Alastair Lynch: How All-Australian fancy and star Alex Keath eluded Gold Coast and took long road to AFL
Alex Keath was once at ground zero in the battle between cricket and football. He returns to Queensland this weekend as a star AFL defender with Adelaide, a remote possibility when he turned down Gold Coast to pursue cricket.
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In 2010, Alex Keath was ground zero in the battle between cricket and football for the nation’s best under-age talent.
He was one of twelve 17-year-olds available to the Gold Coast as part of their special list build rules.
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Cricket won the day, but while Keath was lost to the Suns, he wasn’t to be gone for ever from the AFL.
Last weekend he won the Showdown Medal as the best player in the derby between Adelaide and Port Adelaide and on Saturday looms as a key for the Crows in their clash with the Lions at the Gabba.
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With just 20 games under his belt he is already being spoken about as a potential All Australian.
He was still pondering which way he would go as he was starring for the World Cup winning Australian under-19 side in New Zealand.
He signed a $50,000 contract with the Suns ahead of their VFL year but never played a game.
There is no doubt the batting all-rounder and key position footballer was getting plenty of pressure from both sides.
Incredibly, just a year later the current Australian ODI keeper Alex Carey was in a similar position, deciding between a rookie contract with the South Australian Shield squad or a start with GWS in its first year of existence.
Cricket Australia, sick of losing out on bidding wars to cashed-up football clubs, ramped up the pressure.
They selected Keath in the Prime Minister’s XI to play the West Indies in Canberra. It was no surprise that Australian selector and former first class Cricketer Jamie Cox was the man in his ear. Cox had been in the same situation 13 years prior as the Australian under-19 captain when he was drafted at pick 19 by Essendon. Cox never joined Essendon and instead elected to start a first class career that extend 20 years across Australia and the UK.
Cricket made the early breakthrough when Keath performed well against the Windies. He took four wickets but most attention was drawn to a rampaging Chris Gayle (146).
It encouraged Keath to sign a long-term deal with Victoria and pursue his dream of playing Test Cricket for Australia.
Carey went the other way and joined GWS for the TAC under-18 season in 2010 as the start-up club’s first captain and ultimately its first Best and Fairest winner.
For both athletes, their first choice didn’t pan out as planned. Carey was cut by GWS coach Kevin Sheedy after two years.
Keath went on to play seven first-class matches in six years and five games in the BBL.
It was while he was playing grade cricket in Adelaide and on the Adelaide Strikers list that Crows footy manager David Noble, now the head of footy at the Lions, and his recruiting team decided to lure him back to the AFL.
Noble signed him as rookie with some looser requirements than other players so he could complete the 2015-16 cricket season.
At one stage, the Crows told Keath to ease up on his footy.
The BBL was still running, but he would never play a game for Jason Gillespie’s outfit after a shoulder injury in the lead-up to his proposed debut for the franchise.
At the end of that season he returned full time to football and now looks like being the best player of those 17-year-olds who were among the first Gold Coast signings.
It’s just a pity it won’t be for Suns.
Gold Coast’s initial 17-year-old selections.
(Born January-April 1992)
Trent McKenzie
Matt Shaw
Brandon Matera
Luke Russell
Tom Nicholls
Maverick Weller
Josh Toy
Alex Keath
Jack Hutchins
Taylor Hine
Hayden Jolly
Piers Flanagan
Originally published as Alastair Lynch: How All-Australian fancy and star Alex Keath eluded Gold Coast and took long road to AFL
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