Adelaide Crows midfielder Brad Crouch is pain free — and stronger than ever in a reassuring comeback

Midfielder Brad Crouch has put together three strong performances after missing all of 2018 with groin surgery. His comeback is a shining light in Adelaide’s rocky start to 2019.

Brad Crouch’s comeback — after having all of Season 2018 wiped out by groin surgery — began on March 23 against Hawthorn ... and three games in, the midfielder has delivered his third-best numbers with 35 disposals against Geelong at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night. Picture: Daniel Kalisz (Getty Images)

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Brad Crouch is humming. After a year out of all football — a curse that would derail many AFL careers — the Crows midfielder has in three weeks made a comeback that has quickly turned from hope to strength.

And the 25-year-old Victorian appears to have — finally — scored a much-deserved change in luck.

Crouch’s game-high 35 disposals against Geelong at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night mark his third-best numbers in 64 AFL games during his seven stop-start years in the big league.

A flawless pre-season — in his comeback from the groin pain that required surgery that wiped out Season 2018 — has in Crouch’s words “given me a lot of confidence to hopefully have a big season”.

Crows players celebrate a goal by Brad Crouch during his comeback match against Hawthorn after a year on the sidelines. Picture: AAP Image/David Mariuz

The numbers point to such — 28 touches in the season-opener against Hawthorn, 26 in a team-best run against Sydney at the SCG and the 35 against the Cats. It seems Crouch has never stepped away from the game.

“You should have seen me in February when I got back to match play (in pre-season training),” Crouch said to dismiss he simply picked up from where he left the game in the 2017 AFL grand final loss to Richmond at the MCG.

“I was pretty rusty. I was nowhere near it. Touch was a bit off. Running was obviously off. But we do so much of that (match training) you get used to it pretty quick.

“And I wanted to play as much as I could before the (premiership) season started. I had four games under my belt before we played Hawthorn. This was the busiest pre-season I’ve ever had — one that let me have a real crack at it.

“And it gave me the confidence to go into games without worry about my condition. I go into games focused on what I am doing around the ball; what I am doing with my running patterns.

“I’m not thinking, ‘I have to get through this game ... and recover for the next one’. My pre-season has made a huge, huge difference. My whole body feels amazing. Hopefully, it stays that way.”

Crouch’s comeback began in August when the ball-winning midfielder started jogging.

“I started very slow,” he recalls. “It was a long process after the surgery, a four, five-month lay-off. I built myself up with a stack load of weights, all to strengthen the groin — and that should hold me in good stead.

“Since the surgery, it has been very smooth sailing. It was a massive operation — and it left me sore for a couple of weeks. But that pain was way less than what I had before the surgery.

“That kept me in good spirits, knowing the pain was gone. It was like magic.”

Physically, Crouch is sound. More importantly, after so many setbacks by injury created doubt, Crouch is mentally sure of himself.

“In myself, I feel really good,” Crouch said.

Considering Crouch has played just 64 of a possible 141 since joining Adelaide at the end of 2011, the mental demons could have been just as damaging as every soft-tissue injury that kept him in the medical rooms at West Lakes.

“Missing the (2018) season, after all the different injuries, was groundhog day,” Crouch said. “There were times when I got very down, very upset, very frustrated ... like everyone would when you go through something like that.”

And the doubts did make Crouch question if he was to survive in a game that quickly loses patience with players suffering repetitive injuries.

“Definitely,” Crouch said. “There were definitely times when the pain was chronic. It reaches the point where you think the pain is never going to go away. That’s what I was thinking.

“I thought, ‘I’m stuck with this for the rest of my life’.

“No matter what I did, how much I rested, I could not get out of bed. The (groin) injury was shocking. Touch wood, it has been good since the surgery ...”

In a crowded medical room at West Lakes last year, it was one of the new kids on the block — untried SANFL draftee Andrew McPherson — who gave Crouch perspective when he felt at his lowest.

“Andy was really good for me because it was his first season at the footy club and he was very positive about his (hamstring) injury,” Crouch recalled. “His attitude would wake me up to stop sooking. The kids are doing (the recovery); if he was doing it ...

“I was sooking, not wanting to train.

“All you want to do is play footy. But that is just three per cent of what is required. It is a big process to get to that point where you play.

“What makes it all worthwhile is the feel in a footy club — and he support from the boys, along with family and friends, gets you past everything when it definitely gets hard.

“I’ve been playing this game since I was five. I love it. Always loved it. And when you don’t play it, you miss it. So I am enjoying being back.”

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