Daniel Pratt (born 21 March 1983) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played for both and in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL), and a former coach of in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football league for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had eight teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season, 1 ...

(AFLW) and

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

(WAFL) competitions.

Football career

Pratt was taken at pick 42 in the 2000 National AFL Draft from the

Northern Eagles The Northern Eagles were a rugby league team, that competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) between 2000 and 2002. The club was formed during the rationalisation process of the NRL by the merger of the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and the Nort ...

in the

AFL Queensland AFL Queensland (AFLQ) is the governing body of Australian rules football in Queensland. AFL Queensland has over 216,000 participants (including Northern Rivers which is governed by AFLQ) playing at all levels of football from the introductory N ...

league to the Kangaroos. He did not play a game and was delisted at the end of the 2002 season. Pratt usually plays as a

back pocket In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

but can also be deploy as half back flanks or midfield.

Brisbane Lions

Pratt was rookie-listed for 2003 by the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

, a serious hand injury in mid-season required surgery resulting in no further games in 2003. He showed good form and was elevated for 2004. He played three games in 2004 and was not successful. He was subsequently delisted and he nominated for the draft.

North Melbourne

He did not expect that he would be drafted but the Kangaroos decided to take a punt and draft him at pick 74 for 2005. He played 17 games in his first season back at the Kangaroos and impressed

Dean Laidley Danielle May Laidley (born Dean James Laidley; 27 March 1967) is a former Australian rules football coach and player, who played for the West Coast Eagles and North Melbourne in the Australian Football League (AFL) from 1987 to 1997, including ...

. In 2006 he played 18 games but chose to end his season after surgery which would enable him to start pre-season training with the team on 16 October. Daniel had an outstanding 2007 season gaining some consistency to his game. He ended up playing every game for the Roos and ended up finishing third in the Syd Barker Medal. Pratt was delisted by North Melbourne on 17 October 2011 possibly due to his form or his age, after playing 119 AFL matches.

Box Hill

With no offers from any AFL club forthcoming, Pratt accepted a two-year contract with the

Box Hill Hawks Box Hill Hawks Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the Victorian Football League. It has an alliance with the Hawthorn Football Club, which plays in the Australian Football League. Early Australian rules football in B ...

. His onfield leadership saw him appointed co-captain (with Beau Muston) of the VFL team in 2012 and captain in 2013. Unfortunately due to injury he was not able to play in the 2013 Grand Final in which his team won.

Coaching career

West Coast

Daniel Pratt joined as a development coach in 2014. Pratt filled the void left by

Adrian Hickmott Adrian Hickmott (born 30 March 1972) is an Australian rules football coach and former player. He is currently an assistant coach with the Hawthorn Football Club. As a player, he played with the Geelong Football Club and Carlton Football Club i ...

who was promoted to a senior assistant role at the Eagles. Pratt is an ex-teammate of

Adam Simpson Adam Simpson (born 16 February 1976) is a former Australian rules footballer who is the current premiership coach of the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). A left-footed midfielder, his playing career for spanned fro ...

at . He was appointed to the dual positions of coach of the West Coast Eagles AFLW team and WAFL men's team for the 2021 seasons. Pratt stepped down as the Eagles' AFLW coach in September 2021.

Playing career controversies

Chicken video scandal

Pratt was the club ringleader (along with teammate

) in a scandal which involved the uploading of a video to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

featuring a

condom A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of in ...

covered

rubber chicken A rubber chicken is a prop used in comedy. The phrase is also used as a description for food served at speeches, conventions, and other large meetings, and as a metaphor for speechmaking. Description A rubber chicken is an imitation plucked fowl ...

's head sexually penetrating a chicken corpse. In the video, locations inside North Melbourne club rooms and players names were identifiable. Several groups, including the AFL, the Victorian Women's Trust and

National Council of Women of Australia The National Council of Women of Australia (NWA) is an Australian organisation founded in 1931. The council is an umbrella organisation with which are affiliated seven State and Territory National Councils of Women. It is non-party political, no ...

labelled the content of the video highly offensive and sexist to women, treating them as sex objects and openly encouraging of rape.

Rushed behind incident, round 4 2009

Daniel Pratt was the first player to concede a free kick for deliberately rushing a behind in his side's match against . Despite this, the Kangaroos won the match.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pratt, Daniel Australian rules footballers from Queensland North Melbourne Football Club players Brisbane Lions players Box Hill Football Club players Zillmere Eagles Australian Football Club players Living people 1983 births North Ballarat Football Club players