Born in Auckland, New Zealand,[1] to mother and father Bruce, and the grandson of All Black Eric Boggs Croad migrated with his family to Australia and grew up in Narre Warren in Victoria.

He began playing at a young age with Endeavour Hills and the Narre Warren Junior Football Club and attended De La Salle College, Malvern.

Croad relished the responsibility of being the senior man down back being strong, athletic type who took the oppositions best forward each week.

During the second quarter of the 2008 Grand Final, Croad broke his left foot, and leaving the ground with the aid of trainers he still managed to lay a bump on Geelong's Joel Selwood before playing no further part in the game.

Croad missed the entire 2009 season due to his 2008 Grand Final injury, and on 6 January 2010 he announced his retirement after his surgeon warned him that he might permanently lose all function in his left foot if he broke it again.

As part of an investigation by the Australian Crime Commission into drugs and organised crime in Australian sport, Croad was named by Fairfax Media newspapers as being involved in a peptide supply deal linked to the Comanchero Motorcycle Club, an outlaw motorcycle gang.