Crows debutant Brad Crouch is primed for the big time Adelaide Crows young gun Brad Crouch training with a wet footy, watched by Richard Douglas and Jared Petrenko. NOT since the arrival of Wayne Carey at West Lakes has a debut created such hype. Before he's even played a game Brad Crouch has become a symbol of hope for an Adelaide supporter base searching for answers after a shock opening round defeat to Essendon and another top-line midfielder to help the Crows improve on last year's preliminary final finish. It's a significant amount of expectation but one Crouch appears ready to live up to. He's probably the most credentialled youngster in Adelaide's history. While his selection as a 17-year-old via trade from Greater Western Sydney means we'll never know where Crouch would have gone in last year's draft, most recruiters feel he was a top five pick. That would have ranked him higher than any player Adelaide has taken on draft day. Crouch's 543-day wait for his debut has added to the build-up to today's game. But North Ballarat Rebels region manager Phil Partington - who lives a couple of streets away from Crouch's family home in Ballarat and has been watching him play since he was 15 - believes the youngster won't let anyone down. I know him pretty well and he would have been quite impatient with the wait. I know he was disappointed he didn't debut in round one," Partington said. I'm pretty confident he'll go well. I don't think it's going to take long for Brad to make his mark on the game and be a crowd favourite with the Crows. Partington describes Crouch as a "competitive beast" who developed his desperate attitude in backyard cricket and football matches. Each night Crouch and younger brother Matt would join with Nick O'Brien, now with Essendon, Matt Begbie, who is starring for Melbourne in Victoria's Premier Cricket competition and Scott Spriggs, who plays with Glenelg in the SANFL, and put it all on the line. "He benefited from having a really talented peer group," Partington said. Those boys hung around together and they weren't sitting around playing computer games, they were in the backyard playing cricket and football ... it was a battle royale every week. Crouch always seemed destined for a career at the top level. He made state teams at under-12 level, captained Vic Country at the under-16 national championships and starred as an under-age player with the North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup in 2011 despite missing half the year with a broken leg. Crouch suffered the injury during the under-18 national championships. It happened five minutes into Vic Country's fourth game of the carnival, against WA at Skilled Stadium, but Crouch had played so well in the first three games he still made the All-Australian team. After a 10 week lay-off during which Partington said "you had to hold him down to stop him from playing" Crouch returned for the Rebels' first final. "He was best on ground," Partington said. You know you've got a bit of a special talent when that happens. Unlike the man he is most compared to, Patrick Dangerfield, Crouch had already finished high school when he was picked up by the Crows so was able to spend all of last year completely focused on football. It's left him primed for the big time. "He came back and watched a game of Rebels football a couple of weeks ago and you can just see he's bigger across the chest and the arms," Partington said. He's developing into a good size for an AFL player. Crows midfield coach Scott Camporeale expects Crouch to play a full game against the Lions tonight, rather than beginning his career as a substitute. "We thought we'd give him another week and (make him) really earn his spot in the SANFL and he went back had 31 possessions and (was) arguably the best on the ground," Camporeale said. So he warrants selection and I think he'll be a really good addition to our midfield.