Bradley was not better than Aker pls. Delusion is high with some of the posts in this thread.
-
AFLW 2025 - AFLW Trade and Draft - All the player moves
-
Mobile App Discontinued
Due to a number of factors, support for the current BigFooty mobile app has been discontinued. Your BigFooty login will no longer work on the Tapatalk or the BigFooty App - which is based on Tapatalk.
Apologies for any inconvenience. We will try to find a replacement.
How good was Craig Bradley?
- Thread starter Necromancer Beth
- Start date
- Tagged users None
🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.
Bradley was not better than Aker pls. Delusion is high with some of the posts in this thread.
- Mar 20, 2017
- 11,540
- 39,326
- AFL Club
- Carlton
Did well to win 3 best and fairest at Carlton then. And three at Port Adelaide.
- Mar 20, 2017
- 11,540
- 39,326
- AFL Club
- Carlton
Just unbelievably dedicated and disciplined. I went to both Australia v Ireland tests at Croke Park in 2002 which were the last games that Craig played. Most would take it as a bit of a holiday, whilst some like the Scott brothers took it as an opportunity to whack a few Irishmen.
We got there pretty early for tge second test as there was a hurling game on first which we thought that we would have a look at. Looking for a car park in Dublin only to see braddles running around the streets of Dublin in preparation for his last ever game of football (albeit hybrid rules,).
Just blown away by his professionalism. Not a valid comparison to Akker. Akkers best might have been better but Bradley just went out there week in and week out for 473 (or whatever) times and ran his guts out and gave his all for the team.
A fantastic career and one that he should be very proud of.
That delusion is coming from your end...
Log in to remove this Banner Ad
Take the blinkers off mate
Tipping I seen him a lot more than you, especially live. So I trust my judgement is anything but blinkered
Sensational player.
Wonderful player for a long time. How good was he? Very ******* good.
No it's not. It's definitely coming from your end. I saw Bradley play too.
No where near at the level of Aker at both their bests.
Longevity means not as well, boomer could've played to he was 40 but you won't see many roos arguing at his best he was better than Judd, Ablett, Hird etc
Absolutely stupid to try to make out longevity is a negative.
Bradley was a brilliant player. The fact that he had well over 10 brilliant seasons and Aker about half as much is weird take you trying to make as a negative.
I loved Aker, but unlike Braddles he spent a lot of time playing up forward as he was an excellent goal sneak but only good enough to play midfield for a few seasons. His best for those seasons was up there with Bradley, but he could not keep it up all career like Bradley did.
Stop disliking my posts. Longevity means nothing when using it as a basis to claim player X is better than player Y.
Most football fans who watched that era know Aker is better than Bradley.
You are delusional in so many ways. Your logic and sensitive nature to who likes or dislikes is amusing.
Next you'll claim Bradley is better than Judd or at least if you're consistent you'll make an argument for it and say, well Judd's second half of his career wasn't as good as his first and retired early but Bradley played until he was 50 
The delusions in your logic are amusing to read the rabbit holes your mind takes you with this imagination.Next you'll claim Bradley is better than Judd or at least if you're consistent you'll make an argument for it and say, well Judd's second half of his career wasn't as good as his first and retired early but Bradley played until he was 50
I reckon Bradley is rated about right. He was no doubt an outside player but every side needs that style of player, during his career he was pretty much the best. While he had pace he never quite seemed as explosive as Matera or Long pre his knee injuries but his overall body of work was comfortably above both of those players. Was amazingly consistent as well. He would be an even better player in todays footy and could possibly have played over 450 games at AFL level, he would probably played about 8-10 games at Port in his draft year and been playing AFL at 18 instead of 22 or 23. He really had no reason to retire when he did, was still playing good footy but probably saw where Carlton were headed and couldn't see the point in playing on. He was signed by Essendon and meant to show up for the 86 season but obviously something changed. When Port came into the comp he was considered a bit old for them so they didn't really try to get him back but in hindsight he would've played 6 years with them.
Well we might. Sam Walsh has started his career at this type of level of quality.Absolute legend, bet the Blues wished they had someone as good as him running around for them at the moment.
- Jul 18, 2011
- 4,842
- 3,651
- AFL Club
- Essendon
Meh, wasn't a bad batsman. Couldn't bowl for nuts though.
Power Raid
We Exist To Win Premierships
being a hard running player, he is probably compared to greats such crawford, cousins and r. harvey who used their engine to great advantage. These guys are hard to separate on stats alone.......
www.footywire.com
www.footywire.com
www.footywire.com
Craig Bradley and Robert Harvey AFL Stats Comparison
Craig Bradley and Robert Harvey AFL Stats Comparison.
www.footywire.com
Craig Bradley and Shane Crawford AFL Stats Comparison
Craig Bradley and Shane Crawford AFL Stats Comparison.
www.footywire.com
Craig Bradley and Ben Cousins AFL Stats Comparison
Craig Bradley and Ben Cousins AFL Stats Comparison.
www.footywire.com
🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.
Macca19
Moderator
- Moderator
- #145
Nothing wrong with being outside. He was an old school wingman. Even then though he was still getting 70-80 clearances a year in his latter years. Would be interesting to see what those stats would have been through his peak before those stats were recorded. His contested possession rate was decent enough too.
The games best 2 wingmen who are probably Langdon and Amon have never got near 70-80 clearances a year.
The games best 2 wingmen who are probably Langdon and Amon have never got near 70-80 clearances a year.
- Mar 2, 2015
- 19,401
- 35,186
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
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...
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...
Last edited:
Power Raid
We Exist To Win Premierships
It is fair to compare crawford and west but aker was a different player and role
So much if all this.
A very very good comparison in terms of overall quality of play and also consistency.
Yeah, Crawford was closer to type of player Braddles was. Crawford could outrun others like Braddles could and had similar skill.
Similar threads
