Who is Queensland football’s best ‘second-chance’ player? The player who built a formidable AFL career after being cast aside in his early years?
For a long time it was Daniel Pratt. And he was cast aside not once but twice.
A product of the Northern Eagles, as Windsor-Zillmere were known at the time, Pratt was an All-Australian Under 18 selection in 2000 and was drafted that year by North Melbourne at pick #42 in the 2000 National Draft.
Like every member of the starry-eyed crop of youngsters, his hopes were high. But after going two years at Arden Street without a senior game he was delisted.
He was thrown a rookie list lifeline by the Brisbane Lions, and although first season home at the Gabba was curtailed by a serious finger injury, he’d done enough in the first eight games of the year in the Reserves to earn a second season.
He played Rounds 9-10-13 in 2004 at Subiaco, the Gabba and Kardinia Park for one win, 23 possessions and a goal – not enough to save him from being delisted again.
He was 21 and thought his AFL dream was over and was surprised to be picked up by North with pick #74 in the 2004 National Draft.
This time he made it count. He debuted for the Roos in Round 1 2005 under Dani Laidley against a Carlton side coached by ex-North coach Denis Pagan which included 18-year-old first-gamer Eddie Betts.
He played 17 games in his first season to reward the Kangaroos’ faith, and in 2006-07-08 he played 18-25-21 games and finished 10th-3rd-10th in the best & fairest.
He took over from Glenn Archer as the leader of the backline, and in 2007, when the best & fairest leaderboard had Brent Harvey (783) from Adam Simpson (776) and Pratt (746), he was chosen in the preliminary All-Australian squad of 40.
He was Deputy Vice-Captain in 2009 but sadly his body let him down and he managed just 35 games in 2009-10-11 before he was delisted at 28.
He’d played a total of 119 games – 119 more than he might have thought when he was delisted the first time, and 116 more than was likely when he was delisted the second time.
Having finished his playing career at Box Hill in the VFL, he is now one of the premier assistant-coaches in the competition on the back of his time at North.
He had 10 years on the coaching staff at West Coast under his former captain Simpson, and in 2024 joined the Western Bulldogs, when, under Luke Beveridge, he won the AFL Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year Award.
Now 42 and being touted as a possible senior coach in the making, Pratt has passed on the mantle of Queensland’s best second-chance player to Brisbane reject turned Adelaide Vice-Captain Ben Keays.
Like Pratt, Keays was a standout junior - Queensland Under-18 captain and MVP in 2015, an All-Australian Under 18 choice in 2014-15, and winner of the Hunter Harrison Medal in 2015. And he was drafted by the Lions with pick #24 in the 2015 National Draft after they matched a bid from the Western Bulldogs.
He played 16 of 22 games in his first season under Justin Leppitsch after debuting against Sydney at the Gabba in Round 6 2016 in the same game as fellow Queensland football product Aliir Aliir, and 10 games in 2017 under Chris Fagan.
But 2018-19 were a wipe-out. He played Rounds 11-12 in 2018 and Rounds 11-17 in 2019, unable to secure a regular game in a midfield that included Lachie Neale, Dayne Zorko, Jarryd Lyons and an emerging Hugh McCluggage and Jarrod Berry, was a 30-game delistee at 22.
Things didn’t look good. There were no takers in the free agency period, and he was overlooked in the 2019 National Draft and the Pre-Season Draft.
It all came down to the Rookie Draft. Gold Coast re-drafted Josh Schoenfeld at #1 before Melbourne passed at #2. Carlton took Josh Honey at #3, Sydney took Brady Rowles at #4, Jack Bell went to St.Kilda at #5 and Jarvis Pina went to Fremantle at #
Adelaide had taken five players in the National Draft - Fischer McAsey at #6, Harry Schoenberg at #24, Josh Worrell at #28, Ronin O’Connor at #42 and Lachlan Gollant at #48. They had one list spot open and took a punt on the young Queenslander.
History says it was a smart move. Because the after-thought choice has played almost as many games for the club as the five primary choices. And has downright embarrassed them in the club best & fairest.
It’s Keays' 119 games from Schoenberg's 61 (but none this year) and Worrall 43, Gollant 16, McAsey 10 and O’Connor 3. And Gollant, McAsey and O’Connor are out of the AFL system.
In the Malcolm Blight Medal Keays has finished 5th-2nd-3rd-8th-1st, sharing the club’s top honour last year with captain Jordan Dawson, while the other five have not had a top 10 finish between them.
Keays has not missed a game at Adelaide, and with a club record 119-game streak is third only to the unthinkable 250 games in a row of Collingwood’s Jack Crisp, and the 145 of St.Kilda captain Callum Wilkie among current players.
A member of the Crows leadership group under Matthew Nicks, Keays has transformed himself from a ball-winning midfielder to a goal-kicking pressure forward.
And after a 1-6 record in his first seven games for the Crows against the Lions, he enjoyed a day he’ll never forget on Friday night.
It was the biggest game of his career – a sell-out Adelaide Oval crowd for a standalone Friday night superclash between the third-placed Crows and the second-placed Lions. A chance for the Crows to make a statement to the competition.
They did and he did. Keays, picked up by his former captain Dayne Zorko in the first half, had 20 possessions, three goals, five tackles, three clearances and eight score involvements in a five-point win.
And although persistent rain kept a large slice of the crowd away Keays was ever-present with his 20 possessions, three goals, eight score involvements, five tackles and three clearances. He received nine coaches votes to share top ranking with Brisbane’s Cam Rayner.
Keays was among the Queensland standouts in Round 13 of the AFL season as Brisbane fell to Adelaide and Gold Coast went down to Geelong by 24 points at Geelong, and Sunshine Coaster Ty Gallup became the 208th Queenslander to play in the AFL.
Gallup, a Lions Academy product from Kawana Park via Maroochydore, was drafted at #42 in the 2024 National Draft when they matched a bid from Geelong.
The second Lions debutant from Kawana Park this year after first-round pick Sam Marshall, Gallup, a 194cm forward/ruck, got his chance when Darcy Gardiner was ruled unfit.
In wet and slippery conditions that didn’t suit him, he did exactly what coach Chris Fagan promised he would do – he provided a fierce and effective contest – without being afforded an opportunity to show his overhead prowess and forward craft.
Only 117 days beyond his 19th birthday, wearing the #22 made famous at the Lions by Chris Scott, and the first ‘Gallup’ in AFL history, he had six possessions, two marks and two hit-outs and looked right at home at the level.
Will Ashcroft picked up two coaches votes after he topped the Brisbane possession count with a game-high 31 – the 11th of his 38-game career – while Jaspa Fletcher had a career-high 27 possessions and Jack Payne continued his hot streak with 18 possessions, nine marks and a resolute showing on dangerman Riley Thilthorpe.
At Geelong, SUNS Academy product Sam Closehy found himself opposed for the first time to younger brother Ted – and on the wrong end of a four-goal scoreline. Sam, 21 months older, had 12 possessions to Ted’s 15.
And all the way back on Thursday night, at the start of a round that stretched eight games over five days, Mabior Chol was a key figure in Hawthorn’s 22-point win over the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium. He had 11 possessions, four goals, two goal assists and six score involvements to poll nine coaches votes to share best afield honours with teammate Jai Newcombe.