ADELAIDE made its intent to recruit Brad Crouch known as soon as the club traded into the mini-draft last week, but coach Brenton Sanderson was delighted to be on hand to officially welcome the North Ballarat onballer on Monday.
The GWS mini-draft was completed at Etihad Stadium after the conclusion of the AFL player exchange period, with Jaeger O'Meara going to Gold Coast and Crouch officially becoming a Crow.
"It's a great day for us because we've been able to gain access to one of the best young talents in Australia," Sanderson told the waiting media shortly after personally welcoming Crouch to his new club.
"It's really exciting, but we do have to wait for 12 months [due to AFL rules]. I know we'll have to manage Brad's expectations a little bit because he wants to play, which I love, but we'll just have to bide our time.
"Now he's part of the Adelaide family, which is great. He'll do a lot of development work with our coaching group … we're going to see a young man develop over the next 12 months, so look out 2013."
Adelaide sent pick No.10 and its Phil Davis compensation pick to the Giants for the rights to the second mini-draft selection and pre-listed Norwood midfielder Luke Brown.
Crouch was one of 26 17-year-olds born between January and April, 1994, who nominated to be eligible for the mini-draft, which was designed to allow GWS to trade for experienced players to fill out its fledgling playing list.
However, the scheme ultimately saw the Giants stockpile the Suns' fourth overall pick and the mid-first round compensation pick for the loss of Gary Ablett, that Geelong traded to Gold Coast last year, in addition to Adelaide's early picks.
All of that meant little to Crouch, however, who was presented with his No.2 guernsey by new teammate Patrick Dangerfield on Monday.
"The real opportunity of it all is that you get to be at AFL club a year early in comparison to other kids my age," Crouch said.
"It's a huge advantage to have and to be exposed to that opportunity is unreal.
"I'm pretty excited to be here and [have my guernsey] handed over with Paddy being here. After all the hype I'm happy to have it settled down and be a part of Adelaide. I'm looking forward to starting pre-season.
"It was a pretty nervous wait at school … and it was hard to concentrate, but now I'm just rapt to be a part of it and know exactly what's going to happen.
"I don't know who I'm going to play for in the SANFL, but they'll work closely with Adelaide obviously. I'm looking forward to playing in the SANFL and hopefully developing as much as I can to play some games in 2013."
Dangerfield has been a key figure in the Crows' courting of Crouch, which began with an invite to watch the Geelong-West Coast preliminary final at the MCG with Sanderson and the recruiting team.
Dangerfield, who spent most of his first year as a Crow finishing school near Geelong, was present at that game and is confident Crouch will be able to make the most of the opportunity in front of him.
"I guess it is a bit [like my situation], but he has the advantage of coming over to Adelaide full-time and learning about the game and the way that we go about it," Dangerfield said.
"He'll be in meetings and training with the team, which will be a huge benefit for him.
"I like to stay across the TAC Cup so I've seen a bit of Brad this year and for him to have this opportunity will put him in an excellent position to attack the 2013 season."
Crouch will move to Adelaide after the completion of his year 12 exams in November and will learn which SANFL club he will play for when the new Crows and Power players are distributed amongst the state league clubs at a mini-draft in December.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
