Former Crow Bryce Gibbs believes there are three clubs across the competition in particular who could do with Matt Crouch’s services.
Crouch is seemingly on the outer at Adelaide after being dropped on several occasions in 2023, with Matthew Nicks outlining concerns about his outside game.
The inside bull played 11 games in 2022 and was dominant in eight SANFL games, and Gibbs believes the 2017 All-Australian has plenty of good footy ahead of him at just 27 years of age.
“Sometimes you just need a change of environment, a new lease on life,” Gibbs said on SEN SA Breakfast.
“We’ve seen many players move clubs and turn their careers around, plenty of examples of that.
“I think Matt Crouch has still got some really good footy ahead of him, and I hope he does find a new side.”
With that in mind, Gibbs has three potential options for his ex-teammate.
Crouch is contracted for 2023 but has previously been urged to look for a new club given the midfielder has reportedly been told he will not be offered a new deal beyond next year.
GWS was the first club Gibbs floated.
“So GWS, they’re about to lose Jacob Hopper, Tim Taranto and potentially Tanner Bruhn as well. Matt Crouch is not fast, he’s not a high kicking player, he’s not a high metres-gained player, we know that,” he said.
“If you embrace that and you make him play to his strengths which is inside midfielder, handball, clearance-type player… if you put Matt Crouch in there getting the ball out to Josh Kelly, Lachie Whitfield, Stephen Coniglio who all have genuine leg speed, I think that’s just a great fit for the Giants, he’ll fill that hole and you can get him cheap as chips.”
He suggested North Melbourne could also be a good fit for similar reasoning.
“Another team I think he can help on a similar basis to that is North Melbourne. Guys like Luke Davies-Uniacke, Jason Horne-Francis, Jy Simpkin, they’ve all got great leg speed,” he continued.
“If Matt can be the in and under type player who can be feeding the ball out to these guys, getting it out to the outside, I think he can have a huge impact at that side.
“He’s been in the Crows’ leadership group over the last few years so he can bring leadership qualities to this young group and I think he can absolutely be an upgrade on someone like a Hugh Greenwood, who plays that similar type of role at North Melbourne at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Collingwood is also in the market for midfield depth. Craig McRae’s side was often beaten in contested possessions and clearances throughout 2022 and needs to find inside bulls in 2023.
“They’ve been linked to Tom Mitchell, they want more inside grunt. Again, Matt Crouch plays a very similar game to Mitchell, if Collingwood doesn’t land Mitchell if they are going after him, why not substitute Matt Crouch,” Gibbs added.
“He’s exactly a like for like, and like I said, they could get him cheaper than what they could get Tom Mitchell for.
“There are three teams who I think he could go into straight away and have an immediate impact. If you just worry about his strengths as a player, not necessarily what he can’t do.”
SEN SA’s Kym Dillon reported on Monday there was not a lot of interest in Crouch from rival clubs, but a play for the Adelaide midfielder was more likely to come at the “eleventh hour”.