Craig Edwin Bradley (born 23 October 1963) 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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er and

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er. He is the games record holder at Carlton in the AFL/VFL, and in elite Australian rules football (the AFL/VFL, SANFL and WAFL).

Early life

Bradley was born in Ashford in suburban

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

Football

Port Adelaide (1981–1985)

Bradley made his senior football debut in 1981 as a seventeen-year-old for

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

(SANFL), Port's third premiership in a row. At the end of 1981

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

club Essendon approached Bradley to join them but he turned down the offer, wishing to remain in South Australia with Port Adelaide and to build on his promising cricket career. In 1982, his second season, Bradley won Port Adelaide's Best and Fairest. In 1984 Bradley would be selected in the Australian team to take on Ireland in the revival of the International Rules series. In 1985 Bradley had won his third consecutive Port Adelaide best and fairest and was runner-up for the

Magarey Medal The Magarey Medal is an Australian rules football honour awarded annually since 1898 to the fairest and most brilliant player in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), as judged by field umpires. The award was created by Willi ...

Carlton (1986–2002)

After 89 games with Port Adelaide, Bradley was recruited by VFL club Carlton in 1986 as part of a recruiting drive that also netted future captain Stephen Kernahan and Peter Motley. Bradley won three Robert Reynolds Trophies as Carlton's Best & Fairest, in 1986, 1988 and

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

, as well as being a member of the

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

and

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

premiership sides. Bradley played with Carlton for seventeen seasons, acting as Kernahan's vice captain from

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

until

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, then captaining Carlton from

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

. In this time, Bradley also represented

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

three times in the International Rules series, including as vice-captain in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and captain in 2001. He broke

Bruce Doull Alexander Bruce Doull (born 11 September 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League, Victorian Football League (VFL). Wearing guernsey number 11, he was nicknamed the ...

's Carlton games record in Round 1,

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

. In a senior career spanning 22 seasons, Bradley 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

until the age of 38. For much of his career, Bradley played as an outside midfielder, rotating 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 final AFL game, against

, was in Round 19, 2002, polling 3 Brownlow Votes at the age of 38 years and 289 days, making him the sixth-oldest player in the history of the league. His final appearance overall was in the 2002 International Rules series. In November 2002, following Carlton's salary cap breach which lost the club valuable draft picks, Bradley had contemplated reversing his decision to retire 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.

Cricket

Bradley played first-class cricket for

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

and various Australian junior sides. After moving to Victoria to play for Carlton, he initially continued to play cricket for Victoria, although the increasing demands of football led him to retire from cricket after four first-class games. He played grade cricket for Port Adelaide until 1987/88 (originally returning to South Australia each summer after the football season to do so), and from 1988/89 until his retirement from cricket after the 1991/92 season, he played district cricket in Victoria for the

Melbourne Cricket Club The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sports club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia. The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Groun ...

. Bradley holds the distinction as the last active VFL/AFL player to win a Victorian district cricket premiership, achieving the feat in 1988/89, and had an agreement with the Carlton Football Club that district cricket finals took precedence over early season home-and-away football games if there was a clash.

Post football

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

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

Honours

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 The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the 1996 AFL season, centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media pe ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, 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.

Games record

Craig Bradley is the all-time games record holder in elite Australian rules football with 464 premiership (home-and-away and finals) matches: 89 for Port Adelaide in the SANFL from 1981 to 1985 (despite missing the last eight matches of the 1983 season touring England with the Young Australia cricket team), and 375 for Carlton in the VFL/AFL from 1986 to 2002, including 31 finals (7 for Port Adelaide and 24 for Carlton). He also holds the Carlton club games record, and at the time of his retirement, ranked fourth for most games played in the VFL/AFL behind Simon Madden (378), Kevin Bartlett (403) and Michael Tuck (426). As of the 2022 Grand Final, he is ranked ninth.

Other matches

Bradley also played nine pre-season/night series matches for Port Adelaide, 19 State of Origin matches for South Australia from 1983 to 1999 (the final season of State of Origin), and 27 pre-season/night series matches for Carlton (these are counted as senior by the SANFL but not by the VFL/AFL). If these are included, then Bradley played a total of 519 senior career games. Bradley also played nine International Rules matches for Australia, which are counted as senior by the VFL/AFL, who record Bradley's total as 501 career senior games, excluding his pre-season/night series matches for Carlton: if these are considered here, this gives Bradley an overall total of 528 career senior games. Depending on the viewpoint taken: * The AFL's total of 501 has Bradley's 500th senior game being the first International Rules test against Ireland at

Croke Park Croke Park (, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and headquarters of the Gaelic At ...

in 2002. * The total of 519 has Bradley's 500th senior game being against Richmond in Round 3 of the 2002 pre-season competition at the Docklands Stadium. * The overall total of 528 has Bradley's 500th senior game being against St Kilda in Round 20 of 2001 at the Docklands Stadium. Regardless of these differing viewpoints, Bradley is the all-time senior games record holder in elite Australian rules football.

