Craig Bradley

Craig Bradley

Personal information
Birth	23 October 1963 (1963-10-23) (age 48), Ashford, South Australia
Recruited from	Port Adelaide (SANFL)
Playing career¹
Debut	Round 1, 1986, Carlton v. Hawthorn, at Waverley Park
Team(s)	Port Adelaide, SANFL (1981–1985) 98 games Carlton (1986–2002) 375 games, 247 goals
¹ Statistics to end of 2005 season
Career highlights
Australian football senior games record holder: 501 Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee, 2006. Official Legend of the Carlton Football Club Port Adelaide Team of the Century: Wing Carlton Team of the Century: Wing All-Australian: 1983, 1985–1986, 1993–1995, 1997 Australian International Rules Team: 1984, 2000, 2001 (Cpt) 2002 Port Adelaide Best and Fairest: 1982, 1984, 1985 Carlton Best and Fairest: 1986, 1988, 1993 Carlton Vice-Captain: 1990–1997 Carlton Captain: 1998–2001 (116 Games) Premierships: (PA) 1981; (Carl) 1987, 1995 State of Origin (South Australia): 19 appearances Fos Williams Medal: 1985, 1986, 1991, 1993 Michael Tuck Medal: 1997

Craig Bradley

Personal information
Batting style	Right-hand bat
Bowling style	–
International information
National side	Australian
Career statistics
Competition	Tests	First-class
Matches	0	4
Runs scored	0	124
Batting average	0	17.71
100s/50s	0/0	0/0
Top score	0	46
Balls bowled	0
Wickets	0
Bowling average	–	0
5 wickets in innings	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	0
Best bowling	–	0
Catches/stumpings	0/0	3/0
Source: [1],

Craig Edwin "Braddles" Bradley (born 23 October 1963)^[2] is a former South Australian Australian rules footballer and first class cricketer. He is currently a part-time assistant coach at the Carlton Football Club, the club he represented 375 times in the VFL/AFL.

History

Bradley made his senior top-level debut for Port Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), in the 1981 season, which proved to be Port's third premiership season in a row. At the age of 20, Bradley won the club's best and fairest award in his second year, and went on to win two more in 1984 and 1985. The Essendon Football Club approached Bradley in 1981, offering him the chance to join them in the VFL, but unfortunately for the Bombers, this never eventuated.

Bradley was then recruited by Victorian Football League (VFL) club Carlton in 1986. He had already played cricket for South Australia and Australian junior sides and at first continued to play cricket for Victoria, although the increasing demands of football led him to retire from cricket after four first-class games. It proved to be the right choice. Bradley won three best and fairests for Carlton, in 1986, 1988 and 1993, as well as being a member of the 1987 and 1995 premiership sides. As well as winning B&F in '93, his daughter Casey was born in November. He played with the Blues for seventeen seasons, acting as Stephen Kernahan's vice captain from 1990 until 1997, then himself captaining the Blues from 1998 until 2001. In this time, he also represented Australia three times in the International Rules series, including as vice-captain in 2000 and captain in 2001. He broke Bruce Doull's Carlton games record in Round 1, 2002. His final AFL game, ironically against Port Adelaide, was Round 19, 2002, polling 3 Brownlow Votes, at the age of 38 years, 9½ months, making him the sixth-oldest player in the history of the league. His final appearance overall was in the 2002 International Rules series.

In a senior career spanning 22 seasons, he was renowned as one of the games tireless champions, and in particular his amazing fitness that meant he could play the physically demanding game of Australian rules football until the age of 38. Bradley has a great football brain, and for much of his career, Bradley played in the midfield; he was also rotated into the forward line during games, where his nous allowed him both to score and assist many goals through his career. In his final few seasons, Bradley spent more time acting as a loose, sweeping half-back flanker, and much of Carlton's drive forward came from his play through the wings.

Bradley's services to the game have been officially recognised several times at the highest levels. He was immediately inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2006, after the minimum three years of retirement. At Carlton, Bradley is an Official Legend of the club's Hall of Fame, and was selected on the wing in the club's Team of the Century. He was also selected on the wing in Port Adelaide's Team of the Century, despite having played only 98 games at the club.

In November 2002, following Carlton's salary cap breach which lost the club valuable draft picks, Bradley had contemplated reversing his decision to retire^[1] and attempt to rebuild a club in crisis, but he eventually stood by his initial decision to retire from the game, which was made three weeks before the salary cap drama occurred.

In 2007, Bradley returned to Carlton as a part-time assistant coach.

Games Records

Craig Bradley's 375 games for Carlton, including 24 finals, is a team record. It was also, at the time of his retirement, the fourth-highest number of games played by any player in the AFL/VFL, behind only Simon Madden (378), Kevin Bartlett (403) and Michael Tuck (426), and since surpassed only by Robert Harvey (383).

In addition to his time at Carlton, Bradley also played 98 games for Port Adelaide in the SANFL, in a time where senior games in the SANFL were considered equivalent to those in the VFL. He also represented South Australia nineteen times – in most years of his career from 1983 up until 1999, which was the final season of State of Origin football. He also played in nine International Rules games for Australia, which are also considered to be senior games. As such, he played 501 senior Australian football games, which is an all-time world record as far as any historians can trace [3]. Bradley also represented Carlton a further 27 times in the night series, which (unlike in the West Australian and South Australian league) are not counted as senior games by the AFL. Bradley's 500th game was the first international rules test against Ireland at Croke Park in 2002.

As a cricketer, Bradley appeared in four Sheffield Shield matches, two each for the states of South Australia and Victoria [4].

External links

• Craig Bradley's profile on the Official AFL Website of the Carlton Football Club
• Player profile: Craig Bradley from ESPNcricinfo
• Craig Bradley Profile in Blueseum

References

1. ^ Silvagni decides not to play - realfooty.com.au

See also

• List of Australian rules football and cricket players

Awards
Preceded by Nicky Winmar	Michael Tuck Medallist 1997	Succeeded by Wayne Carey

Persondata
Name	Bradley, Craig
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	23 October 1963
Place of birth	Ashford, South Australia
Date of death
Place of death