Jim Main's 100 greatest: Bob Pratt
×
Right ▼
THERE ARE few more spectacular sights in Australian football than a player soaring high to take a mark over the pack. Old-timers say it is a dying art, and the real diehards say even the late John Coleman was nowhere near as good as South Melbourne’s Bob Pratt when it came to sky-flying, Pratt could mark them from in front, from behind or ar any angle.
He was a freak, climbing way above the pack and then landing as if he had been only inches off the ground. Old-timers who followed the Swans say he often had his knees on other players’ shoulders. And there are photographs to prove it. But although Pratt was probably the most spectacular high flier the game has seen, he was also a great forward, kicking bags of goals.
South Melbourne recruited Pratt from Mitcham in 1930 when he was only 17. He kicked 20 goals during the season, but had years ahead of him to make the top. Pratt was not an overnight sensation, although few who saw him doubted his talent. His first big year was in 1933, the last year South won the flag. He kicked 109 goals that year, but only three in the Grand Final against Richmond.
Pratt had great players around him, but that alone did not count for his goals. And just to prove it he established an as yet unbeaten goal record in 1934 of 150. He played in only 21 matches that season, and South could not even win the flag. It was an incredible performance, averaging more than seven goals a game. In one game he kicked 15 goals, That was against Essendon, just a week after kicking 10 goals in another game. In all, he kicked more than 10 goals a game eight times in his VFL career.
Naturally, South fans idolised him. He was just short of six foot, but had the best leap in football history, and had the courage and ability to fight for the ball on the ground. Once he had the ball, you could count on it going through for a goal. He was deadly. Altogether, Pratt kicked 679 goals in his 10 seasons with South from 1930 to 1939. This was an average of 67 a season, one of the best in VFL records.
But when still aged 27 he decided to play VFA football with Coburg. lt was an era of fierce rivalry between the VFL and the VFA, the latter body paying huge sums to entice stars like Pratt and South teammate Laurie Nash to join the rival body. And if Pratt was a sensation in the VFL, he was even bigger in the weaker body. He kicked a mammoth 182 goals in the 1942 season, although Coburg could finish only runners-up to Port Melbourne that year. Then, in 1942 VFA competition was suspended because of World War II. lt seemed Pratt’s senior career was over.
×
Left ▼
It should have been, but Pratt decided to make a comeback with South in 1946. He was 33, but as keen as ever when he ran out to play against Carlton. He kicked two goals, injured himself and then announced his retirement for good. The two goals late in his career after an absence from the VFL scene for six years, took his tally to 681 goals.
Pratt, understandably has been bitterly vocal about huge payments to “name” players in modern football. He was one of the greatest full forwards of all time, a man whom clubs would pay fortunes for these days. But Pratt never even saw big money. He played in an era when the club was more important than the individual.
His record of 150 goals in a season still stands, although Hawthorn’s Peter Hudson equalled the record in 1971. But Hudson played 24 games that year, compared to Pratt’s 21 in 1934. And for that very reason alone Pratt deserves to at least share the record. Pratt never polled well in the Brownlow medal, never even won South’s best and fairest award, but at least he has that record.
Pratt later saw his son, Bob Pratt Junior, wear the famous number 10 guernsey in senior VFL matches. And although the youngster was a gifted footballer, the South brains trust probably expected too much of him by placing him at full forward. Young Pratt played his first game for South at Richmond, kicking goals very early in the match. However, he could not go on with it, and because South insisted playing him at full forward probably wasted a talent. But again, there probably was only one real Bob Pratt.
Footnotes
This is an excerpt from Australian Rules 100 Greatest Players, by Jim Main, published by the K.G. Murray Publishing Company in 1978. Click here to read Jim Main's 2013 article, in which he revisited and revised his 100 greatest players.
Comments
This article does not contain any comments.
Login to leave a comment.