NEW Fremantle assistant coach Todd Curley is glad to be back in the AFL system and believes he has plenty to offer after a successful playing career and three years as West Perth coach.

Curley played 115 games with the Western Bulldogs, three with Collingwood and 148 in the WAFL, and on retiring in 2005 took on the job as West Perth coach. In three years as senior coach he took the Falcons to two finals' series and is now delighted to be back in the AFL system with Fremantle.

"It's definitely an exciting step for me. Whether you are a player, coach or whatever you do in life, you strive to get to the highest possible position that you can," Curley said.

"I've enjoyed my time at West Perth, but I now have an opportunity at the highest level and at a club that I believe is in a good position going forward, and that has a lot of changes to its list with retirements and the like."

While he was thrust into the West Perth coaching position when Darren Harris left to join West Coast, Curley believes that experience leaves him perfectly prepared to help out Fremantle.

"Coaching my own team allowed me to implement some of the ideas I had developed as a player and I got a good grasp of what is required. Even though it will be even tougher at a higher level, it should give me a good grounding," he said.

"The last 12 to 18 months has really cemented it for me that I want to stay involved with coaching. It's a lot of work but once you stop playing you really do it to help young guys develop. I was able to enjoy success as a player at WAFL level and now I want to help the younger guys taste success as well."

While he would have been content to stay in charge of West Perth, once he got a call from Chris Bond to gauge his interest in joining Fremantle he jumped at the chance even though he has very little history with anyone at the club.

"Chris Bond gave me a call after the season to sound out whether I was interested or not and over three weeks it materialised from if I was interested to me going through the whole process," he said.

"There's not a lot of guys there I've had much to do with apart from Bondy who was at the Bulldogs when I was, and Kepler (Bradley) and Adam Campbell who were with West Perth, but it's an exciting opportunity."