug'

BEAU GREENWAY: How have you been able to adapt from your time in the Ovens and Murray to coaching a WAFL side. Do you feel you're constantly evolving as a coach?

DARREN HARRIS: It's been a good pathway. Coming back and coaching Wodonga Raiders when I was 28 years of age and then getting in the AFL system in NSW and helping that got me back to coach in the WAFL the first time around. I was lucky enough to have seven years in the AFL and do some leadership work and end up back in the WAFL again. I really enjoy the WAFL. I've sort of been an assistant for eight or nine years and a head coach for eight or nine years and I'm at the stage where it's good to manage a program. You get a lot of other people to coach it, but it's just good to be able to be able to sit above it and use your experience to help others coach and play. It's who I am and I think in times like this you realise how much you love it. Being involved in a footy club, there's just great energy that comes with it. There's something happening all the time and lots of humour. It keeps you young.

BG: How much did you enjoy your time in the Ovens and Murray?

DH: All along the journey from the Wodonga premiership days in 1987, that was unbelievable and coming back to coach Wodonga Raiders to their first premiership. Those three years were as fun as you're going to have. It was with a lot of my mates that I'd grown up with, a few West Perth boys came over as well. Being able to play in the Ovens and Murray team under Bob Craig and win a championship there and play at the MCG in a night game was awesome when I first got back. Every part of it has just been good fun, there's lots of memories and I've been really lucky. The Bendigo years when I was at uni were great too. It's the first time you have a bit of freedom and live away from home. I lived with Craig Lefoe another Wodonga boy and we won a couple of premierships in Bendigo (with Golden Square) as well.

ALSO IN SPORT:

BG: You went across to West Perth and played in a premiership in 1995, what brought you back to the Border?

DH: When I'd had success over here as a player at West Perth, we won a premiership and they hadn't won one for 20 years. I captained it but I always wanted to coach. Wodonga Raiders were the ones that rang me every day for months to try and get me to put my hand up. Brian Collins was very persistent, and, in the end, because of a fair few mates likes Ant McIvor and Vinnie Glass that were involved at Wodonga Raiders, they got me there. Being able to bring a few mates from West Perth in Geoff Valentine, Ben Stewart, Rod Winner and a couple of my really good premiership mates from 1987 in Geoff Jones and Malcolm Wallace to help me out with the coaching and the running, it just all came together. Andrew Collins became my footy manager and he was a bloke I went to primary school with. Obviously my dad being at Kergunyah originally and then a founding member of Wodonga Demons and Wodonga Raiders helped as well. He and my uncle Paul Emery were really close with the club, so it all fell into place.

BG: Where does coaching the 1998 premiership rank for you?

DH: The year before to lose by seven points really hurt. I think in that game a couple of the legends like Simon Bone and Scott Hedley played some good footy in that grand final and nearly got us over the line. It was disappointing but it was the first time they'd ever been in a grand final. I think everyone committed themselves the next year to make sure we didn't let it slip. Even though we were underdogs to Lavington, in our camp we just felt that positive about the work we'd done and the team that came together on that day. To win by 64 points in the end and go back to the footy club that night and see all these people that had probably copped it for years from their crosstown rivals and always be seen as the easybeats to win, it was a pretty nice place to sit. That week of celebrations was unbelievable.

BG: How big of a factor was the West Perth connection in winning the flag?

DH: Geoff Valentine won the medal for best on ground, Rod Winner had about 14 touches in the first quarter, Ben Stewart won our best and fairest, so there was a pretty significant impact.

BG: A lot of people at the club speak about the mateship during that time. How important was that?

DH: We were just really good mates. Our functions we'd have everyone there including partners and family and it just became a really good community feel. I remember our functions at the end of the night, we'd always put on the Raiders theme song and everyone would circle up and sing it before we went home. It was that sort of an atmosphere. We just loved being together and loved our footy club.

BG: How long after the Ovens and Murray did you move into the AFL system?

DH: When I finished at the Raiders in 1999, I went and worked for NSW/ACT for two years, based out of Wagga. I coached at West Perth from 2002 to 2005 and got the job at the (West Coast) Eagles at the end of 2005. I spent seven years in the AFL and moved back to Perth.

BG: Do you still reflect pretty fondly on your time in the AFL, particularly the 2006 premiership at West Coast?

