Woeful today.

 

i was a massive advocate for getting him

but geez his defensive positioning is atrocious

he loves to play behind or off his man...good coaches like clarkson have worked it out and because his players listen to him they follow his drill of playing thru lever's man

our entire defensive structure is horrible at the moment

o mac: winning his role
jetta: horribly out of form
hibberd: looks a shadow of 2017
lever: same
frost: vfl-level footballer
wagner: good ordinary football
lewis: can't bend over, he looks and plays like an old man
vince: legs can't keep up

Geez hes been awful, and cost us an arm and a leg.

Panic time!

Putrid 

11 minutes ago, DemonAndrew said:

i was a massive advocate for getting him

but geez his defensive positioning is atrocious

he loves to play behind or off his man...good coaches like clarkson have worked it out and because his players listen to him they follow his drill of playing thru lever's man

our entire defensive structure is horrible at the moment

o mac: winning his role
jetta: horribly out of form
hibberd: looks a shadow of 2017
lever: same
frost: vfl-level footballer
wagner: good ordinary football
lewis: can't bend over, he looks and plays like an old man
vince: legs can't keep up

Hard to argue with you DA but to be fair the game plan does not favour an average defence. Not sure what the solution is as while the defence at VFL level is okay there aren't many bashing the door down.

Looking down the track I am hanging my hat on Weideman in attack and T Mac back in defence but I have no confidence whatsoever.

Watched Lever a few times today and was severely underwhelmed to say the least. I didn't think he had a great finals series either last year. Hopefully he can turn the corner but f he is to be played as a one on one defender perhaps he needs to learn that skill in the VFL because it is a costly lesson in the seniors. And as many have said his disposal/ decision making when he has the ball is average at best.

Edited April 15, 20187 yr by Diamond_Jim

50 minutes ago, buck_nekkid said:

Time is up .  Patience has run out.  Prove himself at Casey.

Yep fumbly and no awareness! I'll say it a worse recruit than Tom Gillies! 

Lacking confidence?

Fumbles galore. 

Would happily trade him for a $100k a year

 

Don’t give me the old first post I’ve been a member for for 37 years consecutive; he is disgusting. 30k a game

3 minutes ago, SPC said:

Would happily trade him for a $100k a year

 

I wish we could get that much for him. At the moment your looking at best a packet of tim-tams from Coles.

He looks devoid of any confidence. Every time he goes near it you re waiting for him to f**k it up. I feel with him like I do watching Oscar, no confidence, heart in mouth and waiting for him to make the error. Saying that, Oscar is doing bloody well, Level is stinking it up and I bet Oscar isn't on anywhere near the coin Lever is. 

He a quality and highly player talented player who, I believe in time, will become an excellent defender for us.  

What we’re seeing is a young player, hopelessly out of form who is under the immense pressure that comes with a trade and contract that he came with.  

He is unable to play the same role he did at Adelaide and opposition teams are putting some serious work into him.  He, like Weitering at Carlton, looks to be playing without joy or confidence.

He is young, inexperienced and really struggling.

I'm still convinced he will be good for us, because he has runs on the board.

But he has been terrible so far. Fumbles, runs over the ball, kicking is dodgey and has been out muscled 1 on 1.

I havent been an Oscar fan, but he looks far better so far this year.

Just now, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

He a quality and highly player talented player who, I believe in time, will become an excellent defender for us.  

What we’re seeing is a young player, hopelessly out of form who is under the immense pressure that comes with a trade and contract that he came with.  

He is unable to play the same role he did at Adelaide and opposition teams are putting some serious work into him.  He, like Weitering at Carlton, looks to be playing without joy or confidence.

He is young, inexperienced and really struggling.

Exactly TPF why was he so good at the Crows but struggling with us? I suggest we look at the backline set up and game plan first before we crucify a new player. As for today, we were woeful in the middle and the backline takes the brunt of it all. How do you think some one like Josh Gibson would have faired for us today down back? A player used to playing a roving, attacking game off half back, like Lever, suddenly under siege, having to go man on man with bigger bodies, time and time again. 

His aerial work is excellent and we know he is learning one on one defence. 

But today was the first time I had noticed how very poor he is below the knees and doesn't bend down for the ground ball.  And when he does he loses his balance and falls over while the ball sails post. 

I agree with others that trying to fit him into our backline has meant we have lost the best of Jetta, Hibberd and Hunt.  But Lever isn't the sole reason for that.  Our new defence coach has changed things a bit and that would also contribute to Jetta, Hibberd and Hunt losing their edge.  

At the mo they all look confused and I have real doubts that Chaplin has any answers.

The backline needs to work as a team and re-find its mojo for Lever to reach his potential - he can't (nor should he be expected to) improve on his own.

Edited April 15, 20187 yr by Lucifer's Hero

On 11/04/2018 at 3:55 PM, Lucifer's Hero said:

Yes, Worsfold is a clever coach/tactitian.  At Ess he just has dumb players who get lazy and who can't or won't carry out instructions!

Maybe after today one could say the same for Goodwin and MFC players

On 12/04/2018 at 3:49 AM, dpositive said:

Hunt and Lever rotate off the bench in defence in same fashion as weid and  pedo in the attack. These guys add to the churn with only one or the other on at any time rotating with others as required.

i have been promoting the churn as a new coaching tactic and think we are developing the playing list to acheive that.

