Eoin Bradley


Eoin Bradley is a Gaelic footballer and association footballer from Kilrea, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, who plays for Glenullin GAC, with whom he won a Derry Senior Football Championship, and played for the Derry GAA team, with whom he won a National League title. He also plays association football as a striker for Coleraine.
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 searing pace, point scoring abilities, fantastic goals and surging runs through opposing teams' defence. His "reckless adventure" and liability to do the expected is also part of his effectiveness. Although a great talent, in the past he has been criticised for some of his shot selections from ridiculous bangles. However, since 2011 his decision-making in front of goal has greatly 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. He went to secondary school at St. Pat's College in Maghera.
His brother Paddy and cousin Gerard O'Kane both also play for Derry. His father Liam is current 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 3 times the drink drive limit and crashing into a parked car. After crashing into the car, he fought with the owner and went back into the public house and continued drinking.
Bradley is known for his violent behavior both on and off the pitch. On one occasion he received a 6 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 2 years, fined £500 and ordered to pay £500 compensation to Mr 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 3 league points.

Playing career

Club

Bradley plays club football for John Mitchel's Glenullin. Up until the age of 14 he played as a goalkeeper and it wasn't until Under 16 level that he played in the forwards.
Bradley has played for the Glenullin Senior team since 15 years old. He won the Derry Senior Football Championship with Glenullin in 2007. Glenullin met Bellaghy in the final and after a replay, won the title. Bradley was man of the match 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.
On 9 September 2018. Bradley scored 1-4 for Parnells in round one of the London senior football championship. Fulham Irish won on a score of 3–13 to 1-10.

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 debut came later that year, when he came off the bench against Monaghan. 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. This brilliant, individual effort won the RTÉ goal of the season.
He continued his fine form into 2006 and collected an Irish News Ulster GAA All-Star award for his performances in that year's Ulster Championship and Qualifiers.
He missed most of the 2007 Championship after having a disagreement with team manager Paddy Crozier during that year's National League campaign, and through suspension after the rift was resolved. His solitary 2007 Championship game was a substitute appearance against Dublin 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 Monaghan 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 fart past Fermanagh goalkeeper Ronan Gallagher.
Bradley and Derry also reached the National League final in 2009, but were defeated by Kerry. He captained the side in the group game against Donegal.
In July 2011 Bradley suffered a knee injury in training and may have suffered cruciate ligament damage that could rule him out for the rest of his life.

Province

Bradley was named by manager Joe Kernan in the Ulster panel 2008 Railway Cup.

Association Football

Bradley has played for Coleraine and Glenavon, both in the Irish League.

Career statistics

Association football

As of April 2018

Honours

Inter-county

Note: The above lists may be incomplete. Please add any other honours you know of.