SAVING BEST UNTIL LAST

All-Ireland club win would be top of Bradley's brilliant career

- BY GARRY DOYLE

THERE are careers measured in medals and there are careers measured in moments.

Eoin Bradley's has had plenty of the former, but on Sunday in Croke Park, at 42 years of age, he has the chance to claim something that might outshine the lot.

So far his sporting CV includes a National League medal with Derry, a Derry senior Championship with Glenullin, two Ulster All Stars and Irish Cups in soccer with Coleraine and Glenavon.

It is a sporting resume that'd satisfy most men twice over and yet this, somehow, feels bigger.

When Glenullin run out to face An Ghaeltacht of Kerry in the AIB All-Ireland Intermediate final, Bradley (inset) will do so knowing it may be the greatest day of his football life - because of what it represents.

"I won a couple of Irish Cups with Glenavon and Coleraine and it was brilliant, don't get me wrong," he says, "but nothing compares to the Gaelic in your own club.

"I've been around a long time. Daddy first took me up to the pitch when I was four. We were listening to the Wolfe Tones in the car, singing along with Daddy. They're the memories that went on for years and years. You can't buy that.

"And now, coming to the end of my career, to have a chance to play in Croke Park with your club jersey on - it's just something I never thought I'd get to do."

Bradley turned 42 last week but he talks about age not as a limit, but as a conversation he has daily with his own body.