Statistics

:Craig Bradley's player profile at AFL Tables
/ref> , - , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1986 , style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 25 , , 30 , , 12 , , 386 , , 215 , , 601 , , 145 , , , , 1.2 , , 0.5 , , 15.4 , , 8.6 , , 24.0 , , 5.8 , , , , 9 , - , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 22 , , 17 , , 16 , , 378 , , 124 , , 502 , , 92 , , 29 , , 0.8 , , 0.7 , , 17.2 , , 5.6 , , 22.8 , , 4.2 , , 1.3 , , 14 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1988 , style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 25 , , 14 , , 15 , , 475 , , 127 , , 602 , , 91 , , 30 , , 0.6 , , 0.6 , , 19.0 , , 5.1 , , 24.1 , , 3.6 , , 1.2 , , 2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 21 , , 16 , , 12 , , 320 , , 128 , , 448 , , 68 , , 32 , , 0.8 , , 0.6 , , 15.2 , , 6.1 , , 21.3 , , 3.2 , , 1.5 , , 8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 22 , , 10 , , 12 , , 373 , , 184 , , 557 , , 58 , , 44 , , 0.5 , , 0.5 , , 17.0 , , 8.4 , , 25.3 , , 2.6 , , 2.0 , , 6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 21 , , 9 , , 7 , , 359 , , 162 , , 521 , , 52 , , 41 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 17.1 , , 7.7 , , 24.8 , , 2.5 , , 1.6 , , 6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 22 , , 17 , , 15 , , 287 , , 198 , , 485 , , 64 , , 35 , , 0.8 , , 0.7 , , 13.0 , , 9.0 , , 22.0 , , 2.9 , , 1.6 , , 4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 22 , , 26 , , 20 , , 332 , , 228 , , 560 , , 85 , , 45 , , 1.2 , , 0.9 , , 15.1 , , 10.4 , , 25.5 , , 3.9 , , 2.0 , , 6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 21 , , 15 , , 13 , , 285 , , 188 , , 473 , , 59 , , 35 , , 0.7 , , 0.6 , , 13.6 , , 9.0 , , 22.5 , , 2.8 , , 1.7 , , 4 , - , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 25 , , 12 , , 12 , , 373 , , 211 , , 584 , , 100 , , 30 , , 0.5 , , 0.5 , , 14.9 , , 8.4 , , 23.4 , , 4.0 , , 1.2 , , 10 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 19 , , 17 , , 10 , , 314 , , 137 , , 451 , , 66 , , 36 , , 0.9 , , 0.5 , , 16.5 , , 7.2 , , 23.7 , , 3.5 , , 1.9 , , 6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 22 , , 12 , , 11 , , 436 , , 151 , , 587 , , 76 , , 32 , , 0.5 , , 0.5 , , 19.8 , , 6.9 , , 26.7 , , 3.5 , , 1.5 , , 15 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 19 , , 7 , , 9 , , 267 , , 160 , , 427 , , 62 , , 28 , , 0.4 , , 0.5 , , 14.1 , , 8.4 , , 22.5 , , 3.3 , , 1.5 , , 10 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 26 , , 9 , , 11 , , 430 , , 196 , , 626 , , 96 , , 35 , , 0.3 , , 0.4 , , 16.5 , , 7.5 , , 24.1 , , 3.7 , , 1.3 , , 18 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 21 , , 15 , , 2 , , 281 , , 168 , , 449 , , 51 , , 34 , , 0.7 , , 0.1 , , 13.4 , , 8.0 , , 21.4 , , 2.4 , , 1.6 , , 12 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 23 , , 14 , , 7 , , 344 , , 177 , , 521 , , 94 , , 24 , , 0.6 , , 0.3 , , 15.0 , , 7.7 , , 22.6 , , 4.1 , , 1.0 , , 10 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 19 , , 7 , , 8 , , 236 , , 146 , , 382 , , 58 , , 36 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 12.4 , , 7.7 , , 20.1 , , 3.1 , , 1.9 , , 4 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 375 ! 247 ! 192 ! 5876 ! 2900 ! 8776 ! 1317 ! 546 ! 0.7 ! 0.5 ! 15.7 ! 7.7 ! 23.4 ! 3.5 ! 1.6 ! 144

References

External links

Craig Bradley at the Carlton Football Club website
*
Craig Bradley's profile in Blueseum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradley, Craig Port Adelaide Football Club (SANFL) players Port Adelaide Football Club players (all competitions) Carlton Football Club players Carlton Football Club premiership players All-Australians (1953–1988) Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees South Australian State of Origin players John Nicholls Medal winners South Australia cricketers Victoria cricketers 1963 births Living people Australian cricketers All-Australians (AFL) Cricketers from South Australia Melbourne Cricket Club cricketers South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australia international rules football team players VFL/AFL premiership players Cricketers from Adelaide Australian rules footballers from Adelaide