Paddy Bradley To Call It A Day

[Oak Leaf Magazine]

Already put this up on the Derry thread but might as well stick it here.

Folks the Paddy story comes from an interview I did with him, I think Paddy has become increasingly frustrated with the amount of niggles he keeps picking up.
He didn't really make any big announcement. It was more matter of fact than that, it arose out of a question I asked him about how hard would it be for the players to lift themselves for the qualifiers and he said it wouldn't be a problem for him because this was his last year and he wanted to give it a real lash before the summer is out.
Anyway ye can read the long version of the interview below and make yer own mind up

Oh and this the unsubbed original version so all you pedants give me a break about the typos. Thanks, Chris McCann


Bradley hopes for big days before bowing out

Paddy Bradley could well have played his last Ulster Championship game for Derry but says he still hopes to end his county career on a high note by making major progress through the qualifiers.
Bradley intends to retire from the red and white at the end of the current campaign. Like the rest of the county the Glenullin man was desperately disappointed at Derry's early ejection from the provincial party but would love to gatecrash the later stages of the Championship through the back door.
"This is probably my last year playing for Derry. I honestly feel that I have given good service to the county over the 11 years and that I have given my all every time played for the county. But I want to go out with a bang. On our day, I believe that we are a match for any side in the country. I really believe that at the top of our game we could beat a  Cork  or a Kerry. I think we tend to play well in  Croke Park  in the big open spaces, but it's getting through the packed defences that you have to get past to get there that trips us up," he said.
While many around the county were downbeat about Derry's Ulster prospects, Bradley had genuinely expected to progress to an Ulster quarter-final meeting with Monaghan.
"It's always disappointing to go out of the Ulster Championship. You go in every year thinking you have prepared well and I honestly thought we would beat Armagh but then something goes wrong on the day. When you are in position like I am when you are in your last year of intercounty football it's even more disappointing. Coming into the game I thought we had prepared as best we could, it's easy with hindsight to look back and think there's a pile of things you would do differently."
The final quarter of that game at Celtic Park was a particularly frustrating one anyone of an Oak Leaf hue and Derry's old penchant for lateral hand-passing came back to haunt them.
"That's not the way we trained for Armagh and for us as players it's very frustrating, particularly when you are playing in the full-forward line. The type of me I'm always thinking that every ball should be coming into me. That sounds cocky but that's way you have to be to be an intercounty forward. It's tough when you arehaving to come way out the field or right out to the sideline to get a ball. Why we end up playing the way we do I don't know, as individuals we have some of the best footballers around. The manager isn't to blame, everybody knows I haven't always seen eye to eye with Damien Cassidy but what happened against Armagh certainly wasn't his fault."
Indeed the failings that hampered Derry against Armagh have been evident on many occasions over the last decade and Bradley is at loss to explain them.
"It's really hard to know. We have had good men involved in management, good players but the fact is we haven't been winning when it counts. People will blame, Mickey Moran, Paddy Crozier or Damien Cassidy or they will blame myself or Enda Muldoon or Fergal Doherty but I can tell you every one of us players and managers have worked our arses off to try and bring success to Derry."
Bradley does however admit that he personally was lacking in match sharpness against Paddy O'Rourke's side.
"To be honest I knew deep down that I hadn't played enough football ahead of the Armagh game. I know there'll be people put there saying I'm done as an intercounty footballer but when I feel fit I think I'm still as good as I ever was. The problem is when you are at the stage I'm at and you pick up a niggle it takes a while coming back. Coming into an Ulster Championship game you need four or five weeks at it flat out whereas I was coming with a maybe a game and a half for the club and only one or two good sessions with the county. A few of the other lads were the same, Kevin McGuckin, Enda, Declan Mullan four or five of our main players and that probably affected us," he said.
Since Derry's last Ulster title in 1998 the county has still maintained its status as top tier county. Two All-Ireland semi-final appearances, one quarter-final berth, and two National League titles in the intervening period attest to the county's status potential. In the same time Derry have failed to win back to back Ulster Championship as fact that puzzles Bradley as much as the rest of us.
"To be honest I just don't know. I'm sure everybody inside and outside the panel has an opinion on it. Maybe the truth is that we are just not good enough. I've always thought we were good enough to win an Ulster but maybe we just haven't got it," he said.
One theory commonly expounded to explain Derry's provincial problems is the attritional effect of the county's ultra-competitive club scene. It's not a belief that Bradley ascribes to.
"I've heard that argument so many times and I don't think it stands up. Does anybody really think that when Carrickmore are getting tore into Errigal Ciaran in Tyrone or St John's are playing St Gall's in Antrim that they aren't going at it as hard as a club game in Derry? If Derry club football was so much more competitive then we'd be winning the Ulster Club every year which hasn't happened since the Loup in 2003."
Looking ahead to the qualifiers at the start of July, Bradley says the squad will simply have to be ready for whatever the draw throws up.
"People say you're better off with a good team and if you win then you are right back on track but you could get the losers of the Antrim v Tyrone game a real tough Ulster derby and end up out of it in the first round. On the other hand you could get a couple of easier teams to start off with, build your confidence, and be in good shape to meet some of the better sides later on," he said.
On a recent trip to Dublin with fiancé Ciara, Bradley drove past Croke Park and thought longingly at its wide open spaces a far cry from the clogged up final thirds of Ulster's football fields.
"Football has become far too defensive over the last 10 years and maybe 13 aside is the way to go. Sometimes when you are out there in Casement of Clones or Celtic Park and there's teams playing so many men back you start to wonder what way the game is going."
It seems that Armagh's famed blanket or Tyrone's swarming tacklers won't be a concern of Bradley's for much longer. The love of the game is still as strong as ever and Bradley feels the sting of defeat as much as any fan, but with age comes responsibility.
"I know in the past with whole grants the whole question came up about getting money for playing came up and it was great to get the grant when it was available but that was never a motivation. You play because you love it. You have to, because the sacrifices you have to make to be a county footballer are massive. Every one of us who pulls on a Derry jersey views it as a privilege and when you are on the field and the team is losing and you are getting abuse from your own fans it does hurt. Responsibilities give you a different outlook as you get older. If I'm lucky I get in from work in time to see my son for half an hour and then by the time I get back from training he's asleep."
The playing days with Derry might be coming to a close, Bradley doesn't rule out the possibility of having part to play for the county at some point in the years ahead.
"It's something I'd love to do on down the line, I'm helping out with Foreglen at the minute and the way things are around Glenullin is that if you are not fit to play any more then you are fit to manage. Looking at the county would have to be a long way down the line, I'd have to build up a lot of experience at club level. Looking around Derry there are still plenty of good men who would like the job you have the likes of Tony Scullion and Henry Downey all those boys from 1993. If it were to happen it would be a long way in the future but being involved with Derry on the management side would definitely be something I'd love to be involved in years to come," he said.