We can also churn the list each game to suit the opposition. Having no injuries is the bonus factor.

 

Trouble is that Goodwin doesn’t appear to have sufficient game day ‘intelligence’ to churn effectively. 

The hype surrounding Lever last year was rife. It was at a similar level to pre-Toumpas.

Was it the right move to target him? Yes, I think so as he showed some impressive traits. But as many of us argued, we paid far too much during trade week. Unfortunately now his wage also looks to be far too much.

I'm not going to sit back and bash him. I think he can succeed here based on what I've seen him do at Adelaide. I just hope to not see extravagant levels of hype again in the not too distant future. However, history has a tendency to repeat itself.

42 minutes ago, Earl Hood said:

Exactly TPF why was he so good at the Crows but struggling with us? I suggest we look at the backline set up and game plan first before we crucify a new player. As for today, we were woeful in the middle and the backline takes the brunt of it all. How do you think some one like Josh Gibson would have faired for us today down back? A player used to playing a roving, attacking game off half back, like Lever, suddenly under siege, having to go man on man with bigger bodies, time and time again. 

Well he finished a splendid 13th in the Crows B and F. And we mortgaged the G for him. I had heard from Adelaide fans that he was not a real defender. I said so on this site before we drafted him and was rubbished!

today in the second quarter Max had 10 minutes off the ground. Poor Harmes contested the ruck. We lost 9 out of 10 clearances--at a time we were still competitive. An obvious fill,in ruck was Frost, but you say , he was on the backline. But we had 7 backs at this time--Lever was a loose man in defence. Surely Lever could have picked up Frost's opponent for 10 minutes. Or even throw Lever into the ruck. It might have got him going

we shouldn't have recruited him but I now feel v sorry for him. He is trying v hard, needs some coaching imagination. The club does!!!

2 hours ago, DemonAndrew said:

i was a massive advocate for getting him

but geez his defensive positioning is atrocious

he loves to play behind or off his man...good coaches like clarkson have worked it out and because his players listen to him they follow his drill of playing thru lever's man

our entire defensive structure is horrible at the moment

o mac: winning his role
jetta: horribly out of form
hibberd: looks a shadow of 2017
lever: same
frost: vfl-level footballer
wagner: good ordinary football
lewis: can't bend over, he looks and plays like an old man
vince: legs can't keep up

When you look at that backline 'Andrew' it's no wonder we can't hold a team on a run...

...apart from positioning (plan) the leg speed is not there. Hibberd is the only one with any pace at all.

We just can't have Lewis, Vince and Jetta in the back 6 together. One is enough, we need to find some run to feed off Lever & Omac...

...and please leave Frost back in the VFL.

He's been disappointing, but the whole backline bar O-Mac have been poor this season. Can hardly blame it all on Lever, though he is seriously down on confidence. He's gone from Rance level confidence in the air and dominating the league, to sh*tting himself whenever the ball comes near him. What's happened to him?

Jetta is horribly out of form. He's gone from AA level form in 2016-2017 to losing nearly every contests he approaches. Is he injured? He's been outbodied so easily this year!

Hibberd has been average. Not getting to as many contests down back, and his rebound work has been average too. Far too many mongrel punts to 2 on 1 contests, just horrible decision making. 

Hunt was so poor he was dropped.

Frost's legs move faster than his brain. I like that he has pace and power, but he needs to learn when to use it. Constantly runs into trouble or stuffs up the whole structure back there by taking the wrong option, going to ground, leaving his man free etc.

Wagner has done enough to hold a place, but he's hardly set the world on fire. He's an average footballer warming a spot for when a proper option comes along.

Lewis played like a 50 year old today. Fumbled, went to ground repeatedly, picked poor options as it all seemed to fast for him, and he showed zero leadership. Deserves to be dropped after today.

Vince was ok, but he's near the end and struggles to keep up some weeks. 

O-Mac has been good this year. I'm not his biggest fan, but he's seriously improved to the point where he's become the most reliable defender we have. Who would've thought!

I don't buy into the argument that's he's making Hunt/HIbberd/Jetta worse. The entire side's lack of structure and pressure up the ground is making the whole backline worse. It's not Lever.

His intercept/aerial work is getting better, and he clearly reads the play excellently. Those parts of his game are there and are improving.

But his skills are atrocious at the moment. He's fumbly, awful below his knees, and he's missing way too many kicks/handpasses - we cannot afford another poor user of the ball in our back half.

His confidence looks down, which will in part be because of the pressure of the trade and the pre-season expectations on him. That's not an excuse, just a reason. He can play a lot better than this and he's going to need to.

 

We've got no choice but to be patient with him. Having said that, we can stop structuring our D50 around his fabled intercept marking until he sorts himself out. Would much rather have Hibberd in that role. 

We have lost our dash down back. Our defensive structure seems to be a mess and Hunt  (VFL) and Hibberd are no longer able to use there attacking assets. Lever is a worry but still has time on his side. Starting to worry a little though

a game high 13 Intercept possessions

what we recruited him for. 

Just Sayin

He is lousy beneath his knees

Can't pick the ball up

Disappointed