The AFL steps in as sanctions are handed to Crows Brad Crouch and Tyson Stengle after drug bust
Adelaide pair Brad Crouch and Tyson Stengle have been hit with sanctions after September’s drug bust. But there’s been a late twist with the AFL stepping in to ensure punishment.
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The AFL has stepped in to ensure Adelaide’s Brad Crouch does not escape punishment for being caught with drugs if he joins a rival club by hitting him with a two-game ban and teammate Tyson Stengle with four.
The Crows were initially set to hand down their own sanctions to the pair after they were pulled over by police in a taxi in the city after 5am on September 28 and found with an illicit substance.
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But the process took a turn late in the week when it emerged any club-imposed sanction on Crouch, who is a free agent and expected to leave the Crows, would not follow him to his new club.
The AFL then found both he and Stengle - who signed a two-year contract extension with Adelaide this season - guilty of conduct unbecoming and hit them with their respective bans.
Stengle’s ban was double the length of Crouch’s because he had breached the AFL’s ‘Return to Play’ protocols which were in place since April when he was charged with drink driving and suspended for four games as well as being fined $2500.
“Whilst the present matter is of a different nature, the AFL took account of a relatively recent incident of serious misconduct on his behalf in considering the applicable sanction in this matter,” the league said in a statement.
The club will not impose extra sanctions on the players, claiming “it does not have grounds to determine, nor enforce, its own penally”.
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Adelaide pair Brad Crouch and Tyson Stengle will be handed an AFL illicit drugs strike and accept fines and suspensions after they were busted with cocaine.
But the Crows are aware Crouch might never serve his internal suspension given he is likely to move as a free agent to a club expected to be Geelong.
Adelaide was hopeful of releasing the penalties for the pair on Thursday, having had to try and work through the punishments with the AFL and player union.
But this has been delayed.
It is expected to be guided by precedent that saw two AFL players suspended for a fortnight after they used illicit drugs and were caught.
Under that precedent the players could be fined as much as $25,000 and be handed multi-week suspensions.
When St Kilda’s Jake Carlisle was caught snorting an illicit substance in 2015 he accepted a two-week suspension and forfeited a $50,000 marketing component of his deal.
Shane Mumford was fined $25,000 and suspended by the club for two weeks after he was caught snorting cocaine.
Crouch and Stengle’s penalties are complicated by the circumstances, with free agent Crouch likely exiting the club and Stengle having this year served a four-week club ban for drink-driving.
Adelaide must show how disappointed it is with last year’s best-and-fairest winner Crouch so while it is aware he might never serve that suspension it must incorporate a games-based ban in its overall penalty.
If he moved to Geelong the penalty would not be transported to the Cats given it is an internal suspension.
The Crows will make clear Stengle is on his last chance at the club and under AFL rules is not allowed to sack him, with the young goalsneak also having just signed a two-season deal.
Adelaide’s wish to hand him a suspension longer than the four-week ban given he has not changed his behaviour has to be negotiated with the AFLPA.
Ideally it would suspend him for between 6-10 weeks given the severity of his transgressions but the AFLPA might not allow a penalty of that length.
Both are expected to accept illicit drugs strikes, which under AFL rules see players handed a $5000 suspended fine and mandatory counselling and education programs.
A second drug strike sees a player paying that $5000 fine and suspended for four weeks.
Geelong will continue its due diligence on Crouch given the player group’s strong support for him.
But the Cats would need board approval to secure him on a deal that would be longer than three seasons.
He has made clear he does not want to play for a club in a big city like Melbourne despite some interest from Richmond, so Geelong maintains strong favouritism.
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Adelaide is poised to hand down sanctions to Tyson Stengle and Brad Crouch for being caught with drugs by the end of the week but any club-imposed ban will not travel with Crouch to his new home if he leaves West Lakes as a free agent.
The Advertiser understands the only way a ban would follow Crouch to his new home is if the AFL imposes its own sanction on the star midfielder which is unlikely to happen.
But it will not stop the Crows from handing down a significant penalty to the pair who were pulled over by police while in a taxi in the city at 5am last Monday and allegedly found to be in possession of an illicit substance.
They were not charged and are yet to receive official notification of whether they will be hit with a strike under the AFL’s illicit drugs policy.
A decision on how many games Crouch and Stengle will be banned for next season and how much they will be fined has been discussed by the Crows and their leadership group, the AFL, AFL Players’ Association and their management.
The penalty is expected to be significantly more than the four games and $2500 that Adelaide handed to Stengle when he was caught drink driving in April.
While Stengle signed a two-year contract extension in August, Crouch appears increasingly likely to leave Adelaide to join a Victorian rival but the Crows can match the offer if they want him to stay.
The Advertiser has been told a club-based sanction does not apply if a player changes clubs so Crouch would be free to play in Round 1 next year if he joins a rival.
Brodie Smith, who is in Adelaide’s leadership group, told The Lowdown Podcast he learnt of the incident by Crows football manager Adam Kelly last week and his concern now was making sure Crouch and Stengle were being supported.
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“I got a phone call the next day from Adam Kelly to let me know what had happened and as leaders we had to find a time to get together and discuss it and get through the detail and work out what the next move was going to be,” Smith said.
“That happened last week and I believe the club is getting close to announcing some sort of sanction but for us it was more our opinion on what happened and what the sanctions could possibly look like as leaders.
“Obviously there is a big investigation, the AFL get involved, the AFLPA and their managers as well so there is a big process to go through and with us not playing games at the moment it’s not something we need to rush … there is no sanction that’s going to affect the next few weeks.
“So they (the club) will decide what it’s going to look like before the break.
“We just give our opinion, small input, it’s not our job to be giving sanctions, it’s more for us to be finding out what happened and helping the guys involved, obviously both of them are shattered, devastated about what happened.
“So it’s more about getting around them, we are still their teammates and we want to look after them and have to help them through this situation.
“No doubt there is going to be a sanction but as players it’s about helping our mates and getting them through whatever is going on.
“I know they’re in good hands and I’ve touched base with both of them to make sure they are doing OK, it wasn’t trying to find out what happened to getting stuck into them, it’s more about trying to help them through this.”
There was however better news for Adelaide on Monday with GWS midfielder Jackson Hately requesting a trade back to South Australia to join the Crows next season.
Smith worked with Hately in the state under-18 program the year he was drafted and said he was excited by the young midfielder’s decision.
“It’s exciting, he’s a great lad and that big-bodied midfielder that we are after at the moment so he should slot in nicely,” Smith said.
“I’ve kept a bit of an eye on him the last couple of years as I do with all the guys I worked with that year so hopefully we can work through something with the Giants quickly and get him over as soon as possible.”
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