Wilfred Bratton became a Socceroo on 24 June 1922, scoring against New Zealand on his only appearance for the national team. A year later he appeared for the North Coast representative team against a visiting New Zealand team. He had a lengthy club career at Mapleton who played in the North Coast Football Association competition based in the Sunshine Coast region.
Perhaps Bratton’s most intriguing contribution to Australian soccer was a pair of reminiscences given to newspapers in the 1920s. The first, a lengthy interview with the Chronicle and North Coast Advertiser on 18 August 1922, detailed the inaugural Australian international tour to New Zealand which had recently concluded, and captured both the social and sporting aspects of the trip.
The second was a letter in the Brisbane Courier of 12 May 1928 in which Bratton gave details of a soccer game during the war. The game, which took place in the winter of 1917 at Ballieul, France, saw Bratton appear for the 3rd Division against the Royal Air Force. Bratton lined up for the Division alongside later Mapleton teammate George Rea, top Brisbane players Bob Craig and Archie McDonald, and Queensland captain and Socceroo John Peebles. The letter is one of the few detailed accounts of Queensland soldiers playing soccer during the war.
Bratton enlisted at the age of 19 in 1916, during a time he was working on a dairy farm. He was assigned to the 3rd Machine Gun Company before being transferred to the 16th alongside future Mapleton teammate Rea. Bratton’s active service record is scant before his being gassed in May 1918, which saw him evacuated to England, ending his war. He returned to Australia in March 1919.
After the war, Bratton played for Mapleton between 1921 and 1928. On 19 July 1935, Bratton wrote to the Courier Mail advocating for a Queensland coach, such as former Socceroos Alec Gibb or John Peebles to replace New South Welshman Clarrie Coutts as the coach of Queensland. Bratton also became involved in the local tennis and bowls associations and was involved in the local Anzac Day committee for several years.
Brisbane Courier 13 August 1928
A FOOTBALL INCIDENT.
Sir.—As a constant reader of the “Courier” and a keen follower of Soccer football, may I relate some particulars of Bob Craig, of Pineapple Rovers. From time to time he has been termed the “veteran;” and in the report of a recent game he did not “rise to the occasion.”
It was during the war that Bob rose to his greatest heights. This was especially true of a game at Ballieul, in the winter of 1917, between a “crack” team and a team representing the 3rd Australian Division, in which Bob Craig and three other well-known ex-Thistle players took part, Archie M’Donald, Jock Peebles, and Bill M’Brlde (all Scots); in fact, nine of the players representing the Division were Scots-men, and G. Rea (who at present plays for Kin Kin, on the North Coast Line) and myself were the other two members.
I happen to be an ex-international, but I was the weakest member of our team, thus indicating that the team was the pick of the 3rd Division. We played a “crack” team picked from the Royal Air Force, and they beat us 3-2 Bob scored a brilliant goal, in fact I think he scored both of our goals, and in doing so a mechanic standing a few yards behind the goal probably wished he had stayed in the aerodrome. After the ball left Bob’s toe it travelled at an amazing pace and hit the mechanic fair and square, and then it burst. The mechanic was carried into the aerodrome by some of his cobbers. This will show how Bob Craig shot in those days, not with a rifle, but with his foot.
I hope before the season finishes that he will give us another demonstration of how to score a goal.
—I am, sir, &c, , WILF. BRATTON, Mapleton, August 8.