Bradshaw retires after stellar career
AFTER a stellar 231-game career, Sydney Swans forward Daniel Bradshaw has decided to retire from football.
Bradshaw announced his decision at a media conference at the Swans offices on Friday morning.
Bradshaw has spent the past few weeks contemplating his football future following another knee operation last month.
Bradshaw had surgery in May to release the iliotibial band which runs along the side of this thigh, with the hope that it would give him more flexibility in his troublesome knee.
While the operation went well, Bradshaw struggled with the recovery phase and questioned whether he wanted to go through another protracted rehabilitation.
After discussions with his family and the Club, Bradshaw decided the time was right for him to retire and says the decision is a relief after a trying period of injury.
Bradshaw came to the Swans in the pre-season draft at the end of 2009, which meant the Club did not have to trade a player to gain Daniel on a two-year contract.
The Club was excited to secure the services of such an experienced forward, and while he played only nine games for the Swans, the Club has been rapt to have a player of Bradshaw’s stature on its list.
He played in two premierships with the Brisbane Lions and kicked 524 goals in a career which began when he was drafted from Wodonga in country Victoria to the Lions in 1995.
Renowned for his strong marking, accurate kicking and innate goal sense, Bradshaw was Brisbane’s leading goalkicker in 2005, 2006 and 2008.
He kicked 28 goals for the Swans in his nine games last season, including an extraordinary torpedo after the ¾ time siren in the round 6 game against his old side Brisbane at the SCG.
He kicked a total of six goals that night in a performance that team-mates such as Josh Kennedy described as ‘”electrifying’’.
Bradshaw went down with injury again in round 9, but came back to play in the semi-final against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG last September. Even though he had missed three months of football, his enormous value to the Swans was evident as he grabbed nine marks and kicked 3.4.
“Daniel has been a genuine star of the competition during his career,’’ Swans coach John Longmire said.
“Even though he played only nine games with the Club since we recruited him from the Lions, we have absolutely no regrets about the decision. Despite his knee problems, he made a real contribution to the Swans after coming to us in the pre-season draft.
“When we were coaching against him, the combination of Daniel, Jonathan Brown and Alastair Lynch in the Brisbane forward line was always an enormous challenge,’’ Longmire said.
“Even at the end of his career, his enormous talent was evident in that semi-final against the Bulldogs when he took nine marks even though he had been on the sidelines for three months.
“Everyone at the Swans wishes Daniel and his family all the best for his life after football.”
