Harris joins Centurion Coaches Club

This week Darren Harris will coach is 100^th game as Senior Coach of the Falcons becoming just the 5^th Coach in the history of the Club to reach the mark joining fellow premiership coaches, John Dimmer, Graham Campbell, Stan Heal & Bill Monaghan.

Harris also played 109 games for the Falcons from 1992 – 1996 and Captained the Club to the 1995 Premiership, collecting the Simpson Medal for his best on ground performance as well as the Breckler Medal (Fairest & Best) in the same season.

Harris’s first stint as coach of the Falcons was in 2002 and he had immediate impact steering the club to the Grand Final that year to fall just short in the decider against the West Coast Eagles aligned East Perth team. The following year Harris would go one better, delivering the club its 18^th League Premiership defeating Subiaco.

After two more seasons at West Perth, an opportunity in the AFL presented and Harris accepted, taking up a coaching role with the West Coast Eagles. In his first season with the Eagles he would achieve the ultimate success, winning the AFL Premiership against the Sydney Swans in what was dubbed Episode II of the great rivalry that became legend after the Swans won the Grand Final the year before by a single point against the Eagles. In all Harris spent 7 years in the AFL with both West Coast Eagles and the Carlton football clubs’ before returning to his adopted home in Perth to resume his career in corporate leadership consultancy.

It wasn’t long before he was back coaching, with the WAFL quick to announce Harris as the State Coach for the 2015 & 2016 seasons. He was successful in both years guiding the Black Swans to victory on both occasions against South Australia and Tasmania.

In 2017, Harris was appointed Senior Coach of the Claremont Football Club taking them from the doldrums to premiership contenders in his four years at the helm only to fall agonisingly short (3 points) in the 2020 Grand Final.

Harris’s return to West Perth this year has been a coup for the Falcons, after former Coach and Harris’s 1995 Premiership team-mate Geoff Valentine was recruited by the Fremantle Dockers to join their coaching panel.

Whilst the season is far from over and much hard work lies ahead, Harris will lead the Falcons into another finals campaign in 2022 in the quest for the club’s 20^th league premiership.   

Darren Harris’s Coaching Career

1997 - 1999 Wodonga Raiders FC – 71 games (1998 Premiership)

2000 – 2001 NSW / ACT Rams TAC Cup - 32 Games

2000 – 2001 NSW/ ACT State 18s - 12 Games (2000 Division 2 National Champions)

2002 – 2005 West Perth FC Senior Coach – 84 Games (2003 Premiership)

2006 – 2008 West Coast Eagles FC Assistant Coach (Forwards) – 72 Games (2006 Premiership)

2009 – 2012 Carlton FC Assistant Coach & Head of Development – 92 Games

2015 – 2016 WA State Coach – 2 Games

2017 – 2020 Claremont FC Senior Coach – 71 Games

2022 West Perth FC Senior Coach – 15 Games *