Eoin Bradley (commonly known by his nickname Skinner; born 31 December 1983) is a

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

er and association footballer. He plays the former for the Glenullin club and, previously, for the Derry county team. With Glenullin he won a Derry Senior Football Championship and with Derry he won a

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

title. Bradley usually plays corner forward for both club and county – often paired in a two-man inside forward line with brother Patsy, but has also played in the half-forward line. He is known for his pace, point and goal scoring abilities, and runs through opposing teams' defence. His "reckless adventure" and liability to do the unexpected is also part of his effectiveness. Although a great talent, in the past he has been criticised for some of his shot selections from acute angles. However, since 2011 his decision-making in front of goal has improved, which has put down to manager John Brennan.

Personal life

Bradley's family is from Glenullin near Garvagh, with Eoin himself now living in Kilrea. Eoin plays football for glenullin but he has never lived there.BBC News
Derry GAA star Eoin Bradley admits assaulting referee He went to secondary school at St. Pat's College in

Maghera Maghera ( ; ) is a small town at the foot of the Glenshane Pass in Northern Ireland. Its population was 4,235 in the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. Formerly in the Barony (Ireland), barony of Loughinsholin within the historic County ...

. His brother Paddy and cousin Gerard O'Kane both also play for Derry. His father

Liam Liam is a short form of the Germanic name William, or its Irish variant Uilliam. Etymology The original name was a merging of two Old German elements: ''willa'' ("will" or "resolution"); and ''helma'' ("helmet"). The juxtaposition of these ...

is former manager of Antrim. Eoin's uncle Gabriel Bradley won the Ulster Championship twice with Derry in 1975 and 1976. Bradley was banned from driving motor vehicles for 16 months after consuming three times the drink drive limit and crashing into a parked car. After the crash, he fought with the owner of the car then went into the bar and continued drinking. On one occasion he received a six-match ban for head butting a player on an opposing team. He has also been found guilty in a court of law in Limavady of punching referee Declan O'Connor in the face. He was bound over to keep the peace for two years, fined £500 and ordered to pay £500 compensation to O'Connor. In 2017, Glenullin refused to play a league match against The Loup, citing ill feeling towards referee Declan O'Connor who had previously reported Bradley for assault. This cost the club three league points. In 2020, Bradley received a six-match ban for urinating on the sidelines of the Windsor Park pitch during an Irish Cup semi-final. Bradley was sole director of MM Builders Ltd. He was fined £190,456.70 over tax affairs. HMRC listed him in their list of "deliberate tax defaulters". The list, which is published several times a year, identifies companies and individuals who have received penalties for either deliberate errors in their tax returns or failure to comply with their tax obligations. Media contacted MM Builders Ltd about the penalty but there was no comment from the firm.

Gaelic football career

Club

Bradley plays club football for John Mitchel's Glenullin. Up until the age of 14 he played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

and it wasn't until Under 16 level that he played in the forwards. Bradley has played for the Glenullin

Senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

team since 15 years old. He won the Derry Senior Football Championship with Glenullin in

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 ...

. Glenullin met Bellaghy in the final and after a replay, won the title. Bradley was

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

in the drawn final against Bellaghy. '' Irish News'' journalist Paddy Heaney described him as the "player who ripped the Blues apart" over the course of the two games. Earlier that year Glenullin won the Ulster Senior Club Football League, beating Latton of Monaghan in the final. The club reached the Ulster League final again the following year, but were defeated by fellow Derry club Ballinderry. In 2008 the club reached the final of the All-Ireland Sevens Championship, organised by Kilmacud Crokes. They were however beaten 1–11 to 0–13 by St. Gall's of Antrim in the decider, with Bradley scoring 0–05 in the match. He was favourite for player of the tournament which eventually went to one of his St Gall's opponents. Glenullin, jointly with Ballinderry won the 2008 Derry Senior Football League. Manager Brian McIver permitted Bradley to play for Derry while also playing

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

for Glenavon. However, Bradley's name was omitted from Damian Barton's 43-man training panel in October 2015, with the inclusion of injured duo Mark Lynch and Kevin Johnston being taken to mean Bradley would not be included later. His inter-county career seemed to be over by 2017 or 2020.

Inter-county

Bradley was first called up to the Derry Senior panel in 2004 by Mickey Moran. He made his debut in the Dr. McKenna Cup against Antrim, but suffered a horrific leg break against Jordanstown in the next outing and was out for a year and a half. Bradley and Derry reached the Dr. McKenna Cup final in 2005, where they were beaten by Tyrone. His

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

debut came later that year, when he came off the bench against

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), Monaghan barony. The population of the town as of the 2022 cen ...

