Leon Harris has been in football all his life. As a 16-year-old premiership player at Mortlake in western Victoria in 1975 and a 186-game player at Fitzroy, through 20 years in coaching and junior development and now five years with the Brisbane Lions recruiting team, he’s seen it from all angles.

What the now 62-year-old has seen and doesn’t know about young football talent in Victoria isn’t worth knowing.

Officially, his remarkable journey started 43 seasons ago this week when he debuted with Fitzroy against Essendon at Windy Hill in Round 5 1979.

Harris remembers it well. They won 25-22 (172) to 10-16 (76). Bob Beecroft kicked seven goals, Bernie Quinlan six and Max Richardson four as Garry Wilson topped the possession count with 34 and Graeme ‘Gubby’ Allan had 32.

“(Teammate) Michael Poynton gave me a handball for my first kick, and I played on the wing on Ian Marsh. We won so well that (Essendon coach) Barry Davis was booed off the ground at three-quarter time,” recalled Harris.

The then 20-year-old had been included among three changes made by Fitzroy coach Bill Stephen after an extraordinary start to the year. After an 80-point win over Collingwood at Victoria Park Fitzroy lost three on the trot to South Melbourne (53 points), Richmond (20 points) and Carlton (57 points).

Chris Smith and Mick Conlan were forced out with injury and John Fraser, a six-game player at Fitzroy from 1978-79 after 10 games at North Melbourne 1976-77, was dropped never to play again.

While Harris effectively took Fraser’s spot, Quinlan and Kevin O’Keefe, later to play with Coorparoo in the QAFL and captain the Queensland State side, returned for Smith and Conlan.

Harris, the second-oldest of four boys who grew up on a dairy farm 10 minutes outside Mortlake, had graduated from Kolora in a local minor league to be a senior Mortlake standout in the tough Hampden League. He joined Fitzroy in 1978.

“I had a few injury problems early and was basically sacked before I started. I told them they hadn’t given me a chance so they gave me a chance and I played the second half of the season in the ‘Ressies’ (Reserves),” Harris recalled.

“In 1979 I played in the last senior practice against (SANFL club) West Torrens, missed selection for Round 1, and after four games in the ‘Ressies’ I got my chance. We won nine on the trot.”

It was the first time since 1960 Fitzroy had nine wins in a row and would be the last time. Only four streaks in club history were longer – 14 in a row in 1898-89, and 10 in a row three times in 1900, 1920 and 1950-511.

Also in the Fitzroy side for Harris’ debut was Brian Brown. It was his 42^nd game for the club, but after a badly broken leg which cruelled his career it was Round 14 1981 before he reached the 50-game mark to qualify Jonathan as a father/son selection for Brisbane.

“He (Brown Snr) could have been very good if he hadn’t got badly hurt,” said Harris.

But the future family connection didn’t end there. Noel Mugavin, later to become Jonathan Brown’s uncle, was also in the Fitzroy side. “I lived with Noel the following year and in 1982 he moved to Richmond. His first game for the Tigers was against Fitzroy and he got reported for striking me. I’m sure I paid the rent,” he quipped.

Forty years on Harris still has an excellent recollection of relevant football facts and figures. So good, in fact, that the AFL may wish to check some old records which show Harris wore jumper #56 in his first season before switching to his beloved #38 in 1980.

He says he wore #56 in the Reserves in 1978 and played his entire senior career in #38 except for one match in #1 in 1980 when asked by the club to take #1 before it was given to veteran recruit John Rantall.

“It doesn’t matter now … it’s a long time ago and it’s all just numbers,” said Harris, sounding confident but too polite to push his case.

But it does matter. Officially he ranks third all-time for AFL games played in #38 at 166, behind only the Western Bulldogs’ Dale Morris (253) and Melbourne/Collingwood defender Jeremy Howe, who is due to play his 200^th against Brisbane at the Gabba on Thursday night. And he’s third for goals all-time in #38 at 93, behind only Carlton/Melbourne goalsneak Jeff Garlett (183) and Essendon’s Mark Harvey (97).

But add the 20 games and eight goals he kicked in his first season and Harris becomes the only player to play 100 games and kick 100 goals in #38. Even if the one game he says he played in #1 is taken away.

Of course, if he stuck with #56 he could say he started his career in the same number as Michael Voss wore in his first six games at the Bears.

