‘Sparky’ Bradley can’t wait for Saturday

THERE’S a massive prize at stake with a place in the All-Ireland final up for grabs so Mark Bradley is keen that Tyrone make the most of their opportunity against Kerry this Saturday.

Bradley is back in the fold this year and is counting down the days to his fourth All-Ireland semi-final clash at senior level.

He lofted over two points in Tyrone’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Kerry in his debut season in 2015, amere months after starring in the county’s run to All-Ireland U21 honours.

The Killyclogher star came on as a sub in a tense win over Monaghan in 2018, missed out on another semi-final defeat to Kerry in 2019 due to his teaching training, before playing a big part in a marathon last-four win over the Kingdom in 2021. He’s a vastly experienced player at this stage but the excitement levels haven’t diluted with the passing of time as Tyrone get ready for their latest blockbuster clash with Kerry this weekend.

“I heard [Tipperary hurler] Noel McGrath saying in an interview, any time you’re back in Croke Park, it’s a very exciting time. It’s quite a while since we’ve been in the semi-final so I’m so excited to be back,” said Bradley.

“Of the top of my head, it’s my fourth semi-final. They don’t come around too often, so when you get there, you want to make the most of it.”

Bradley departed the Tyrone panel in the wake of their 2021 All-Ireland win. He continued to light up the club scene with Killyclogher and he didn’t take much persuasion to return to the intercounty fold by new manager Malachy O’Rourke.

“Firstly it’s been great. It always has been, we’ve a great group of lads, the management have been excellent as well. I suppose on a personal level, the decision to come back, I was just enjoying my football,” he continued.

“I wanted to do a bit of travelling in the years that I was away. That was really the only reason. I really enjoyed my football with the club last year and I thought why not.”

Bradley enjoyed a prominent role up front during Tyrone’s league campaign but a calf injury has curtailed his involvement during the championship. It’s been touch and go and he missed the entirety of the quarter-final win over Dublin, but he hopes he’s in a good position to see action this weekend.

“I’ve had a few niggles, but I’m back training now. I’m good to go.”

“For anyone that’s had a calf injury, it can be very sporadic. If you’ve a hamstring injury and you’re running quickly, that’s going to hurt you whereas for a calf injury, it works as hard jogging as it does when you’re sprinting.

“So it’s been a few wee niggles, nothing major, but at this level, you have to be training consistently to be playing.”

Standing in Tyrone’s way is a Kerry team that blitzed Armagh during a devastating 15-minute spell in the last eight. Bradley says they didn’t need fresh evidence to tell them about the strength of their upcoming opponents.

“If you hadn’t seen those 15 minutes, you’d still know what Kerry teams are about. They’re extremely hard to beat, they’re very good footballers individually. Yes that 15 minutes was exceptional, but I think they were very dominant for large portions of that game.”