From Field To Stage, To Business, To Carlton's Highest Office

The Age

Saturday February 10, 2007

BEN DOHERTY

HE RODE no stallion, wore no shining suit of armour, but one-time actor Richard Pratt played with gusto the part of chivalrous knight to Carlton Football Club's damsel in distress yesterday.

The club's new president, voted in just the night before at a hastily convened board meeting, formally announced his tenure to a packed news conference at the ground he first knew as Princes Park.

But for an organisation as blue-blooded as Carlton, and for a man as wealthy as Pratt, these were humble surroundings indeed, perched on an office chair in a run-down corner of the famous old ground.

But it felt like home.

The John Nicholls Room, high in the Carlton Social Club, looks over the ground Pratt himself played on as a footballer more than half a century ago.

He was handy too, they say. Under-19 best and fairest and the Morrish medallist in 1953, and a few promising games in the seconds.

"Would have made it, no doubt," say those with memories long enough, but a career in the theatre soon took his interest.

So Pratt was among friends yesterday, sitting next to the man who persuaded him into accepting the presidency with one question, "how 'bout coming across?" - club legend Stephen Kernahan.

Despite the conviviality, one question was unavoidable yesterday, and it was asked first up: "Does Carlton want Pratt for his presidency, or for his money?"

The man himself was unaffected by the query, and didn't shy away from the fact that dollars would be a byproduct of his stewardship of the club.

More than once he promised to reach into his own pocket to help Carlton out of its muddle.

"Obviously, I'll be putting in a dollar, that might extend to two," he said.

"(But) rich presidents don't own the club, they're only the president, and everybody is expected to participate. I get out in front if I've got a few bob, I'll put a few bob in, I'll put more than a few bob in, but it doesn't belong to me, it belongs to everybody."

Kernahan, on the other hand, visibly bristled at the suggestion that Pratt's status as the third-richest man in the country - as head of the privately owned Visy Group empire he's worth an estimated $3.36 billion - was Carlton's main motivation for snaring him as president.

"If anyone can find something wrong with having Richard Pratt, a life member of Carlton Footy Club, been a member 50-odd years, come and let me know," he said.

Pratt's generosity to causes is not new. His status as Australia's most benevolent philanthropist is well justified. The Richard Pratt Foundation, run by his daughter, Helloise, donates $10-$12 million to a variety of causes - welfare, educational and arts - every year.

But Pratt is also opinionated, and has publicly offered views on all manner of subjects, from water - which he backed up with an offer of $100 million towards a national water policy - to Aboriginal affairs.

He's also courted controversy, through run-ins with the ACCC over price-fixing allegations and the very public outing of an extra-marital affair.

But he is an essentially private person, an establishment outsider, and a public role such as that of Carlton Football Club president is breaking new ground for the 72-year-old.

Like others, Pratt has been disappointed by Carlton's on-field efforts of late.

"I don't come to the football any more, does that answer your question?" he replied to a query about the heartache the Blues' three wooden spoons in five seasons had caused him.

But, as new presidents must in these situations, he is positive.

"The tradition of Carlton is great but it's the future premierships that we're going to win that are all-important."

© 2007 The Age

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