Brett Ratten

Brett Ratten
Personal information
Full name	Brett Ratten
Nickname(s)	Ratts
Date of birth	11 July 1971 (1971-07-11)
Original team	Yarra Glen (EFL)
Height/Weight	184cm / 90kg
Club information
Current club	Carlton
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1990–2003	Carlton	255 (117)
International team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
2000	Australia	2
Coaching career3
Years	Club	Games (W–L–D)
2007–	Carlton	98 (49-48-1)
1 Playing statistics to end of 2003 season . 3 Coaching statistics correct as of EF1, 2011.
Career highlights
Carlton premiership player 1995 Carlton captain 2002–2003 John Nicholls Medal 1995, 1997, 2000 All-Australian Team 2000, 2001

Brett "Ratts" Ratten (born 11 July 1971) is a former Australian rules footballer and the current coach of the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League.

Originally from Yarra Glen, Ratten made his debut for Carlton in the fifteenth round of the 1990 season.

In a career lasting 14 years, he amassed many awards. He played mainly as an in-and-under midfielder, often escaping the attention of media and umpires early in his career. He won the club's Best and Fairest award in their record-breaking premiership season of 1995, including a game in Round 17 against Fitzroy when he amassed 44 disposals, but failed to poll a single Brownlow vote from the umpires for the season. In the 1999 season, Ratten was credited with 265 clearances, which is by far the highest on record.

He was awarded the Robert Reynolds Trophy (Carlton Best and Fairest) in 1995, and then again in 1997. He tied with Scott Camporeale in 2000. Ratten was a part of Carlton's premiership team in 1995. He played for Victoria in the State of Origin in 1996 and 1997. He was awarded All-Australian selection in 1997, 2000 and 2001, firmly cementing his skill in the centre. Ratten was inducted into the Carlton Hall of Fame in 1999. The statistical analysis company Champion Data announced that Ratten was the most effective player in the 2000s.

After the retirement of Craig Bradley, Ratten was awarded the club's captaincy in 2002, a position he held until his own retirement.

Ratten's career was seriously plagued by injury. During his time in football, he had 8 arthroscopes on his right knee, 3 arthroscopes on his left knee and a medial ligament. His shoulder was also badly damaged in 2003, which ultimately led to Ratten announcing his retirement in the middle of the 2003 season.

After Ratten's retirement in the middle of the 2003 season, the captaincy was passed to Andrew McKay for the rest of the 2003 season. Carlton youngster Justin Davies was personally chosen by Ratten to immediately take his number 7 guernsey, waiving the usual one-year retirement for premiership players' guernseys, an offer happily accepted by Davies.

After retirement from playing, Ratten spent one year as an assistant coach at the Melbourne Demons, before leaving to take a head coaching role at the Norwood Football Club in the Eastern Football League's Second Division. He remained there until 2006, and then returned to Carlton as an assistant coach for 2007.

On 24 July 2007, Ratten was appointed as Carlton's caretaker coach for the remainder of the 2007 season, following the sacking of Denis Pagan. On 20 August 2007 he signed a contract as Carlton senior coach until the end of 2009. In his first full season at Carlton, the club finished 11th with 10 wins. In his second season, Carlton finished seventh with thirteen wins, ending a seven year finals drought, the longest in club history which took them into the finals but were eliminated in the first week by Brisbane Lions. He signed on to coach the Blues again in 2010 and they won the first match of the year, thumping Richmond, by 56 points.

Later in the 2010 season, Ratten came under heavy scrutiny as a coach when Carlton suffered several big losses, to Collingwood, Sydney, Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn. After labelling his team's effort as "embarrassing," however, the club responded with two consecutive big-margin wins, against Essendon and Richmond. It was during these matches that he began coaching from the boundary line, and remained there for the rest of the season.

In 2011 Ratten led Carlton to one of its best seasons in a decade, spending most of the season inside the top four before a late-season form slump saw them ultimately settle for fifth position on the ladder. Facing bitter rivals Essendon in the subsequent elimination final, Ratten then achieved his first finals win in three attempts when it triumphed by 62 points. It was also the first time in a decade that the Blues won a final, thus relieving the pressure on Ratten who had to win a final in order to be granted an extension to his current contract.

External links

• Brett Ratten's statistics from AFL Tables
• Brett Ratten profile on the Official AFL Website of the Carlton Football Club
• Brett Ratten page at Blueseum

Sporting positions
Preceded by Craig Bradley	Captain of Carlton 2002–2003	Succeeded by Andrew McKay
Preceded by Denis Pagan	Carlton Football Club coach 2007–	Succeeded by Incumbent