Crows vow to play hardball on Crouch trade talks

Adelaide has vowed to match St Kilda's contract offer for wantaway midfielder Brad Crouch if the compensation draft pick doesn't come at No.2.

Crouch has nominated St Kilda as his club of choice, but as a restricted free agent, Adelaide still reserves the right to match any offer in order to force a trade.

According to Adelaide football boss Adam Kelly, the Crows are wary of the compromised nature of this year's draft with a number of players already tied to clubs via academies.

"We're obviously hopeful the compensation would be resulting in pick two, and it's only really under those circumstances we would consider matching and looking to force a trade or obtain Brad's services," he told AFL Trade Radio.

"Fortunately, in this situation, Brad's been fairly open about his love of Adelaide and of the footy club, so we don't think it would be a scenario where the player would not be wanting to come back to the club, so we would certainly look to match if it's not resulting in pick two.

"We'll certainly be looking for a better outcome than what that compensation would be if it's not pick two, because [otherwise] it would be end of first round or start of second, which because of our ladder position is effectively the same thing.

"That pick itself could push out to the mid-20s after all the Next Generation Academy [bids] come through.

"We don't see that as adequate compensation for a player of Brad's calibre, so we would certainly be looking at matching."

The Crows have also been linked with Essendon forward Orazio Fantasia, who is keen to come back home to South Australia, but Kelly admitted that the 25-year-old was unlikely to end up at West Lakes.

"We haven't spoken to Orazio for a number of weeks now," he said.

"We did have some discussion with him a few weeks ago, and have an interest in him if he was to return to SA, but we haven't spoken to him for a number of weeks now.

"It'd be fair to make that assessment (that he has chosen Port Adelaide). We haven't heard that directly from Orazio, so it's not our place to say, but we haven't heard from him for a few weeks now."

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