Craig Bradley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Birth | October 23, 1963 , |
| Recruited from | Port Adelaide Magpies (SANFL) |
| Playing career¹ | |
| Debut | Round 1, 1986, Carlton vs. 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 | |
|
|
 Australia (AUS) |
||
 |
||
| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |
| Bowling type | - | |
| 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 |
|
Test debut: [[]], 1983/1984 |
||
Craig Edwin "Braddles" Bradley (born October 23, 1963) is a former South Australian Australian rules footballer and first class cricketer, who holds the record for senior Australian football games played.
Contents |
[edit] 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 3 best and fairests for Carlton, in 1986, 1988 and 1993, as well as being a member of the 1987 and 1995 premiership sides. 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, 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 2007, Bradley returned to Carlton as an assistant coach.
[edit] Games Records
Craig Bradley's 375 games for Carlton, including 24 finals, is a team record. It is also 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).
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.
As a cricketer, Bradley appeared in four Sheffield Shield matches, two each for the states of South Australia and Victoria [4].
[edit] External links
- Craig Bradley profile on the Official AFL Website of the Carlton Football Club
- Player Profile: Craig Bradley from Cricinfo
- Craig Bradley Profile in Blueseum
[edit] Notes
^ a One source says 1964, but is incorrect.
|
|||||
|
|||||
| Preceded by Nicky Winmar |
Michael Tuck Medallist 1997 |
Succeeded by Wayne Carey |
