Michael Prior (born 6 September 1973) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played for the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

and the West Coast Eagles. He is currently serving as the senior coach of in the AFL Women's competition. Drafted third overall in the

1992 AFL Draft The 1992 AFL draft is the annual draft of talented players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League. It consisted of the main national draft, the pre-season draft and ...

, he made the unusual choice at the time to remain with his original club, East Perth, for the 1993 season, Essendons famous 'Baby Bombers' premiership winning year, as he felt that playing regular league football in the WAFL would be better for his development. Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy disagreed with this theory but allowed him to do so. He played 81 games for the Bombers between

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. After the 2000 season, he was dropped by the Bombers and then picked up by West Coast. He spent two seasons with the Eagles and played just nine games for them due to a devastating knee injury suffered in Round 7 2001, he recovered and continued his tally of games with East Perth in the WAFL when not required and was a member of their 2002 premiership side. After retiring from AFL football he continued to play with East Perth until the end of the 2003 season. In total he played 69 games for the Royals. He was colourfully referred to by

3AW 3AW is a talkback radio station based in Melbourne. It broadcasts on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station. The station is owned and operated by Nine Entertainment Co. Hist ...

commentator Rex Hunt as "

prior conviction Antecedents are the life history and previous convictions of a defendant in a criminal case. They are colloquially known as "previous convictions" (or simply "previous") in the United Kingdom and "prior convictions" (or simply "priors") in the Un ...

References

Essendon Football Club Official Website - Draft History
, retrieved 10 June 2006.

External links

* * 1973 births Living people East Perth Football Club players Essendon Football Club players West Coast Eagles players Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Western Australian State of Origin players {{AFL-bio-1970s-stub