Keath, 18, and completing his VCE at Melbourne Grammar, stunned several football insiders on Thursday when he signed a three-year contract with the Victorian Bushrangers, believed to be worth overall about $150,000.

The impressive allrounder was a member of the Australian team that won the recent Under-19 World Cup, scoring 216 runs at 43.20 (the eighth-leading scorer in the tournament) while also claiming six wickets at 16.33 with his medium-pace bowling.

Keath had been on the Gold Coast's list as a priority draft selection and was described by one player manager as the equivalent a top-six draft pick but the player himself followed his heart on Thursday and opted for cricket.

While Melbourne's tabloid media had all but hyped Keath as the next coming of a Nick Riewoldt or Wayne Carey, Clayton told BackPageLead he was still raw and needed to physically mature before he would have been considered for selection as a "lead-up marking forward" when the Gold Coast debuts in the AFL next year.

"To be honest, he needed a lot of work. He is 195cm and he had flicked from one season to the next, cricket, footy, cricket, footy, and he had never had a pre-season in between to do some work on his body," Clayton said.

"We weren't going to play him for the first few months (next year) even if he had played some VFL this year because he really needed some conditioning. He needed to get a body.

"He would have been well behind the others we have taken to the Gold Coast who have done one big pre-season. He would have needed a good 12 to 18 months to two years to condition up."

Clayton had travelled to Melbourne last Friday to watch Keath play his first match this season with Melbourne Grammar but his spy mission didn't last long.

"He took a knock to the knee and came off, that might have been the catalyst to say: 'I've had enough of this caper'," Clayton said with a laugh.

Keath's decision naturally had cricket officials buoyant, for the sport has often lost of the tug of war with football through the years, primarily because it couldn't compete financially. Now it can in the medium to long term, provided Keath does develop.

In addition to his base contract, which would grow through the years, Keath, locally, can now pocket another $3900 for every Sheffield Shield match, $1400 for a domestic one-day clash and $1050 for a Big Bash Twenty20 match.

Bushrangers' coach Greg Shipperd said Keath "was like a young Cameron White or Brad Hodge walking through the door" but, most likely, would have to wait until the 2011-12 season to debut for his state.

When he does, that could eventually lead to a $1 million contract with Cricket Australia.

If that doesn't eventuate, riches through lucrative Twenty20 competitions, such as the Indian Premier League - provided it recovers from its current crisis - would still be on offer if he has the skills for the bite-sized form of the game.

Had he chosen football, Keath could have pocketed between $200,000 and $500,000 in his first three years, depending on how many games he played and incentives.

"It was not a money call," Clayton said.

"Mind you, he would be able to make bigger money in football quicker. He is not going to make a couple of hundred thousand in two year's time (in cricket)."

Former Test fast bowler Damien Fleming, who has extensive experience working with juniors, said Keath's signature was a coup for cricket, and in particular Cricket Victoria. "It's shown the new world out there," he said.

"All of a sudden there are not just the 11 players in the AFL that have a good profile. At the Big Bash time, all the cricketers do as well. There are some real good options for cricketers now.

"Without playing for your country, you could still earn a $1 million a year if you are playing in all those competitions.

"You see a (Kieron) Pollard from the West Indies. He is not a fantastic bowler but he is 6'5, he has bounce, a change of pace, and with that you are sort of in the game."

Fleming said the decision by Keath and West Australian Mitchell Marsh, a talented footballer who opted to follow his hard-hitting brother Shaun and father Geoff, a former Australian vice-captain, into cricket, showed cricket was now fighting back.