By Cian O'Connell

Sport has always occupied a central role in Paddy Bradley's life.

A senior inter-county player for Derry between 1999 and 2012, Bradley's attacking prowess was evident during that spell.

An All-Star award was gleaned in 2007, underlining his ability at the highest level.

Since retiring from the game Bradley, similar to his father Liam, who managed Antrim, has been involved coaching teams at all levels of the game.

This year Bradley was a selector for the Donegal senior football team. It remains a hectic spell for Bradley, who is busy preparing his home club, Glenullin, for the upcoming Derry SFC.

In a wide ranging interview, Bradley reflects on Donegal's 2023 campaign, while also discussing football and family.

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Q: Considering it was a demanding year for Donegal, does the fact that there was a bit of an improvement in the All-Ireland series brings some positivity reflecting back on it?

PB: After relegation to Division Two and after the defeat against Down, you are sort of doing a bit of soul searching. Things are at a low ebb.

In fairness to the players they turned things around, they were great to work with. Even with all of the stuff going on in the background, they came to Convoy every night, they did their work, they had a fantastic attitude towards preparing themselves to play for Donegal.

Aidan (O'Rourke) and I were just delighted that they did turn the corner a bit. They showed over the course of those three or four weeks that there is good footballers in Donegal.

People forget, and this isn't me making excuses, that the biggest barrier to success is so many injuries. The team that played that night in Derry in Ballybofey compared to the team, who played the year before in the Ulster Final - there was maybe nine or 10 men not available for one reason or another. No county can deal with that loss.

From a positive point of view, four or five guys really stepped up, the exposure to play at a high level, they will come on from that.

If Donegal can get their house in order, get their injuries cleared up, get all the boys that maybe weren't buying in this year, get them back buying in, Donegal isn't that far away. You still have some fantastic footballers there. It was difficult because of all of the stuff going on in the background.

Any dealings Aidan or myself had with the County Board were grand, were fantastic, everything the team needed, they got. You hate to see wranglings like that go on between a team and the County Board.

You just hope that they can get it sorted because there is plenty of good footballers and good football men there. In terms of my own personal experiences, I've great time for the players and how they conducted themselves throughout the course of the year.

Even since the season is over I've been in regular contact with a lot of the players, they are great lads, great ambassadors for Donegal football.

Q: Were you always interested in going down the coaching route after playing? How did it unfold for you?

PB: I've been involved in coaching even since before I stopped playing. I was taking on different bits and pieces with different club teams around Derry. My first real job managing or coaching a team was with Newbridge - Conor Doherty and Paudie McGrogan's club.

I took them to an Intermediate title and we were promoted to Division One in Derry. After that I went to Loup senior team, we were beaten in two semi-finals in a row by Conor Glass' Glen. Then my own club last year, we won the Intermediate title. I was also Derry U20 manager, so I have always been involved as either as a manager or a coach with teams.

Obviously when Paddy Carr and Aidan rang me, it was too good of an offer and a challenge not to accept - working at that high level amongst players at the pinnacle, at the top level of GAA. I learned a lot.

People said to me that is bound to be a hard or bad experience, but for me there is no such thing as a bad experience in sport. You learn a lot from every experience you put yourself in.

I definitely learned a lot from the experience of being involved with Donegal this year. I know that will stand to me in the future.

Q: Football has always been a central part of your life? Your Dad, Liam, must have been a significant influence?

PB: Eoin and myself - we played for Glenullin. We actually grew up in a town Kilrea, seven or eight miles across the road.

Daddy, being a Glenullin player, a Glenullin man, he won a Championship with them, we were always just going to play with Glenullin. So our upbringing consisted of four or five nights a week heading over in the car from Kilrea to Glenullin, back with Daddy to training, whether it was his training or our underage training.

Daddy was obviously a huge influence on our career. In terms of managing teams, he would have coached most of the teams I'd have played on underage. In 2007 the club won the Senior Championship, our fourth one, he was manager and I was captain. So that just shows the influence he had. I've always had a keen interest in coaching from then, probably a lot of what he did rubs off on me.

I'm back managing the club now that I'm finished with Donegal. It is important for the club side of things, we sort of fell away since 2007.

We probably should have won a few more Senior Championships, but we fell away to Intermediate a few years back. Luckily enough we got the show back on the road last year winning the Intermediate title. It is important, we have plenty of good young boys coming through, we are doing work at underage level so it was important to get us back into Senior Football.

Q: It is a highly competitive environment with a number of clubs, who have represented the county well on the Ulster and national stages?

PB: Derry football is always very, very competitive. You look at the records throughout Ulster and All-Ireland campaigns at Senior level. You had Slaughtneil dominating the Derry club scene, they won Ulster titles and were unlucky in All-Ireland Finals.