[Mario]

the way he has played the last few years I dont think he will be missed.

As i said on the derry thread, First thoughts are why is he announcing this midseason? Is it so he gets his ego stroked by people begging him to come back. Don't get me wrong great player, great servant, but i question the timing of this, id also be very suprised not to see him in a Derry shirt next year.

I have to disagree that he hasn't played well the last few years, in 2007 he won an all star, in 2008 he was excellent through our league winning campaign, he was man of the match against donegal in the championship that year scoring 10 points. Last year he scored 2-08 against monaghan in the championship and this year he scored 1-2 or 1-3 against armagh. Hardly the form of a player who hasn't played well in the last few years. He has had a couple of poor games when he been double marked in recent years, but its not his fault the rest of the Derry players couldn't take advantage of this.

That all-star was more of an achievement for Paddy Heaney than for Patrick.  Patrick was far from his best in 2007 and no doubt won this all-star for being missed out in previous years.  Granted he should have probably had an all-star in years previous to 2007 but did not deserve the award in 2007.

He was 4th top scorer in the championship that year and Derry went out in the quarter finals, even if he didn't deserve it, to be nominated indicates that you had a good season

[glens abu]

the way he has played the last few years I dont think he will be missed.

You've obviously got some great players up in the glens if a player of Bradley's ability will not be missed!

never doubted his ability but just think he has been poor the last couple of years

[Zapatista]

Already put this up on the Derry thread but might as well stick it here.

Folks the Paddy story comes from an interview I did with him,

I hope you put the right picture with it

Sounds like he's still thinking about it.

[skeog]

  paddy will be missed did not get credit for his efforts over the years           

[blanketattack]

I think Bradley was very deserving of his All-Star in 2007. It was a year that very few full-forwards prospered and I'd say he was probably the best full-forward in 2007. He might have played better in other years but the All-Stars is also about how well you played compared to other players in your position not just your performances on their own merits.