And now he has a chance to return to where it all started in Ballarat as he and his Adelaide Crows teammates plot a raid on the Western Bulldogs fortress on Saturday.

Crouch said he could feel the energy returning to his and AFL games after two seasons ruined by a loss of crowds.

"It'll be good to get back and play in Ballarat, I've obviously got a lot of family and friends there," he said.

"It feels like footy and society are starting to get back to somewhat normal. It's great to see the crowds back. You can definitely notice when they weren't there last year, it's a big difference."

IN OTHER NEWS

The Crows have been one of the most exciting young teams in the early part of the AFL season and a lot of it is due to the support they've received at the own home at Adelaide Oval after stirring wins over Port Adelaide and Richmond.

"We're starting to get a little bit of momentum," he said. "Against Richmond at the weekend we started to play the footy we wanted, felt like we defended well and we were pretty strong in the contest as well.

"I feel like early in the season we had a bit of inconsistencies in games. The Port game was a memorable win, to be involved in a game like that, that was huge. We took a lot of confidence out of the group and hopefully we can use that to push forward to a successful season."

After the loss of skipper Rory Sloane to a season-ending knee injury last week, Crouch and his band of young midfielders know they need to step up this week and beyond.

"The Bulldogs have a lot of A-graders in there and a lot of depth as well, it'll be a great challenge for our group to come up against them and match it," he said.

"We feel like the footy we've been playing the past few weeks will stack up against them. You have to respect the team they are, but we'll have to concentrate on our structure and the way we want to play as well.

"We'll go through our plans at our captains run, but I know it'll be a big match, they've got some great talent in there with (Marcus) Bontempelli, (Jack) Macrae, Bailey Smith is playing really well as well."

Crouch said he had faith in the leaders to get the job done, but it was the young players which were providing the biggest drive.

"A lot of the guys will have to step up in the leadership capacity, chip in when we all can. Obviously (Rory) Sloane is a great player for us, a great leader and he'll be big shoes to fill," he said.

"Some of our leaders are developing, Ben Keays is playing good footy, Tom Doedee is as well, guys like that will step up and fill the void left by 'Sloaney'.

"Shane (McAdam) came in the last couple of weeks and has played his role well, I feel like when our guys up forward are bringing energy and pressure it makes it easier for us, guys like that have been super.

What you love about young players is they are just happy to be out there and they play on instinct. A lot of our guys are like that, we're a pretty young team, it's good to have those guys around."

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