Glen went the whole way to an All-Ireland Final, they are sort of the new powerhouse that have come around. At Intermediate level last year in Glenullin, we'd be a bit disappointed with our performance in Ulster. We sort of took our eye off the ball a bit, we maybe celebrated a bit too much. We lost out heavily to Galbally in the Ulster Quarter-Final.

Galbally themselves went on to an All-Ireland Final and for an Intermediate level were a very, very strong side. It is very, very competitive at Senior, Intermediate, and Junior in Derry.

They are always competitive. There is a new structure this year, you have two groups of seven with six group games to play, followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals. You have nine games to win to try to get a Senior or Intermediate title. It is going to be a tough schedule.

From my own personal point of view after a long season with Donegal, to get a few weeks off to refresh, I was looking forward to getting back involved with the club again.

Q: You've operated as a coach and a manager, what aspects interest you more?

PB: I know people think that they are different roles, but sometimes they can be the same. Back to my first role with Newbridge, I sort of did all of the coaching and managing myself. With Loup, Kevin Brady was involved with them. Kevin played corner forward for Antrim.

I'd have done more of the managing, he'd have done more of the coaching. Obviously with Donegal Aidan and myself would have shared a lot of the coaching. Aidan did the bulk of the management part of things. You do what is required of you in any set-up.

You are always trying to learn off people you are involved with. I'm very lucky that in the short time I have been involved with teams I've worked with the likes of Kevin Brady - a very good coach, I'm delighted to have worked with him and learned from him. Aidan is a fantastic coach and manager - I really enjoyed my time with him last year.

Martin Boyle is another man, who is now involved with the Derry seniors. He was the Derry All-Ireland winning minor manager from three years ago. Himself and myself were involved with different school teams. You try to learn bits and pieces from people that managed you - the likes of the Mickey Morans and the Eamonn Colemans of this world. That is what it is all about. Trying to piece all of them things together, getting experience from the experiences you had yourself.

Q: A lot is made about the modern game and styles of play, but were the likes of Eamonn Coleman and Mickey Moran ahead of their time? Looking back, which is maybe something you do more so now you aren't playing, you surely picked up plenty of nuggets.

PB: Yeah, the game has changed. Probably over lockdown - and I'd never be one for watching a lot of the games back that I played in - but I did start to go through some old tapes and DVDs. The game has changed massively. Back when I got involved with Derry in the early 2000s, it was still very much catch and kick, get it in long.

It is only around then around the early 2000s that sweepers started to be the trend. We went from having one sweeper or two sweepers to having 15 men parked inside our own 45. The game has changed, it is evolving the whole time. I'm not sure what the likes of Eamonn Coleman, God rest him, what would have thought of it, the way football has gone at times.

Mickey Moran, obviously has had to adapt and change, he has done fantastic work helping Kilcoo to win an All-Ireland Club title playing a style of football. That is what the best coaches and managers do, they adapt and change to whatever style of football is being played.

Q: Managing Glenullin is it different managing your own? Is there more on the line?

PB: It is funny, David Moran and myself were chatting about this. I'm managing the club side a number of years before I had planned to. Believe or not last year we won the Intermediate Championship, my best friend and next door neighbour was captain of the side. My brother Eoin is playing, my cousins, Traglach Bradley and Gerard O'Kane, these boys are playing. It is very hard to manage boys you've played with and grew up with.

I'd always said I'd never manage my own club until such time as them boys had all moved on. With the club things had been slipping in the last number of years. We actually nearly found ourselves in Junior football two years ago. It wasn't a very attractive job for anybody to do.

I said I was taking a year out of football last year, but I was nearly forced into it, if you know what I mean. I was doing nothing, nobody would take it, so I had to do it. I must say the way the boys responded last year and the way people got behind the team, the community. It gave the community a serious lift. The one rewarding thing I got out of last year - I have four lads - a 13 year old, an 11 year old, a nine year old, and a five year old. Barring bits of pieces on YouTube, they wouldn't have seen me playing for Derry or known me to have been a Derry player or even a Glenullin player, really. For them to be along with me, on that Championship run with the club last year, it gave them a serious lift.

They were around the changing rooms after the Quarter-Final, Semi-Final, and Final. They were at the club at the training sessions, seeing the buzz, seeing the flags. That will stand to them in terms of pushing things on for the future.

Q: Do your boys enjoy playing for Glenullin?

PB: They are all heavily involved, even the five year old is out with the U7s already. It is a full-time job nearly. You go from being involved with Donegal, to being back with the club seniors.

A lot of credit needs to go to Ciara, my wife, because like most fathers I'd have done most of the running with the lads up to this year, but it wasn't possible to do that being involved with Donegal and being in Convoy four or five times a week.

So she has done the bulk of the running in the early part of the year. All credit must go to her, but being around home a bit more helps. It is a full-time job running around after the youngsters, but it is a good healthy dynamic for them.