. He had an impressive 2005 Championship campaign, including scoring a brilliant solo goal against Down in the Qualifiers. He collected the ball inside his own half, ran half the pitch evading four tackles and blasted the ball into the top corner of the net. He missed most of the 2007 Championship after having a disagreement with team manager Paddy Crozier during that year's

campaign, and through suspension after the rift was resolved. His solitary 2007 Championship game was a substitute appearance against

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

in the All-Ireland quarter-final. He came on as a sub and managed to score an excellent point in the defeat, but missed two attempts on goal which may have altered the result. Derry were once again beaten in the 2008 Dr. McKenna Cup final, this time by Down. He was instrumental in the 2008 National League, which Derry won, defeating Kerry in the final. The league success saw Derry become favourites to win the Ulster Championship and one of the top few for the All-Ireland. However, despite a good opening Ulster Championship victory over Donegal, Derry exited the Ulster Championship against Fermanagh at the semi-final stage, due to his pre-match meal and were defeated by

in the first round of the Qualifiers. Bradley scored 1–01 in each of the games. His goal against Fermanagh was a particularly amazing goal – rounding Peter Sherry, running 40 metres before blasting a shot past Fermanagh goalkeeper Ronan Gallagher. Bradley and Derry also reached the National League final in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, but were defeated by Kerry. He captained the side in the group game against Donegal.

Province

Bradley was named by manager Joe Kernan in the

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

panel for the 2008 Railway Cup.

Association football career

Ballymoney United & Coleraine

At the age of 29, Bradley ventured into association football with NIFL Championship 2 side Ballymoney United, and joined

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

in the

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Sports Direct Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and Irish Premiership colloquially, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football L ...

shortly after.

Glenavon

After a successful top-flight debut campaign, scoring 12 goals in 27 games for the Bannsiders, Bradley moved to newly-crowned Irish Cup winners Glenavon in the summer of 2014. He won his first Irish Cup, and Glenavon's second in three seasons, after defeating Linfield 2-0 in the 2016 final.

Return to Coleraine

Having experienced a period of indifferent form in his third season at Glenavon, Bradley was sold back to Coleraine in January 2017. Bradley won the Irish Cup for a second time in 2018, as Coleraine claimed a 3-1 victory over Cliftonville, with Bradley scoring the third late in the game. In 2020, Bradley received a six-match ban for urinating on the sidelines of the Windsor Park pitch during an Irish Cup semi-final.

Return to Glenavon

Following his release by Coleraine, it was announced on 27 June 2022 that Bradley had returned to Glenavon on a one-year deal, with the option of a further year.

Portadown

On 30 July 2023, it was announced that Bradley had joined

Portadown Portadown ( ) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is based on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population ...

upon the expiry of his contract with Glenavon. Bradley would depart the club in January 2024, having scored 2 goals in 9 appearances, with the goals coming against

Institute An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

and Dergview. Following his release, he joined

Ballymena & Provincial Football League The Ballymena and Provincial Football League is a regional association football, football league in Northern Ireland. The league has a Premier Division with Northern Ireland football league system#Intermediate, intermediate status and three Nort ...

side Desertmartin on 26 January 2024.

Career statistics

Association football

''As of July 2023''

Gaelic football honours

Inter-county

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

: **Winner (1):

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

**Runner up:

Dr McKenna Cup The Dr McKenna Cup is an annual Gaelic football competition played between Counties of Ireland, counties and List of universities in Northern Ireland, universities in the province of Ulster GAA, Ulster. It is the secondary Gaelic football compe ...

: **Winner:

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

**Runner up:

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Club

*All-Ireland Kilmacud Crokes Sevens Championship: **Runner up: 2008 * Ulster Senior Club Football League: **Winner: 2007 **Runner up: 2008 * Derry Senior Football Championship: **Winner (1):

*Derry Senior Football League: **Winner (1): 2008

Individual

*Irish News Ulster GAA All-Stars Awards, Irish News Ulster GAA All-Star – Winner (2): 2006, 2011

Association football honours

Glenavon *

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary Association football, football single elimination, knockout cup compet ...

: 2015–16 Coleraine *

: 2017–18 * NIFL League Cup: 2019–20

References

External links

''Sunday Tribune'' article on BradleyPlayer profiles on Official Derry GAA website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradley, Eoin 1983 births Living people Derry inter-county Gaelic footballers Gaelic footballers who switched code Gaelic football forwards Glenullin Gaelic footballers Ulster inter-provincial Gaelic footballers Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Men's association football forwards NIFL Premiership players NIFL Championship players Coleraine F.C. players Glenavon F.C. players Ballymoney United F.C. players Portadown F.C. players 21st-century British sportsmen