Adelaide Crows midfielder Brad Crouch doesn’t deserve to be in the top paid cluster of AFL players: Cornes
The Adelaide Crows must be prepared to walk away and risk losing Brad Crouch if the midfielder attempts to hold the club to ransom, writes Kane Cornes.
Kane Cornes
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Any master negotiator will tell you that to win, you need to care, but not too much and you have to be prepared to walk away from the deal.
Last week, The Advertiser revealed Adelaide best and fairest winner Brad Crouch had reopened contract negotiations with the club after putting them on hold over the Christmas period.
Adelaide list manager Justin Reid and his committee must be prepared to walk away and risk losing Crouch to another club at seasons end.
They cannot be held to ransom by Crouch and his manager Garry Winter.
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The 26-year-old becomes a restricted free agent in October and is looking to secure a long-term, multi-million dollar contact.
He tested the market while still under contract in last year’s AFL trade period with some interested clubs, including Gold Coast, surprised by the hefty value Crouch had placed on his signature.
“It’s certainly a healthy view of his financial position,” Suns list manager Craig Cameron told Telstra AFL Trade Radio of what Crouch’s management put forward.
Crouch sees himself as one of the elite midfielders in the competition and wants to be paid accordingly.
The likes of Nat Fyfe, Marcus Bontempelli, Dustin Martin, Patrick Dangerfield and Patrick Cripps rightly command one million dollars per season.
Nine AFL players earnt one million dollars or more in 2019.
Crouch doesn’t belong in this bracket.
The sub-elite midfielders in the game such as Brownlow medallist Tom Mitchell, Josh Kelly, Stephen Coniglio and Scott Pendlebury are earning between eight to nine hundred thousand dollars per season.
Seven players earnt between 900 thousand and a million dollars last year.
Crouch doesn’t belong in this group either.
Champion Data, the official statistical provider for the AFL, rate Crouch in the average category when judged against his midfield peers.
Why would the Crows give an average midfielder an elite contract?
Furthermore, when AFL premiership coach Damien Hardwick selected his Victorian team for the AFL Bushfire relief game against the All Stars on Friday, Crouch wasn’t included in the squad of 27.
There were 11 midfielders selected.
That would have rattled Crouch and is another hint for his eager manager of where his client’s true real value lies.
On playing ability alone, Crouch doesn’t deserve to be paid in the top cluster of AFL players, and that’s before you factor in his shoddy injury history.
He has managed only 83 games in eight seasons and didn’t play a game in 2018 after dealing with a chronic groin injury.
He returned strongly last year playing all 22 games and winning the club best and fairest.
He has reportedly had an outstanding pre-season and performed well against Melbourne on Saturday in the club’s first hitout.
However, Adelaide needs more evidence that his body can cope with the rigours of AFL football than just one season.
Also working against Crouch is Adelaide’s poor long-term contract decisions in the past.
Josh Jenkins was handed a five-year deal in 2016, and former Carlton midfielder Bryce Gibbs was enticed to Adelaide with a four-year commitment while Eddie Betts signed for three seasons in 2017 when he was 30 years old.
Both Jenkins and Betts were traded before those contracts expired with Adelaide having to pay part of their wages to Geelong and Carlton respectively.
At the same time, Gibbs fell out of favour last season and was dropped from the senior side on multiple occasions.
Crouch is a nice cog in Adelaide’s midfield, and the Crows would certainly rather keep him than let him go, but he doesn’t have the leverage to command one of the richest deals in Adelaide Football Club history.
Reid needs to act like he cares, but not too much. And if Crouch’s demands are too great, he needs to walk away.
Or Crouch could reassess his worth or risk playing elsewhere in 2021.