EFNL 2024: Luke Harris appointed Bayswater coach for 2025

The Eastern league Division 1 club’s search for its next senior mentor has landed on the recommendation put forward by a highly-regarded premiership coach.

He arrives at Bayswater on the recommendation of a highly-regarded premiership coach.

The Eastern league Division 1 club has unveiled Luke Harris as its next senior mentor, succeeding the outgoing Marc Hardy.

Harris, 43, was put to the Waters by none other than current Mornington leader Leigh McQuillen who knows a thing or two about coaching across almost 20 years in the caper.

McQuillen, a former Frankston Dolphin, was assistant for Mornington’s MPFNL Division 2 premiership in 2023 and steered Stony Creek to a flag in 2009, among stops at Beaconsfield, AJAX and South Croydon.

He recently received a call from Bayswater and couldn’t recommend his great mate Harris highly enough.

“They spoke to Leigh who knew I was interested in getting my own job,” Harris said.

“I’d been doing the assistant-coaching roles for a while and Leigh and I are pretty close – he let Bayswater know to give me a call.

“It progressed to a second interview and I was lucky enough to land the job – it’s been a fantastic couple of weeks, it’s all happened pretty quickly but I’m super-excited to sink my teeth into it.

“From what I’ve seen, they’re all a very close, great bunch of mates, a great community and great culture.”

EFNL 2024: New Bayswater coach Luke Harris. Picture: Supplied

Harris most recently served as senior assistant at MPFNL outfit Frankston Bombers after a stint as under-19s coach, and also worked with St Kilda’s Next Generation Academy among a swag of junior development roles in local footy.

The Koo Wee Rup product’s senior football career took him to Southern club Highett under the coaching of the legendary Peter Reece who he “learned a lot from”.

Harris said his grounding as a development coach would feed nicely into the Waters’ age demographic.

“A lot of my focus has been junior development coming through the junior ranks … the (St Kilda) NGA program and the under-19s, my focus has always been around the development of youth and getting them to senior footy and getting them to become the best they can be,” he said.

“That fits in really well with Bayswater, it’s a really young group.”

A black belt in full-contact karate, Harris said there was plenty to be taken from the disciplines of martial arts into football.

“That’s what really got me interested in the junior coaching – I did martial arts for six or eight years and had some success there,” he said.

“I just felt there was a gap in junior development and the disciplines that go with junior footy and I think that’s where I had a lot of success in the football world because I took a lot of the martial arts discipline.

“That still holds me in good stead now for a senior footy program.”

And there’ll be no shortage of mentors to lean on as Bayswater chases its first finals series since 2019 next season.

The club won just five matches from 13 this year and last lifted a senior men’s cup in 2016 – but Harris’ long-term aim is to return the Waters to Eastern’s top division.

EFNL 2024: Bayswater won five matches and finished eighth this season. Picture: Field of View Photography

“I had a great time at the (Frankston) Bombers getting to work with Beau Muston, Jarrad Grant, Nathan Lonie, and Zach Horsley who’s now at Dingley,” Harris said.

“I’ve got a lot of good people around me … I’m going to take everything I’ve got.

“The focus for me is getting the footy program right, start being consistent performers in that comp, play finals, win premierships and we want to be a Premier club forever – that’s my goal, and to have sustainability in the program where they become a Premier league club for the rest of their existence.”

Recruits are already on the radar for the incoming coach.

“We’ve got a couple of potential holes in the side but we’ll address that over the next few weeks.”