How the Crows’ punt on former star cricketer Alex Keath has paid big dividends
It was the five-month punt, which had been years in the making, and Alex Keath’s form as an intercept marking defender might just have saved the Crows’ AFL season.
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It was the five-month punt, which had been years in the making, that might have saved the Crows’ season.
As former first-class cricketer and Under-19 World Cup winner Alex Keath enters the All-Australian discussion after playing just 18 AFL games, Adelaide has revealed just how it won the football versus cricket tug of war and pulled off one of the league’s great recruiting coups.
Seemingly lost to football when he turned his back on Gold Coast as a 17-year-old pre-draft access selection and signed a three-year contract with Cricket Victoria in 2010, Keath remained on the Crows radar after being ranked highly as a junior by their recruiting mastermind Hamish Ogilvie.
And when Shepparton-born Keath, who played seven first-class, 16 List A and five Twenty20 matches for Victoria and the Melbourne Stars from 2010-11 to 2014-15, lost his Cricket Victoria contract four years ago, Adelaide pounced.
With the towering 197cm Keath — an all-rounder who was an elegant top-order batsman — still intent on pursuing his cricket dream and heading to England to play in the Birmingham League Premier Division, the Crows flew then senior coach Phil Walsh, in his first season at the helm, to meet him in Melbourne before he fled the country.
“We floated the idea about him possibly returning to football again,’’ Adelaide list management and strategy general manager Justin Reid told The Advertiser.
“Alex still had a passion for playing cricket at the highest level and we respected that but we had obviously, through Hamish, followed his football closely and knew his background and what a talented footballer he was.
“There had been talk of some interest in Alex from the SACA (SA Cricket Association) and that he might move to South Australia, so we asked whether he would consider signing with us as a Category B rookie.
“He said he would give that some consideration while he was overseas.’’
Reid said Walsh’s first impression of Keath was that he was tall but “very skinny’’.
While Keath, who played alongside future Test men Mitch Marsh, Josh Hazlewood and Nic Maddinson and limited-overs specialist Kane Richardson in Australia’s 2010 Under-19 World Cup win, was lighting up English cricket with the bat for Knowle and Dorridge — he made 246 from 165 balls in one match — the football flame had been reignited.
Reid understands Keath took a Sherrin football with him to England and while he was away his then manager, Neil McMullin, was in discussions with SACA about the possibility of joining the Redbacks.
There was no contract offer but he was given the chance to join the Emerging Redbacks squad and told that a good season of premier cricket — he eventually joined Prospect — could lead to a deal.
It was enough for Keath to make the move to Adelaide.
He hit the ground running, dominating the local competition with the bat.
BUT a meeting with the Crows changed his direction.
With a new coach on board, Don Pyke, following Walsh’s tragic death, Adelaide told the then 23-year-old Keath it was throwing him a “curveball’’.
“We said that we wanted to take him as a Category B rookie and that we would pay him to train part-time with us for five months on the proviso that once those five months were up he had to make a decision — football or cricket — on his future,’’ Reid said.
“It was a five-month financial investment — a clause in his contract — where we could find out a little bit more about each other before deciding what direction we wanted to go in.
“He would also know, by that March, whether there would be a contract offer from the Redbacks.
“In essence, he was temporarily being offered the best of both worlds.’’
To be eligible to be selected as a Category B rookie, a player must not have been registered with a football club for more than three years, while they are paid outside of the salary cap until they have played a senior game.
At the same time, the Crows had signed, under the same rule, another top-notch dual sportsman, basketballer Hugh Greenwood, from NBL club Perth Wildcats.
Keath accepted the Crows’ speculative offer, combining cricket and football training and adding some muscle to his light frame in the gym.
“We were mindful of not burning him out and worked closely with the Redbacks, through our then fitness coach Brett Burton, in regards to his training loads but he really bought into our conditioning, dietary and weights programs,’’ Reid said.
“He was in a unique situation — probably one not seen since (Port Adelaide Magpies and Carlton great) Craig Bradley was torn between cricket and football — but we were confident he could handle it the right way because of his maturity and character.’’
Keath continued to make runs for Prospect and in December — two months after he started training with the Crows — he became the first athlete to be contracted to both an AFL and BBL team when he signed with the Adelaide Strikers.
He then earned a Futures League call up, making 82 and an unbeaten 105 against Western Australia before failing in his next Second XI match against his former team Victoria, being dismissed for 12 and 5.
The Redbacks, who made the Sheffield Shield final that season before falling to the Vics, strongly considered him for a contract but didn’t pull the trigger.
“He was close, right around the mark,’’ SACA talent manager Shaun Williams said.
“If anything, it was more about timing than anything else. Keathy is a ripping bloke, had some good innings in SA and made a great impression on everyone in our system with the way he went about things.
