Brad Ashcroft has signed with South Australian National Football League (SANFL) side North Adelaide for next season

Ashcroft is the second Turvey Park player that has committed to the Roosters for next season following on from the recent announcement that Bulldogs' best and fairest winner Luke Fellows would be making the move to Adelaide over the off-season.

It was a stellar return season from Ashcroft as he played every game and finished the year kicking 69 goals from 19 appearances for the Bulldogs including five in Turvey Park's grand final win.

Ashcroft said he was looking forward to making the move to South Australia and playing a higher standard of football.

"Yeah it's obviously very exciting," Ashcroft said.

"Especially coming off a year like this we had with Turvey and winning the premiership was a pretty special thing to do at my junior club.

"Obviously now I'm looking to the future and bigger and better things, trying to improve my footy and play at the highest level I can which is pretty exciting.

"Hopefully I get to go over there with a few mates which is good."

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Ashcroft will at least have Fellows for company at his new club and he revealed that it was the Bulldogs' best and fairest winner who had planted the seed for his move to Adelaide.

"It's sort of been on my radar for a few years," he said.

"Obviously I had a few injury setbacks but it's been something that I've wanted to do for a while.

"This year one of my mates Luke (Fellows) just mentioned it throughout the year and said would you be willing to make the move.

"I sort of thought about it for a bit and I spoke to my partner about it and she was pretty keen to get out of Wagga as well.

"So I thought the time was probably right to make the move and try and play the best footy I can."

Ashcroft spent roughly 18 months on the sidelines throughout the 2021-22 seasons after undergoing back surgery.

After putting in a mountain of work during that tough time, Ashcroft said all the effort and sacrifice had been worth it to find himself in his current situation.

"It took a lot of hard work, physio sessions and a lot of training," he said.

"Coming off such a long setback, I think I missed a year and a half of footy and it was pretty tough times sitting on the sidelines and watching my mates go out and play.

"But it's definitely worth it in the end when you can come home with your home club and win a premiership.

"Then now to the future and going and playing a higher standard of footy is pretty exciting."

The Roosters just narrowly missed out on making finals this past season and Ashcroft knows he must put in a lot of hard work if he wants to earn his spot at the top grade.

"It's obviously a very high standard of football over there," he said.

"It's not going to be easy and I'm going to have to really work hard to try and make the grade which is good.

"I'm up for the challenge and it's going to be challenging and I'm going to have my battles, but hopefully if I work hard enough and keep sticking at it then I might earn my spot."

Ashcroft departs the Bulldogs after 69 senior games for the club and he admitted that being a part of Turvey Park's premiership winning side was a great way for him to finish up his time at his junior club.

"It sort of just fell into place perfectly really," he said.

"It's something that I've always wanted to do, win a premiership especially in first grade at Turvey.

"We won one in 17's but it was good to get the win this year in first grade.

"I thought we had a really good year and a good group and Zoc (Michael Mazzocchi) had us going well.

"It was good to cap it off with a win on the last day in September."

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