How good was Craig Bradley?

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Haven't gone back through the numerous pages of this topic so apologies if this has been raised.

He was a gun cricketer. Selected in the U19's youth test squad against Pakistan in 1981/82, he scored 99 in the 1st test and 119 in the 3rd test.

Also got 63 and 40 in the 2 ODI's. His teammates included Craig McDermott; Mike Valetta & Tony Dodemaide;

Probably if he wasn't a footballer, he would have had a long 1st class career (played 2 games for SA and 2 for Vic) but I assume he stopped playing cricket to concentrate on his footy?

There was a story going around that one Saturday late in a cricket season (after he moved to Melbourne), he played a district cricket semi final and was in the field all day (100 odd overs). And then straight after that, he played a pre-season game with Carlton that night at Waverley.

As for his footy career, he was a star. Those on here who say otherwise are delusional.
I was going to mention this but glad some else did. Bradley also played some 80 odd games in the SAFL.
Along with the cricket as you mentioned wiki claims he played 19 games for SA and 9 games for vic in the shield cricket as well as national honours.
Al up he played 460od games of footy st the highest level. He was a true talent
 
Probably already been said...but I saw him from the start.

Extremely fit - Ran 90% of the opposition into the ground

Versatile - Wing, Centre, Follower, Half fwd

No real defensive side...but this was the 80s/90s.

Very good straight kick, had a left side.

Smart, consummate team player.

Never saw him take an overhead mark, Tom Alvin was the same.Paul Meldrum was much better overhead.

Ugly as sin...in the Mayne/Mundy/Platten vein.....
How could you leave Hocking off in the ugly stakes?
 
I would say comparable to Selwood level or a touch below. Was never in the top 10 players in the 90s for each year. Was a very good player for a long time.

Twice won the B&F in a team making the grand final, multiple time All Australian, one of the best ever representative players for South Australia
Craig Bradley was a champion footballer, no doubt.

Although if you hadn't seen him play and you saw his incredible list of awards and individual honours, you might be fooled into thinking he was better than he actually was.

Some champion footballers are kissed on the dick when it comes to All Australian selection, best and fairests, Brownlow, MVPs, etc...
There are other champion footballers who are equally as good, but struggle to get the same recognition.

It gets down to style points. Visual aesthetics. Craig Bradley played with great style. He moved beautifully. He was very neat. He was bloody good. And he LOOKED good. The sort of player that every young kid dreams they could eventually be one day.

Braddles was always nominally listed as a centreman or ruck-rover on the team sheet, but there was no physicality whatsoever in his game. No crash & bash. Not big on tackling. He could win a few hard balls, but this wasn't his forté. He was more of a hard-running, link player with superb skills. Very consistent over a long long period.

I would compare him to Keith Greig, Robert Flower, Wayne Campbell, Shane Crawford, Ben Cousins, Nick Dal Santo, Brent Harvey, Dan Hannebery, Jack Macrae, Bailey Smith, etc...
Bradley certainly was given no favours in the Brownlow, one umpire actually used Bradley as an example where they would think .. who was best.. probably Bradley.. but he was back chatting all day, so they gave the votes elsewhere. I tried to find the article on this, but couldn't. I do remember it was pretty topical when he came and said it, but might have been before the internet was a big deal
 

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The original Sam Walsh.

Referring to an earlier poster, I class him better than someone like Crawford and on par with Akermanis. Although completely different players.

I preface this with I never thought Crawford was anywhere near as good as the best midfielders of the 90’s.

Crawford was sort of on the level of a more durable Cooney imo.
 
average outside player,put it this way i never dipped into me pocket to fork out and go watch him play,never once

His record says waaaay above average.......in fact its not far off Dusty’s....😆

(One less premiership and no brownlow.....but Dusty never played with Williams, Ratten and Kernahan, all big vote getters)
 

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How good was Craig Bradley?

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