Bob Pratt - Style

Style

"PRATT WAS GREATEST GOAL-KICKER

Pratt is my choice because he could almost do the impossible. Often he flew for the ball from almost an impossible position— perhaps on the outside of three players, and then, with an amazing twist of his body, he appeared to get his hands to the ball at an angle of 45 degrees.
Many times photographers have shown Pratt as high as an opponent's shoulder.
Pratt was not only a freak mark. He could kick goals from 60 yards out or more, and he could do it on the run and on the turn. Closer to goal his snap-shooting was remarkable.
Pratt too often had to make his own opportunities, because he was not fed by every player in front of him. In 1934 he kicked 150 goals – still a League record – and in the same season the centre-half forward kicked more than 60…
I am convinced that Pratt – the artist or freak – has no master. – Percy Taylor."

Pratt was averse to weights training, believing that it took away from the athleticism required to play football. Instead, he trained with professional sprinters, which he believed helped him as it built his initial acceleration (essential to any footballer) and aided his kicking accuracy.

His contemporaries were full of praise for his exploits:

  • South Melbourne teammate Laurie Nash once wrote of Pratt; "He was the greatest high mark I have ever seen. How he didn't kill himself in some of his marking efforts I will never know."
  • Richmond legend Jack Dyer wrote that it would be difficult to convey Pratt's greatness to future generations of football fans who had not been privileged to see him in action.
  • Three-time Brownlow Medal winner Dick Reynolds of Essendon wrote that Pratt was the best forward he had seen, saying that "none rivalled the greatness" of Pratt, adding that he was a master of judgement and long kicking. Of his high-marking skills, Reynolds recalled that Pratt " be waist-up over the whole bloomin' pack sometimes, then he'd almost slide over the top of the squad, swing around over the pack and as he came down you'd think he'd break his neck, but lucky for him he knew how to fall and roll like a cat so he didn't hurt himself."
  • Jack Regan, Collingwood's champion full-back of the 1930s, said that, in all of his years playing senior VFL football, Pratt was his most difficult opponent, and that he stood out from all the other full-forwards he had played against: "The greatness of Pratt apart from his brilliant marking and fine kicking was his determined ground play. When beaten for the mark he would dash for the ball like a terrier".
  • In the opinion of the former West Australian champion rover Johnny Leonard, who had been the captain coach of South Melbourne in 1932 (he played 12 VFL games with South Melbourne in 1932), Pratt was a champion: "I think Pratt was the most freakish footballer I ever saw. He was more freakish than Ted Flemming, and that's saying something. He had a heart as big as a grandstand and stood up to heavy punishment as well as risking a broken neck in his phenomenal leaps for the ball. He was a great footballer".

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