AFL 2020: The inside story of how the Crows lost elite midfielder Hugh Greenwood
Josh Jenkins, Eddie Betts, Alex Keath, Jake Lever, Charlie Cameron, Patrick Dangerfield and Mitch McGovern all wanted to leave. But Hugh Greenwood wanted to stay. Why did the Crows give up on him?
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Don Pyke wasn’t always keen on playing him and Adelaide wasn’t interested in paying him – even though he wanted to stay at the Crows.
And now seven games into this season Hugh Greenwood has emerged as one of the leading midfielders in the competition while the Crows’ midfield is getting smashed.
If you’re an Adelaide fan and the stats don’t make you cry then the quote from Gold Coast footy boss Jon Haines this week will make you wince.
“We identified a real gap in terms of a big-bodied mid to take a bit of pressure off Dave (Swallow) and Touk (Miller) who have done a lot of the grunt work, and provide protection and leadership to our younger mids who we knew were coming in through the draft,” Haines said this week.
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If only we knew what Adelaide’s midfield needed at the moment as it looks to win games while also injecting kids into the engine room.
“Hugh has been able to do that 100 per cent in every game this year, and what we notice off the field is the huge impact he has as a leader around the group, he has genuine care for the players and staff and we love the fact that he’s here, he’s just been fantastic for us,” Haines added.
So far this season Greenwood is ranked first in the competition for tackles, having laid 19 more than any player.
He is also ranked first for pressure points, second for ground ball gets and third for contested possession behind only Adam Treloar and Lachie Neale.
Champion Data rates his game as ‘elite’ for ranking points, contested possession, ground ball gets and tackles but ‘below average’ for disposals (16.9 per game).
Maybe that’s why Mark Ricciuto suggested he “might have got more than 10 touches” if he was quicker and younger after Greenwood had 13 tackles and nine clearances against his old side in Round 3.
Last weekend Greenwood had 23 disposals (18 contested), nine clearances, 12 tackles and the maximum 10 coaches’ votes in the Suns’ win over Sydney.
The only trick in his kit bag that he hasn’t shown at Gold Coast in seven games yet is his high-leaping overhead mark that he would regularly produce when stationed forward for the Crows last year.
“Hugh’s been really important to us, he is so strong and values both sides of the ball and tackles really well,” Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew said this week.
“With Rowelly (Matt Rowell) going down he’s stepped up even more, we love Hugh at the footy club, on and off the field he adds a lot, and he looks like he’s really enjoying his footy.”
David Swallow told News Corp Greenwood was exactly what an emerging young team needed.
“How do I sum up Hughy ... I heard Dewy speak about him recently and the care he has for his teammates and the human that he is,” Swallow said.
“The first thing I noticed when we went to New Zealand on a pre-season camp I got to bond with him and he’s humble, goes about his business in the right manner and the boys love him, we’re really lucky to have him.
“I had kept an eye on him, he emerged at Adelaide, and I’d played against him a few times and knew he was a big body inside who tackled a lot ... And he could go forward and take a mark and kick goals.
“Having that big body around stoppages is someone we can hit to and he’s good at releasing the footy out to runners, and he’s leading the comp in tackles so his ability to get after the opposition when they win it is elite.
“I don’t know if he’s exceeded expectations because it’s only early days but he just seems really happy up here at the moment, I think his performances are reflecting that and he’s enjoying Dewy as a coach, and as a group we try to be pretty united and selfless and I think he enjoys that.”
So why then, is Greenwood playing at Gold Coast when he was happy at Adelaide?
Why is he at the Suns we he wanted to play out his career at Adelaide and thought he would be signing a new deal in January last year, but one was never even put in front of him?
What is particularly perplexing is that Adelaide did all the hard work to get him to this point. Recruiting boss Hamish Ogilvie knew him as a junior, went and tracked him down in America where he was playing basketball, convinced him to return to footy and signed him as a Category B rookie.
The Crows put two years of development into him and he made his AFL debut in Round 9, 2017, and played in their grand final, so the Crows knew the quality of player they had on their hands.
“It’s a tough one, we sat down in January (2019) which was really good and hoping to get something out of the way nice and early, but since then nothing on the table yet,” Greenwood said in June last year.
“I’ve made it clear that I want to stay in Adelaide and my intentions are to stay in Adelaide but at this stage there hasn’t been any sit downs since January.
