(134th Eagles player)
A speedy wingman or half-back flanker, Michael Prior was one of the multitude of recycled players that came to the club during the Ken Judge era.
Essendon career[]
Prior was drafted from East Perth at pick 3 (two picks after Drew Banfield) by Essendon in the 1992 national draft. He played 81 games for Essendon between 1994 and 2000 but missed out on the Bombers’ successful 2000 final series before heading back west in exchange for pick 27, which West Coast had obtained as part of the Mitchell White trade.
West Coast career[]
Prior played in the first 7 rounds in 2001 before wrecking his knee against Port Adelaide and requiring a reconstruction, the second of his career.
Prior managed to make it back into the seniors for two more games late in 2002, but gave it away at the end of the season.
Coaching career[]
After retiring from AFL footy he continued to play with East Perth for a further season before going into coaching, spending 12 years at Fremantle in various capacities. Prior joined West Coast's AFLW program as coach of the high-performance academy in 2021 before taking over as AFLW head coach ahead of the 2022 season. He stepped down shortly before the end of the 2023 season, with the team having won just five of 28 games in his three seasons at the helm.
Stats[]
| AFL | Gm | G | B | K | M | H | D | T | Cl | WAFL | Gm | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 71 | 27 | 34 | 105 | 3 | 17 | EP | 0 | ||
| 2002 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 6 | 16 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 5 | ||
| Tot | 9 | 1 | 0 | 81 | 29 | 40 | 121 | 3 | 21 | ||||
| Avg | 0.1 | 9.0 | 3.2 | 4.4 | 13.4 | 0.3 | 2.3 |
References[]
http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/M/Michael_Prior.html