WAFL 2022 Preview – West PerthSunday, March 13, 2022 - 12:00 AM - by Chris Pike

THERE'S every reason for excitement up Joondalup way about West Perth's fortunes for the 2022 WAFL season with the return of a favourite son as coach, a Simpson Medallist coming back and some other more than handy returnees.

West Perth made a slow start to their 2021 season but once they got up and rolling, they were just about as good as any team going around in the competition.

The Falcons would have considered themselves a little unlucky to not have advanced beyond the first semi-final after winning an elimination final, but there are plenty of reasons to suggests they are genuine premiership threats in 2022.

West Perth certainly was caught on the hop with the departure of coach Geoff Valentine, but you can never stand in anyone's way of being able to advance into the AFL system. 

While the Falcons weren’t expecting to need a new coach, it could have hardly turned out better in the situation that they welcome back premiership winning captain and coach Darren Harris to the club.

He captained West Perth to the 1995 premiership during a year where also won the State Game Simpson Medal and the Breckler Medal. He then replaced his premiership coach John Dimmer by taking over and leading the Falcons to Grand Finals in 2002 and 2003, and winning the 2003 flag.

Since leaving West Perth at the end of 2005, he has worked in the AFL with West Coast and Carlton, has been a driving force behind Leading Teams and most recently coached Claremont in the WAFL taking them to the 2020 Grand Final.

So Harris is back in charge of the Falcons and he's got some more than handy additions to call upon for 2022 including 2013 premiership player and Simpson Medallist Mark Hutchings following his 120-game AFL career.

Former state representative Luke Meadows also returns to West Perth as does Ben Johnson fresh out of the AFL system. 

The inclusions don't stop there either with lively forward Mitch Dobson joining from East Perth and veteran swingman Anton Hamp opting to join Harris at West Perth rather than retire after they worked together with Claremont.

If that's not enough, the Falcons midfield has got a significant boost with the return to the club of Aidan Lynch. He has turned himself into the genuine midfield gun the last couple of years with East Perth he threatened to be at West Perth previously but couldn’t quite lock down a permanent spot.

To top all of that off, even better news is that the majority of the playing group from last year is back on deck as well including but not limited to Aaron Black, Shane Nelson, Tyler Keitel, Zac Guadagnin, Noah Pegoraro, Mark Hamilton, Keegan Knott, Rudy Riddoch, Trent Manzone and new co-captain Dean Munns.

There should be high expectations on what West Perth can achieve this year and it's going to be fascinating to follow their ride.

COACH – Darren Harris (Fifth season, 51-33 record)
CAPTAINS – Aaron Black, Dean Munns
FAIREST AND BEST 2021 – Aaron Black

LOOKBACK ON 2021

Finals looked to be starting to slip from reach of West Perth early in 2021 but by the end of the season, the Falcons would have been left frustrated to have not at least ended up reaching another preliminary final.

West Perth's midfield was again anchored by veteran superstars Aaron Black and Shane Nelson who were named to the WAFL Team of the Year alongside defenders Zac Guadagnin and Noah Pegoraro, and Bernie Naylor Medallist Tyler Keitel.

The Falcons had stars in each area of the ground but good depth with emerging players in the middle, down back and up forward as well so there's no reason to suggest they won't once again be around the mark again in 2022.

FULL WEST PERTH 2021 SEASON REVIEW ??????

INS AND OUTS

Incoming – Mark Hutchings, Luke Meadows, Ben Johnson, Aidan Lynch, Anton Hamp, Mitch Dobson

Outgoing – Steve Potente, Kris Shannon

FEATURE FIXTURE

You couldn’t possibly get a more mouth watering start to the season for West Perth than taking on Claremont at Provident Financial Oval on Good Friday in Round 1.

To start with, it was Claremont who ended West Perth's season with a strong finish to the first semi-final last year. But that's only the tipping point of what makes this such a tantalising way to open the season.

You've also got Darren Harris now back coaching West Perth up against a Claremont team that let him go after he took the Tigers to a Grand Final in 2020. Nobody might say too much about the feeling that's naturally there, but deep down there's plenty of emotions bottled away.

Highlighting some of the mixed feelings about that decision by Claremont is the fact that Anton Hamp has now joined West Perth upon the appointment of Harris as coach after initially indicating he was retiring. 

Not to mention that both teams want to show an early indication of what they are capable of early in the season and this is a game not to be missed.

PREDICTION

It's hard to say unless West Perth has something go wrong in terms of losing players to the AFL or injury that they shouldn’t at the very least be aiming for a top three finish to earn a finals double chance. There should be no ceiling to their ambition from there.