“He was probably only a year away from solidifying a potential spot on our list but he had to make a decision on his future sooner rather than later, which we understood with the timeline the Crows had set.
“He was in the fortunate position of having another sport to go to and we understood that.
“It was all very amicable and we are just rapt that his football is going so well.’’
Cricket Victoria talent manager and chairman of selectors Andrew Lynch — father of Crows forward Tom Lynch — said Keath could earlier consider himself unfortunate to have been cut from the Bushrangers’ squad.
“He bowled a little bit of medium pace but he was a batsman of real talent,’’ Lynch said.
“He showed a lot of potential, played for our State in all forms of the game and could hit the ball powerfully.
“But we had a very strong side at the time and he could never quite nail it to become a regular member of the team.
“If we had not been so successful and had so many good players he might have got more of an opportunity, which might have allowed him to perform more consistently and become a regular fixture.’’
WITH no cricket deal forthcoming from the Redbacks, Keath walked into Pyke’s office and told him he wanted to be a Crow.
Six years after he had chosen cricket over football, he turned full circle and decided to again chase the Sherrin.
Keath joined Adelaide’s program full-time, being brought along slowly in the SANFL in 2016 but immediately showing the traits that had made him such a coveted key position prospect as a junior and vice-captain at Melbourne Grammar.
There was the class, strong hands and elite reading of the play.
But injury struck as his body struggled to cope with the pounding it copped each week.
“He was unlucky with injuries so it took him two-to-three years to get his body in a position to be able to play week-in, week-out at AFL level,’’ Reid said.
When Keath, who was made captain of the Crows' State League team in 2017, finally made his AFL debut, at age 25, in round 18 of that year it was on the big stage of Friday night football in the top-of-the-table clash against Geelong at Adelaide Oval.
“You can’t get the smile off his face at the moment,’’ Pyke said in announcing Keath was to debut.
He was summoned into the team because of injuries to fellow key defenders Jake Lever and Kyle Hartigan, performed well and played the final six home-and-away games of the season before being left out of the Crows' finals side.
Keath was elevated to Adelaide’s senior list at the end of the year and played another six matches at the end of 2018 after an injury-riddled start to the campaign.
This year, at age 27, he has been a revelation, playing all six games and showing why the Crows tracked him for so long and worked so hard to lure him back to football.
With last year's AFL Rising Star runner-up Tom Doedee lost for the season in round one following a knee reconstruction — which came 18 months after fellow intercepting key defender Lever walked out on the Crows to join Melbourne — Keath has played a key role in keeping 3-3 Adelaide’s finals hopes alive.
With the club battling injuries to key players and poor form, Keath has been a shining light.
He took a game-high 14 marks in last Saturday’s crucial win against St Kilda and leads the AFL for total intercept marks (24) and ranks third in intercept possessions (53).
Champion Data has him ranked as elite for a key defender for average disposals (18.8), marks (8.2), intercept marks (4) and intercept possessions (8.8).
Crows captain Taylor Walker and key defensive teammate Daniel Talia both say Keath would warrant All-Australian selection if the team was named now.
“He’ll hate this because he hates praise but he’s in mine (All-Australian team),’’ Walker said.
“He’s very, very humble. I love him.’’
Talia described Keath as a “star’’, saying he had “filled that role that Lever and Doedee have left and he’s doing it really well at the moment’’.
“We love what he is doing,’’ Talia said.
“We call him the Grandpa back there, he’s an old soul Keathy.
“People forget how good he was as a junior, he would’ve been a first-round pick, he was in my age group back in ’09. (He) chose cricket and we’re lucky to get him back.
“He’s been fantastic, I’ve done a lot of work with him. He was injured last year, but he’s really started to come on this year in the pre-season, his intercept marking and steady use of the ball. He’s a star.’’
Reid said he had not been surprised by Keath's rise to prominence this year.
“He’s always had the talent, that’s why we chased him so hard,’’ Reid said.
“But he had his cricket and then he just didn’t get a run at his football because of injury in his first few years with us.
“For where he is now, it’s a great story.’’
ALEX THE GREAT
Alex Keath is ranked elite or above average for a key defender in five key categories while also ranking first in the AFL for total intercept marks (24) and third for total intercept possessions (53)
Key defender ratings 2019
Ave Rating AFL Rank
Disposals 18.8 Elite 4
Metres Gained 264 Above Ave 11
Marks 8.2 Elite 4
Intercept Marks 4.0 Elite 2
Intercept Poss 8.8 Elite 2
THE KEATH FILE
Age: 27
Height: 197cm
Weight: 93kg
AFL career: 18 games for Adelaide from 2017-19
Cricket career: 7 first-class, 16 List A and 5 T20 matches for Victoria and the Melbourne Stars from 2010-15
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