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2019 Player Reviews: #8 Jake Lever

Demonland
Demonland
in Melbourne Demons

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Lever travelled to the USA at the beginning of 2019 in an attempt to fast track his rehab from his ACL injury but his return had to wait until mid season. After that, his season was interrupted by some niggling ailments and as a result, we rarely saw him at his best in 2019.

Date of Birth: 5 March, 1996
Height: 195 cm
Weight: 91 kg

Games MFC 2019: 8
Career Total: 75

Goals MFC 2019: 0
Career Total: 3

CDFC Games 2019: 3
CDFC Goals 2019: 0

Votes 2019 Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Memorial Trophy: 62 votes 

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    • Like 1
     

    Needs to be able to take the opposition second best forward at his size.

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    With an uninterrupted pre season I’m hoping we can see Jake have a ripper 2020. 

    Still cant get past the feeling he’d be better playing four kilos heavier and holding his ground a little better in one on ones. I don’t feel that this would affect his intercept capability. 

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    3 minutes ago, McQueen said:

    With an uninterrupted pre season I’m hoping we can see Jake have a ripper 2020. 

    Still cant get past the feeling he’d be better playing four kilos heavier and holding his ground a little better in one on ones. I don’t feel that this would affect his intercept capability. 

    I can understand your worry Mac, but any extra weight he carries could affect weight distribution through his knees.

    Would advise against adding weight.

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    Just now, Win4theAges said:

    I can understand your worry Mac, but any extra weight he carries could affect weight distribution through his knees.

    Would advise against adding weight.

    I considered exactly that as I typed the previous post. 

    I don’t claim to be a physio or anything of the like but I’d be surprised if 4kg of lean muscle to help his strength would impact too greatly. 

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    Very underwhelming return to the side for a bloke we payed two first rounders for. Some of his kicking was horrendous.

    However, should be judged next year, after a full pre-season. 

    People probably forget that he was outstanding during the 3-4 weeks before he did his knee in 2018.

    I feel we need May and another key defender(to replace Frost) to take the 2 oppo's big boys, while Lever floats around and takes the all important intercepting mark which he did well at in 2017.

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    5 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

    Very underwhelming return to the side for a bloke we payed two first rounders for. Some of his kicking was horrendous.

    However, should be judged next year, after a full pre-season. 

    People probably forget that he was outstanding during the 3-4 weeks before he did his knee in 2018.

    I feel we need May and another key defender(to replace Frost) to take the 2 oppo's big boys, while Lever floats around and takes the all important intercepting mark which he did well at in 2017.

    The last part of this post is what still makes me angry about this trade.

    2 first rounders and a big contract for a slowish, half back flanker with dodgy skills?

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    2 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

    People probably forget that he was outstanding during the 3-4 weeks before he did his knee in 2018.

    didn't a few teams isolate him and he lost out badly in his first few matches.

    For this trade to make sense given the picks traded and his salary he needs to deliver big in 2020

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    2 hours ago, Watts the matter said:

    The last part of this post is what still makes me angry about this trade.

    2 first rounders and a big contract for a slowish, half back flanker with dodgy skills?

    This is exactly my view on Lever. Aside from the multiple first round draft picks we used in the trade, we now have an oversized HBF on a massive long term contract who can't play man-on-man defence, has poor foot skills and whose most notable contribution to the side this year was his elite finger pointing.

    When you hear about rifts in the playing group, you have to think that overpaid, under-performing big-name recruits are a major reason for that.

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    • Like 2

    13 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

    didn't a few teams isolate him and he lost out badly in his first few matches.

     

    I think that's correct in the early matches he played for the club. Looked out of his depth.

    However, he and/or the coaches fixed his game to the extent where he jagged a 27 possession/9 mark/ 1 brownlow vote game in one of our big wins between rounds 6 and 11 2018.

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    Class act is Jake Lever. Captain material. Will repay us big time.

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    Remember that when we're tested for him it was pre 666 and we were regularly playing a full zone defense with no one on one. The game plan saw all players responsible to zone and intercept and small, faster players like Jetta sprint back and around if the opposition had a spare player drop forward unmarked.

    Lever's acquisition in this context was a massive win. He was the premier zone defender in the competition and strengthened our game plan. No one could have foreseen the 666 changes. 

    So hindsight is wonderful. He is only 23 though. Will his trade be a win for us? We've still got 8-10 years to figure that out. Assuming he is a mainstay of our defense and plays well in that time then two 1st round picks is reasonable: they are 50% chance at best anyway.

     

    It's hard to judge him on 2019. Its clear he needs time to find the pace of the game and find connection with other players within a disorganised defensive unit. His leadership was very apparent immediately. He did some nice things but struggled for touch in others. 

    I think he gets a pass mark as a poster coming back from injury in a team getting belted, but he'll need to step up a touch next year to get the same. 

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    Fitness is his biggest enemy right now, he has shown what he can do when he gets out on the park. 

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    Underwhelming is the only word i can think of

    those knees always worry me each time i see him

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    • Like 1

    Extremely underwhelming and at times surprisingly horrible to watch. Very good intercept mark, yeah. But some of his Incredibly expensive disposals have been sub-Casey level. 

    So far his appointment has been a quiet disaster. Obviously, we all hope that improves. 

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    14 hours ago, deanox said:

    Will his trade be a win for us? We've still got 8-10 years to figure that out.

    ???

    Isn’t he only contracted for four more seasons? 

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