“I’m not trying to make it a circus or anything, obviously when you spend time in the SANFL the first few weeks things float around and it’s a bit ‘what’s your plan?’ but we have made it clear we want to stay in Adelaide. But at the same time it’s getting to a stage where I’m 27, 28, so I’ve got to think about signing something long term and look at my career post-footy.
“Adelaide is a place we are happy, we love the footy club and ideally we finish here.”
Josh Jenkins wanted to leave Adelaide, Eddie Betts wanted to leave, Alex Keath wanted to leave, Jake Lever, Charlie Cameron, Patrick Dangerfield and Mitch McGovern – they all wanted to leave.
Greenwood wanted to stay.
At the age of 27 last year, he wanted a three-year deal to give him some security and Adelaide would not go beyond two, and so an offer was never presented to him.
Were the Crows spooked by the long-term deal they handed Bryce Gibbs when they traded him from Carlton at the age of 28 and he was in and out of the reserves?
Or would a three-year deal for a 27-year-old midfielder who had only played 51 AFL games fly in the face of a youth-driven rebuild at West Lakes?
Greenwood was overlooked by Pyke for selection in Round 1 and made to wait until Round 5 for a game in 2019.
The Crows were 1-3 when he came in, and then won their next four in a row with him in the side.
He stayed in the team for the next nine weeks but the Crows were treading water and he was axed again in Round 18.
By then rival clubs were circling. Hawthorn was reportedly in the mix but Gold Coast – where he knew former Crows assistant Tate Kaesler – was also keen.
Kaesler was working in development at Adelaide when Greenwood walked in the door and they became quite close, while Greenwood had also grown fond of working with Josh Francou who had also joined the Suns from the Crows.
By Round 17 when Greenwood realised the three-year deal he craved would not be forthcoming at the Crows, he was part of the team that beat up on Gold Coast by 95 points at Metricon Stadium.
During the game Adelaide players were into SA-raised Jack Lukosius, who was yet to recommit to the Suns, sledging him as to why he’d want to stay at a club like this.
After the game Greenwood asked Lukosius what it was really like and whether he should come up.
Kaesler and Francou are now running the midfield and stoppages at Gold Coast with a unit that includes Greenwood, Miller and Swallow as well as exciting youngsters Noah Anderson and Matt Rowell.
As an entire team, Gold Coast is ranked fifth in the competition for contested possession. Adelaide is ranked 18th.
The Suns are seventh for clearances. The Crows are 17th.
While Greenwood is ranked in the top three in tackles, contested possession and ground ball, Adelaide’s Crouch brothers are not.
Brad is ranked 28th (tackles), eighth (contested possession) and 11th (ground ball) while Matt is 62nd, 30th and 39th.
When Dew and Jon Haines both joined Gold Coast in late 2017 as coach and football manager, there was a line in the sand moment.
Together with their list manager, Craig Cameron, they made a deliberate strategy to recruit players who were high character people, not just good footballers.
They got Jack Hombsch who had a suspect hip but could still play and had won a Jim Stynes Award for his community service at Port Adelaide,
They picked up George Horlin-Smith who was in and out of Geelong’s midfield but an intellect who now helps out on the Suns’ bench when he’s not playing.
Sam Collins was delisted by Fremantle and is now in Gold Coast’s leadership group, as well as Anthony Miles and Brandon Ellis, who had been part of the successful Richmond program.
“One thing we wanted to try to initiate and get in place was really good systems around every aspect of the footy department but particularly the recruiting department and the whole team has done an enormous amount of work,” Haines said this week.
“The other thing we wanted to compliment that with was a real focus on character, and we think all the guys we’ve brought in have added to the culture we’re trying to build and taking the club forward.”
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The trade to secure Greenwood happened on October 14, when the Suns gave up a future third and fourth round draft pick to get their man.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling to be leaving this great club and its fans,” Greenwood wrote on his Instagram account as he prepared to move to the Gold Coast with his partner, who was heavily pregnant.
“But I couldn’t be more blessed at the opportunities ahead of us. It’s a young, exciting and enthusiastic group and I’m just looking forward to slotting in and playing my role.
“To be part of that, something bigger than just myself as a player and to be able to help out where I can with the development of some of the younger guys was a huge selling point for me.”
It sounds very much like the type of player Adelaide could have used to help guide Ned McHenry, Chayce Jones and Harry Schoenberg on their journey as well.
Originally published as AFL 2020: The inside story of how the Crows lost elite midfielder Hugh Greenwood