AFL trade period 2020: Adelaide opts against matching St Kilda’s free agency bid for Brad Crouch
Adelaide is committed to rebuilding its playing list and offloading Brad Crouch will aid that effort, says a former Crows assistant coach.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Former Adelaide senior assistant Scott Camporeale says the Crows were right to not match St Kilda’s offer for Brad Crouch and pay the “premium price” for the new Saints midfielder.
The 26-year-old sealed a move to the Saints on a four-year-deal, with an option for a fifth, on Wednesday after the Crows chose not to match St Kilda’s offer for Crouch.
Adelaide has been handed pick 23 in the draft for Crouch, significantly less than the second selection the Crows had hoped for and threatened to St Kilda they would match if the offer for the prolific ballwinner did not trigger that compensation.
Crows head of football Adam Kelly said St Kilda called Adelaide’s bluff on matching a bid for Crouch, and the club was not willing to give him the contract the Saints had put in front of him to remain at West Lakes.
Camporeale said it would have been difficult to reintegrate Crouch at the Crows after he made his desire to join the Saints known.
Kayo is your ticket to the best sport streaming Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
“They’d be disappointed but I think that’d be fair value (pick 23) for where it is at, at the moment,” he said on Grandstand SA.
“Having been inside and been privy to those conversations for the past nine years it is a difficult one.
“They would have looked at Brad Crouch’s situation, they would have summed up and essentially from my gut-feel is that they wouldn’t have wanted to offer any more than three-years.
“The second part is they don’t want to pay a premium for a player that we know may break down in the future, when players leave they get a premium to leave. There is no doubt about that.
“Brad is getting a premium to leave and play for St Kilda.”
Camporeale said Crouch staying would have impacted the Crows desired rebuild.
“He put his head out there (and said he wanted to leave) with the Gold Coast (last year) and now with St Kilda, I just think that is really hard from a club and a team dynamic and probably for Nicksy to rebuild and get him back in,” he said.
“Yes he would contribute to the team but they would have weighed up if Brad Crouch’s minutes are more important than Harry Schoenberg’s going forward.”
Camporeale also said Port Adelaide should not bow down to Essendon’s demands for a first-round or future first-round pick for Orazio Fantasia.
“Pick 29 to 30 I reckon is around (the mark) he has played 33 games in three years also so he is averaging 11 games in three years,” he said.
“He only played five this year and I’m not privy to how bad his hamstrings may be but that would worry me.
“Even from a Port point of view, ‘do they need him?’ You can still pinch hit (Connor) Rozee in the midfield.
“It’s a bit of a punt for Port, if they can get him fit he will definitely add to that forward line.
“But I wouldn’t part with a first-round pick or even a future first round-pick.”
MORE TRADE NEWS
AFL free agency: Brad Crouch joins St Kilda from Adelaide
Western Bulldogs meet with Adam Treloar and North Melbourne chase Jaidyn Stephenson
Crouch relief as Crows relent matching Saints deal
- Matt Turner and Simeon Thomas-Wilson
Brad Crouch says he was “willing to go the journey” to get to St Kilda but was relieved Adelaide did not extend his wait to join the Saints by matching their contract offer.
Two weeks after nominating St Kilda, Crouch officially switched clubs a minute before Wednesday’s deadline, when Adelaide chose to accept pick 23 as compensation, rather than seek a trade for something better for the restricted free agent.
Speaking on Thursday, the 26-year-old midfielder said he wanted a fresh start and had “good conversations” with former Crows teammate Patrick Dangerfield about joining Geelong but believed St Kilda’s midfield suited him better.
Crouch said although he did not think much about heading to the pre-season draft if the Crows matched the contract and could not force a trade, he had been intent on joining the Saints, even if the process “had to drag out”.
The 26-year-old midfielder tried to take his mind off the negotiations by playing golf on Wednesday and did not know about his move “until everyone did”.
“I knew the Crows weren’t happy with not getting the first-round compensation, so I knew they were going to try to do some stuff but I didn’t know what because I wasn’t privy to it,” said Crouch, who was believed to be on a four-year deal – with a trigger for a fifth – on close to $700,000 per season.
“I was definitely fully committed to the Saints so if it had to drag out, I was willing to go the journey with them.
“It’s a relief, definitely.
“It was pretty exciting when it all went down, I was on the third hole (playing golf).
“I’d parred the first two holes, then I shot a nine on the third, so my golf went downhill big time.
“It took a while to calm back down and start hitting it straight again.”
Crouch, who joined Adelaide as a 17-year-old access selection in 2012, played 95 games for the Crows, including the 2017 grand final, and won their best and fairest in 2019.
But he finished outside the top 10 in the club’s count this past season, as injuries restricted him to 12 matches for the wooden-spooner.
Crouch believed the Crows’ struggles, not being out of contract, affected his form.
“It’s well known that when you’re in good teams, you play better footy,” he said.
“I thought late in the year, coming back from injury, my form was probably the best it was all year.”