DH: You sort of pinch yourself a bit. I got in there and they'd just lost a grand final in 2005, so they were in really good nick and had a great team together. They'd been together a while and John Worsfold had been coaching since 2002. I came in 2006 and we won it in my first year. It was a bit out of body sitting in a coaches box on grand final day at the MCG when you've probably only been there one or two times before. To be able to be a coach sitting in that coaches box and watch your team win by a point was all a bit whirlwind. It happened quickly and it was an unbelievable experience. Being involved in footy in Melbourne with Carlton was great. Being able to jump in your car after work on a Friday night and drive to the MCG for a game against Richmond or Essendon in front of 80 or 90,000 people and be the bench coach or runner or coaching in the VFL was great fun.

BG: How did you end up at Claremont?

DH: When I came back to WA I coached my little fellas's team for a couple of years and I coached the WA state side for two years. It was a short program and really good fun. I sort of helped the under-18 and under-16 state programs for four years just doing some of their leadership work. I've never really stepped out of footy. It was good to coach my young fella's team for four or five years and I couldn't get the bug out of me, so I had to go back and coach at Claremont. It was interesting, I really wanted to go back and coach West Perth but the opportunity wasn't coming. I couldn't wait much longer. I'd been coach of the state side for a couple of years and had to get back into it or you can be out of touch pretty quickly I reckon. It took me a year or two to get going again with the coaching, but I feel like the last two have been pretty good.

BG: No doubt you would have had numerous guys you've coached go through to the AFL?

DH: There's heaps of them. Even just in my time at Claremont, after the first year I coached (in 2017), Zac Langdon went to GWS, Bailey Banfield went to Fremantle and Matt Guelfi went to Essendon. Last year we had another six. Most nights you're watching the footy and there's a direct relationship with one or two players or coaches. It's good to be able to watch the AFL and see blokes you've either coached, helped to coach or been involved in their careers because it makes the game more interesting to watch.

BG: Was there a particular player that has stood out across the journey?

DH: When I was coaching the Northern Blues in the VFL, there were a lot of young fellas there that were outstanding, but Kane Lambert would have to be the one. He sort of had a year off after his 18s year and he was best and fairest. Because he had a couple of mates down there he decided he'd come and play. Some of the things he was able to do as a young fella in the couple of years I was involved in coaching, I remember telling Carlton they should draft him. They ended up losing him to Williamstown and he had a couple of years there. Now watching what he's doing at Richmond is just great because he was such a great fella and such a great team man. He was just one of these blokes and you watch him now and he's a two-time AFL premiership player.

BG: Are you pretty content with where you are now or do you have aspirations to get back into the AFL?

DH: I reckon I've gone from a coach that was pretty full-on to win and drove things really hard, but now I'm a bit more comfortable in my own skin. I'm making sure this is a more sustainable model I'm coaching Claremont with. We're getting a lot of the old players involved in the culture of our club again and building it. We're getting a really good buy in from the players. For me, I'll coach Claremont until they tell me I can't do the job any more I reckon. At some stage there's no doubt they'll say it's time to move on and there will be some sort of succession plan and I'll look at the next challenge. I can see myself being involved in some sort of aspect in footy for as long as I can.

BG: Do you ever think about the fairy tale of going back to West Perth to coach?

DH: You sort of don't have a really good crystal ball on that. I'm still connected with them and my best mate Geoff Valentine coaches them. It's sort of changed our relationship a little bit with how much we used to share compared to what we share now, but we're still like family. The football manager there Steve Trewhella I coached and played in premierships with. I'm a life member there, so I'll be connected to them for life anyway, but I just have to wait and see what happens with Claremont. If Claremont keeps wanting me to be involved, I'll be there, but if they don't I'd imagine I'd drift back to West Perth and try to help them where I could. I really don't have much of an idea of what that's going to look like.

BG: Do you still keep an interest in the Ovens and Murray?

DH: I do. I subscribe to The Border Mail so I can get all the information that comes through. My brother and my mum are still in Wodonga. James is vice principal at Wodonga Primary School. I've just got a lot of good mates over there and now you're keeping an eye on their kids coming through. Vinnie Glass and Stephen Clarke and a few of those blokes have got their kids coming through and I'm sure Benny Stewart will have some kids playing cricket soon. Whenever I get home I love catching up with all of my old mates and reminiscing a bit. Our 1998 reunion a couple of years ago was bloody awesome and a good opportunity to reconnect with everyone again. It was amazing how close we all were. We all turned up and it was like yesterday, it was good fun.