Harris’ near-faultless recollection, for which he credits in part the ‘advice’ of ex-Fitzroy captain Matt Rendell on their weekly Sunday morning walk with ex-Fitzroy pair Laurie Serafini and Scott Clayton,  makes him a journalist’s delight.

He remembers playing ‘a lot’ (23 times) at Fitzroy with younger brother Bernie from 1984-86 before Bernie joined the Brisbane Bears and claiming the distinction of kicking the club’s very first AFL goal in 1987.

He remembers playing for Fitzroy in the very first AFL game at Carrara in Round 4 1987, when the visitors won by 15 points and Bernie missed for the Bears through injury. And he remembers twice playing against Bernie in Round 17 1987 and in Round 6 1988. Fitzroy won the first meeting of the brothers by 25 points at Junction Oval, but the Bears came from 32 points down at three-quarter time to take the second meeting at Carrara by two points after four goals apiece from Warwick Capper and Brenton Phillips.

Harris, who spent much of his career as second rover to Lions Hall of Fame Legend Garry Wilson, also remembers playing eight finals spread over Fitzroy’s last five finals campaigns in 1979-81-83-84-86.

“Our best chance was 1983 but (Laurie) Serafini got hurt and we were a key defender short,” Harris recalled of the year Fitzroy went 15-7 to finish third on the home-and-away ladder, one game behind minor premiers North.

And he remembers ever so sadly his older brother Brian, a Fitzroy Under-19s and Reserves player killed in a car accident at 18. “He could have been the best of the Harris boys,” Leon said, careful not to leave out youngest brother Michael despite the fact he was “not in the footy space”.

Harris, runner-up to Rendell in the 1987 Fitzroy Best & Fairest, sits 17^th on the all-time Fitzroy games list despite giving chasers seven years after ending his career in 1989. With 14 official night games and two appearances for Victoria at the 1988 Bi-Centennial Carnival in Adelaide he qualified for the AFL 200 Club. Just.

Asked to describe himself as a player, Harris hesitated. It’s not a comfortable place. “I had a solid career … a good ordinary player, or an ordinary good player. Take your pick,” he said modestly.

After leaving Fitzroy Harris coached Werribee in the VFA in 1990-91-92, was assistant-coach at Fitzroy under Robert Shaw in 1993-94 and in 1995 coached the Western Jets in the fourth season of the then TAC Cup, now the NAB League.

In 1996 Harris went back to Fitzroy as Reserves coach under Mick Nunan. And when Nunan quit after Round 14 and the announcement of the Brisbane-Fitzroy merger he was suddenly the right-hand-man to caretaker coach and long-time close friend Alan McConnell.

Together they steered Fitzroy through the gruelling final weeks of their 100^th year in the AFL.

Of the merger, Harris said: “It was terribly sad, but it had to happen … we were a basket case. Was  North Melbourne a better merger option? I don’t think so. I was pro-Brisbane and the only sour taste in my mouth afterwards was from the comments of (Bears chairman) Noel Gorman on ‘The Footy Show’ that night. But Fitzroy should have relocated a lot earlier. If they had maybe all the trouble could have been avoided.”

The extraordinarily tough end to the 1996 Fitzroy season took a toll on Harris. “I still had a passion for football but with a young family to look after the uncertainty of coaching worried me so I found other things to keep me occupied.”

That he did. For 20 years. He had 10 years in charge of the Victorian Country Under-16 and Under-18 programs, and for the next 10 years was High Performance Manager for AFL Victoria, overseeing the entire junior development program.

When it came time for a fresh start at the end of 2016 Harris, widely respected across the football community, had options. But he really only had one choice … to return ‘home’ to the Lions. “It was really good … I really felt like I was going back to my club,” he said, working part-time in recruiting for 12 months before going full-time in a department that now includes List Manager Dom Ambrogio, Recruiting Manager Steve Conole and Pro Scout Shane Rogers.

Married to Trish for 40 years, Harris is a father to seven and grandfather to six. He has lived his entire married life in the same home at suburban Elwood in Melbourne, and proudly tells how youngest son Lachie (21) is still at home and every other member of his family is within 30 minutes.”

“They are the joys of my life,” he said. “The kids all keep in regular contact with each other, and with us. It’s good. In fact it’s great. So great …”