Crouch had a Zoom meeting with Saints coach Brett Ratten, football boss Simon Lethlean and list manager James Gallagher on Wednesday, after his switch was sealed.
While the Ballarat product said moving closer to his parents was great, joining the Saints was not a family decision.
“I wanted change and I see a very bright future at St Kilda, and they suit the way I play,” Crouch said.
“A couple of years ago it would’ve been one of those things ‘oh, I’m not sure about St Kilda’. But I think the way ... the way they’re going, it was a complete no-brainer.”
Crouch said there had not been much banter with his younger brother, Matt, but he had loved playing with him at the Crows and was looking forward to being opponents.
“It’ll be interesting and it’ll be interesting returning to Adelaide Oval,” he said.
Crouch planned to head to Melbourne in early December, pending the SA-Victorian border reopening.
POKER FAIL: CROWS’ CROUCH BLUFF BACKFIRES
Adelaide head of football Adam Kelly says the Crows had to accept compensation of pick 23 for Brad Crouch after St Kilda called their bluff on their desire to match any bid for the wantaway midfielder.
After publicly vowing to play hardball over Crouch if the Saints’ offer did not trigger pick No. 2 in compensation, the Crows pulled back at the very last minute on Wednesday and decided to not match St Kilda’s bid to send the 26-year-old to Moorabbin.
The Crows will now get a second-round compensation pick, currently 23, for their 2019 Club Champion, with Kelly saying Adelaide decided matching the Saints’ offer to try and get their first round pick of 17 – which St Kilda said was off the table – wasn’t worth it.
“The compensation selection of pick 23, people can mount an argument that’s not adequate compensation and it’s not something that we disagree with,” he said.
“In the normal course of events, if we were trying to trade Brad to the Saints, we probably would be pursuing their pick 17, but there’s some risks associated with all of that.
“Brad has been seeking a long-term, five-year deal over the 18 months or so and we haven’t been prepared to offer it, and weren’t going to change our minds on that to try to move up the draft order six places.
“There is a big gap between what people might have been hopeful for at pick two and where we’ve landed at 23 but the market determines that.”
Fans took to social media slamming the decision by the Crows to back down from their hardline stance on matching the Saints’ offer to Crouch – understood to be around $700,000 of guaranteed money for four years with a trigger for a fifth.
Kelly said the “posturing” by the Crows in the hope of getting the No. 2 pick did not work, as did their consistent messaging that they wouldn’t offer Crouch the five-year deal he desired.
“We were adopting a public position in the hope that we would incentivise the Saints to make an offer that was such that it would’ve resulted in pick two – I think it’s been referred to as posturing,” he said.
Adelaide had to relent on Crouch because as his manager Garry Winter suggested tonight the Saints had plans to secure him through the pre-season draft in the same manner as Jack Martin. Better to get pick 23 and move on than lose him for nothing
— Jon Ralph (@RalphyHeraldSun) November 4, 2020
“Maybe I should watch a bit more of World Series Poker than I am watching footy at the moment because it didn’t work.
“It wasn’t until the Saints lodged the offer that we were fully aware of the construct and as soon as we were aware it was a four-year deal with what we would see as an achievable trigger for a fifth, that’s something we weren’t prepared to do over the last couple of years and we weren’t going to change our minds on that.
“The thing that really counted against us is for two years we’ve been saying to Brad and his management that we weren’t prepared to offer a deal like the Saints have so they were pretty clear on what the club’s position would be.”
Crouch, who has to serve a two-match ban next year after being caught with cocaine in the Adelaide CBD, said he was excited to join the Saints.
“St Kilda is going in the right direction and I’m stoked to be a part of it next season,” he said.
“I’m determined to gain the trust and confidence of the club, its supporters and my new teammates, and I am confident that my best football is ahead of me at St Kilda.”
The No. 23 pick will slide down in the draft order as more compensation picks are decided and bids for Next Generation Academy players come in.
Kelly said the Crows did everything they could to try and get a higher pick for Crouch.
“You’re trying to build some tension to discussions that you hope might result in a better outcome than pick 23,” he said.
“We exhausted every possible avenue to try to achieve a better outcome.
“Harry Schoenberg was picked up at pick 24 last year and he’s a really exciting, emerging talent for our football club.”
Kelly said the Crows would have been open to Crouch staying at the club but “it would’ve had to have been on a different deal to the one the Saints offered up”.
MORE ADELAIDE CROWS:
20 BARGAIN TRADE TARGETS THE CROWS SHOULD CONSIDER
CROWS ARE NOT A ‘DESTINATION’ CLUB FOR RETURNING TALENT
CROWS GREAT BLINDSIDED BY WRESTLER’S IDENTITY THEFT
CROWS MADE DUSTY $11M MEGA-OFFER TO BE DANGER REPLACEMENT
More Coverage
Originally published as AFL trade period 2020: Adelaide opts against matching St Kilda’s free agency bid for Brad Crouch