{xtypo_dropcap}K{/xtypo_dropcap}en Armstrong was a classy centreman for Perth in the fifties and sixties, who spent half a lifetime with the club as both star player and respected coach. Along with Perth’s Ern Henfry and East Fremantle’s Jim Conway , Armstrong was regarded as one of the most astute and knowledgeable men in the football world in that era.

A product of the Victoria Park Temperance League, Ken Armstrong began his association with Perth in the 1955 season as a nineteen year old, with immediate success.  An excellent player, his movement when gathering the ball was classical, and his disposal of it completed the package. He was a readymade league centreman.

Under the guidance of another coaching maestro in  Henfry, the club took the premiership against the odds, after finishing in third spot and well and truly underdogs to the Fremantle teams.  Although Perth fielded many fine players over the following decade, it was to be another eleven years before  that feat would be repeated. That they boasted players like Armstrong, Moriarty, Keith and Roy Harper, Wansbrough, McIntosh, Walker, Davis, Zeuner, Coleman, Beard, Skehan, Ashbolt, and George Spalding and were left lamenting was a reflection of the strength of the competition in those days.

Ken captained Perth in 1961, and went on to play 171 games with them, plus one for Western Australia.

After a fine playing career with Perth, Ken Armstrong was transferred to the country in his teaching career, and proceeded to cut his coaching teeth at North Mt Barker, with immediate success, steering his charges to premierships in 1964 and 1966.   Returning to Perth, he took the next stage in his coaching apprenticeship by becoming reserves mentor, winning flags in 1971 and 1973. 

Appointed Perth league coach in 1974, he introduced a new approach to coaching and some of his methods were revolutionary.  The first to look outside the square with sports medicine techniques coupled with psychological tests, he arrived on the WANFL coaching scene with a bang, with his team reaching the grand final in his first year in the chair.

{xtypo_quote_left} Armstrong later  took up radio commentating on the ABC.  His concise descriptions of the play plus the ability to give listeners the benefit of his vast knowledge of the game from both a playing and coaching point of view  won him the respect of the football world all over again.{/xtypo_quote_left}

Under Armstrong, Perth became a power in the competition, winning successive flags in 1976 and 1977, before a rainswept 1978 grand final saw them go down to East Perth. “Ken Armstrong was a thorough gentleman, with a quiet demeanour on and off the field, which wasn’t the usual style of a successful coach,” was 1961 Sandover Medallist Neville Beard’s summation. “ But on becoming a coach, he became more forthright, and he was a great coach, a thinker as well as a sayer.”      

Lured to Subiaco for three years from 1980 to 1982, Armstrong later  took up radio commentating on the ABC.  His concise descriptions of the play plus the ability to give listeners the benefit of his vast knowledge of the game from both a playing and coaching point of view  won him the respect of the football world all over again.

It wasn’t the end of his coaching career though.  In 1991, a desperate Perth, in an attempt to entice history to repeat itself,  looked at Armstrong to bring back former glories.  Sadly, it wasn’t to be, and after the 1993 season Ken Armstrong bowed out of the league coaching scene for good.  He had coached the Perth Football Club in 201 games, winning 106 of them.  He was also recognised at State level in 1971 and 1978, recording three wins, all against South Australia.  

A son, Gary, and a grandson, Steven, followed Ken onto the league football stage, with Steven playing AFL with Melbourne and West Coast.

Ken Armstrong was a great contributor to West Australian football as player, innovative coach, and radio commentator.  He held the respect  of  the football fraternity and public alike in all three capacities.