Graham Rickard Cummins (born 29 December 1987) is a retired Irish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

Playing career

Early career

Cummins played the majority of his schoolboy football with Tramore Athletic and also had a spell with

College Corinthians College Corinthians A.F.C. is an Irish association football club based in Douglas, County Cork. Their senior men's team play in the Munster Senior League Senior Premier Division. They also regularly compete in the FAI Cup, the FAI Intermediate ...

Cobh Ramblers

Cummins joined

Cobh Ramblers Cobh Ramblers Football Club (CRFC) ( ga, Cumann Peile Chóstóirí Chóbh) is an Irish football club. The club, founded in 1922 and elected to the League of Ireland in 1985, hails from Cobh, County Cork and play their home matches at St. Colm ...

in 2006 and achieved promotion with them in his second season under Stephen Henderson. He scored 11 league goals as Cobh won the First Division, and he was named in the PFAI First Division Team of the Year. He continued to play for Cobh in the Premier Division in 2008, but they were relegated that year.

Waterford United

After Cobh were relegated from the league the following season, Cummins moved onto

Waterford United Waterford Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Phort Láirge) formerly Waterford United Football Club is an Irish association football club based in Waterford who play in the League of Ireland First Division. The club was founded and elected to the ...

, where he again linked up with Stephen Henderson, former Cobh Ramblers manager. He won the Munster Senior Cup with Waterford that year. Graham enjoyed great personal success in his first and only season with the club, he became one of the club's top scorers, scoring 17 league goals, and he was named in the PFAI First Division Team of the Year for the second time in his career.

Cork City

In March 2010 Cummins signed for his local club

Cork City Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city's ...

. Graham was called up to the Ireland U23 squad versus Estonia in September 2010. He played the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 away win. In October 2010 Graham was named in the PFAI First Division Team of the Year and won the PFAI First Division Player of the Year award. He finished the season as City's top scorer, and joint top scorer in the First Division with 18 league goals. Graham scored his first hat-trick for City in a 5–0 league win over

Finn Harps Finn Harps Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Chláirsigh na Finne) are an Irish football club that play in the First Division of the League of Ireland, as of 2023. The club was founded in 1954 and elected to the league in 1969. However, it was te ...

on 15 April 2011. He scored the winner against St.Pats in the quarter final of the Ea sports cup.

Record Breaker

On 4 October 2011, in a game against Monaghan, Cummins scored his 21st goal of the season, becoming the first ever Cork City player to score more than 20 league goals in a season. The previous record was held by Pat Morley (who is a first cousin of Grahams mother, Susan Morley and son of the late Jack Morley ex West Ham), who had on two occasions scored 20 league goals in a season. He went on to score 24 goals that season including the goal that clinched the First Division title for Cork City away to rivals Shelbourne in the 94th minute of the final game of the season at Tolka Park

Preston North End

On 30 January 2012, Cork City announced that they had accepted a transfer bid for Cummins from Preston North End. On 2 September 2013, Cummins signed for

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

on loan until January 2014.

Exeter City

On 15 August 2014, Cummins signed a one-year contract with

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

on a free transfer following his release from Preston North End. Cummins made his debut in the 3–0 defeat at

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of Football League One club Plymouth Argyle since 1901.2014–15 season

St Johnstone

On 25 May 2015, Cummins signed a one-year contract with St Johnstone of the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

, and began his Saints career by scoring off the bench on his debut against Hearts at Tynecastle in a 4–3 defeat. Cummins made 92 appearances for St Johnstone, scoring 15 goals. His last goal for the club was in a win against Rangers at Ibrox.

Return to Ireland

Cummins signed for City on a two-year deal on 30 December 2017. He scored for City in a 4-2 win on his first competitive start against

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

in the 2018

President's Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...

Oriel Park Oriel Park is a UEFA Category 2 football stadium located on the Carrickmacross Road in Dundalk, Ireland. The stadium is the home ground of Dundalk Football Club and is owned and operated by the club on land that has been leased from the Casey F ...

. On his first start in the league against St. Pat's on the opening night of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

, Cummins scored City's second goal of the night but was later sent off in a 3-2 away victory. On his return from suspension, Cummins scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

as City beat Sligo Rovers 4-1 away from home. Cummins joined Waterford F.C. ahead of the 2020 season where he featured as a

centre half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

before

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halted the season for nearly five months. Before the season's resumption, he joined

for a third time. He was an unused substitute in two league games and received a red card in a FAI Cup game against

Longford Town Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...

. In September, he announced his retirement to pursue a career in journalism.

Career statistics

Honours

Club

Cobh Ramblers *

League of Ireland First Division The League of Ireland First Division ( ga, Céad Roinn Sraith na hÉireann), also known as the SSE Airtricity League First Division, is the second level division in both the League of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland football league system. Th ...

(1): 2007 Waterford United * Munster Senior Cup (1): 2008–09 Cork City *

(1): 2011 *

(1):

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

Individual

*PFAI First Division Player of the Year (2): 2011, 2010 *PFAI First Division Team of the Year (4): 2011, 2010, 2009, 2007

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cummins, Graham 1987 births Living people Republic of Ireland association footballers Cobh Ramblers F.C. players Waterford F.C. players League of Ireland players Cork City F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players English Football League players Republic of Ireland under-23 international footballers Republic of Ireland expatriate association footballers Expatriate footballers in England College Corinthians A.F.C. players St Johnstone F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players Tramore Athletic F.C. players Association football forwards