St Kilda seemingly came out of leftfield to snare Adelaide midfielder Brad Crouch, as the likes of Geelong and Port Adelaide pulled out of the race.
SEN’s Sammy Edmund exclusively revealed on Wednesday that the Saints have secured Crouch as a free agent and are set to pay him between $3.5 and $4 million over five years.
The question now turns to how Crouch fits into a St Kilda midfield consisting of Jack Steele, Dan Hannebery, Zak Jones, Jade Gresham, Jake Billings and Seb Ross with Brad Hill on the outside and Hunter Clark likely to move into more of an on-ball role.
Garry Lyon believes Crouch isn’t a perfect fit for the Saints, but unquestionably adds something they needed.
“He adds undeniable depth to the midfield group. Coming out of the lost final, most of the assessments were that they needed to add to their midfield group,” Lyon told SEN Breakfast.
“What sort of midfielder did they need to add? In an ideal world it was going to be a really polished midfielder.
“I’m a big Brad Crouch fan, he finds the footy for fun, but he can be a bit of a ball banger so he’s got to tighten that up.
“But if we go back to normal footy next year, he’s 25 to 35 possessions in the middle of the ground every time he plays.
“He’s had some injury problems, but he’s a 25 to 35 possession player and that adds to your midfield big time.”
My understanding is StK offer for Brad Crouch sits between $3.5-$4 million over five years. So somewhere between $700k-$800k per season. On recent evidence that would be enough for the Crows to get 1st round compo (pick 2). Might be some back scratching to come from Crows though
— Sam Edmund (@Sammy__Edmund) October 22, 2020
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