Daniel Pratt (footballer)

Daniel Pratt (born 21 March 1983) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for both and  in the Australian Football League (AFL), and a former coach of  in the AFL Women's (AFLW) and West Australian Football League (WAFL) competitions.

Football career
Pratt was taken at pick 42 in the 2000 National AFL Draft from the Northern Eagles in the AFL Queensland league to the Kangaroos. He did not play a game and was delisted at the end of the 2002 season. Pratt usually played as a back pocket but could also be deployed as a half-back flanker or in the midfield.

Brisbane Lions
Pratt was rookie-listed for 2003 by the Brisbane Lions; 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. Pratt played three games in 2004 and was not successful. He was subsequently delisted and then nominated for the draft.

North Melbourne
Pratt 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 coach Dani Laidley. In 2006, Pratt played 18 games but chose to end his season after surgery which would enable him to start pre-season training with the team in October.

Pratt had an outstanding 2007 season, gaining some consistency to his game. He ended up playing every game for the Kangaroos and finished third in the Syd Barker Medal.

Pratt was delisted by North Melbourne on 17 October 2011 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. His onfield leadership saw him appointed co-captain (with Beau Muston) of the VFL team in 2012 and sole captain in 2013. Due to injury, Pratt was not able to play in the 2013 grand final in which his team won.

West Coast
Pratt joined as a development coach in 2014, filling the void left by Adrian Hickmott, who was promoted to a senior assistant role at the Eagles. Pratt is an ex-teammate of Adam Simpson at. Pratt was the backline coach in 2018.

Pratt was appointed to the dual positions of coach of the West Coast Eagles AFLW team and WAFL men's team for the 2021 seasons. He stepped down as the Eagles' AFLW coach in September 2021. In 2022, Pratt returned to the position of defensive coach with the AFL team.

Controversy
Pratt was the club ringleader (along with teammate Adam Simpson) in a scandal which involved the uploading of a video to YouTube featuring a condom-covered rubber chicken'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 labelled the content of the video highly offensive and sexist to women, treating them as sex objects and openly encouraging of rape.