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Jake Lever.. Can someone explain??

dazzledavey36
dazzledavey36
in Melbourne Demons

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33 minutes ago, goodwindees said:

Many self professed experts at Demonland were ecstatic at his recruitment. Where are they now?  

I wasn't one of them. But we've got him so I could care less about that decision now.

My issue is how they play him. He is flat out woeful one on one. So don't play him one on one. Set up the structure so he can do what he does best - an intercept mark and third man in. 

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    Yes it was well and truly overpayment for what he's produced so far. However I think today he showed some solid improvement and was able to play to his strengths.

    The defenders looked liked they'd been working on it, with May and Smith both wrapping up their man at times, allowing Lever to fly and mark or spoil. There's not much else we can do with him right now - we're not delisting him and we're not trading him and can only hope he finds the elite form he showed at Adelaide.

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    13 minutes ago, godees said:

    Can’t play one on one. Can’t chest mark.

    He wasn't even that good at adelaide

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    Swap him with TMAC. Both horribly out of form, plus the TMAC experiment has run its course (though Goody won’t recognise this for at least another 2 years). 

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    Lever was much better today, probably 2 drops marks away from a very good performance.

    Yeah he's going to struggle if left one on one against a good forward, that's why we got May and Smith. Hibberd as a deep defensive option and Rivers with more time will help as well.

    Today isn't the day to blame Lever.

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    11 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

    Lever was much better today, probably 2 drops marks away from a very good performance.

    Yeah he's going to struggle if left one on one against a good forward, that's why we got May and Smith. Hibberd as a deep defensive option and Rivers with more time will help as well.

    Today isn't the day to blame Lever.

    Exactly. Thought he played pretty well.

     

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    5 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

    Lever was much better today, probably 2 drops marks away from a very good performance.

    Yeah he's going to struggle if left one on one against a good forward, that's why we got May and Smith. Hibberd as a deep defensive option and Rivers with more time will help as well.

    Today isn't the day to blame Lever.

    Sorry DS can't agree. 

    Two dropped marks and leaving aside being out marked easily a couple of times, not going up at all for the mark foote kicked for the first goal and then getting shoved out of the way by rowan and not being able to touch the ball on the goal line (although Maxy was not great then either) cost us two goals in game we lost by four points. It's fair to say if Omac had made those errors he would get panned.

    Given Lever is well over kis knee injury and supposedly had a great preseason then we are entitled to expect a hell of a lot better than being two dropped marks away from good performance. 

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    16 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

    Lever was much better today, probably 2 drops marks away from a very good performance.

    Yeah he's going to struggle if left one on one against a good forward, that's why we got May and Smith. Hibberd as a deep defensive option and Rivers with more time will help as well.

    Today isn't the day to blame Lever.

    He was horrible.

    Has been in all game this year.

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    2 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

    He was horrible.

    Has been in all game this year.

    Has been since recruited to the dees

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    1 minute ago, Ron Burgundy said:

    That’s B.S.

    He’s a gun. There’s no way we’ll regret this trade.

     

     

    What has he shown since being recruited

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    37 minutes ago, binman said:

    Sorry DS can't agree. 

    Two dropped marks and leaving aside being out marked easily a couple of times, not going up at all for the mark foote kicked for the first goal and then getting shoved out of the way by rowan and not being able to touch the ball on the goal line (although Maxy was not great then either) cost us two goals in game we lost by four points. It's fair to say if Omac had made those errors he would get panned.

    Given Lever is well over kis knee injury and supposedly had a great preseason then we are entitled to expect a hell of a lot better than being two dropped marks away from good performance. 

    The goal line stuff was equally terrible. Both Lever and Tomlinson should be embarrassed and where was Max and May? The bigger boys should be there whilst Lever is in front of the contest.

    But given the Cats had about 1000 uncontested marks and could move the ball at will around half back and the wings I thought Lever still managed to get a number of crucial intercepts. And for the patches where we did get the game on our turns he was in good position a lot.

    The chemistry with him, May and Smith was far better and I don't think we once gave the Cats chances over the top and rarely gave them easily ball at half back which is a huge effort given how easily they played kick to kick in their half.

     

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    Lever is worth a late first round pick, and 4-500k a year. We overpaid, and it caused some issues with the playing group. Lots were angry about paying 800k for an intercepting defender with average skills. They were right.

    Unfortunately it was a gamble that didn’t pay off. 
     

    We hoped he would be our Howe, Stewart or Sicily but he’s a tier or two below.

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    1 hour ago, Demon Disciple said:

    Swap him with TMAC. Both horribly out of form, plus the TMAC experiment has run its course (though Goody won’t recognise this for at least another 2 years). 

    After a poor 4 or 5 games last year having had surgery on both if his ankles before a couple of solid games, the first of which he racked up close to 30 touches on the wing and the second of which he kicked 4 goaks in a half before injuring his knee. I thought he was decent today, provided a target and consistently brought the ball to ground to halve contest, not to mention a string grab and goal.

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    14 minutes ago, GawnWithTheWind said:

    Lever is worth a late first round pick, and 4-500k a year. We overpaid, and it caused some issues with the playing group. Lots were angry about paying 800k for an intercepting defender with average skills. They were right.

    Unfortunately it was a gamble that didn’t pay off. 
     

    We hoped he would be our Howe, Stewart or Sicily but he’s a tier or two below.

    I definitely wouldn't give away a first rounder for him. Sam frost is a better player and we only got a third rounder for him.

    Edited by Elegt

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    2 hours ago, goodwindees said:

    Many self professed experts at Demonland were ecstatic at his recruitment. Where are they now?  

    Would love to see Prodee come back and explain this one. Panned out exactly as expected. 

    Anyone who wants to use the argument about the players that were drafted with the picks we traded can get stuffed. Devon Smith and Charlie Cameron were traded for much less and we probably could have got both for the same picks.

    Didn't think Lever was that bad today though. Might just be an expectations thing.

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    Lever suffers from a poorly organised team defensive game and a fear of relying too much on those around him. For him to play the game we want he needs to know that he will be backed to attack the intercept and that he will not be embarrassed by his opponent getting free. It is also true that he has not played much in the past 2 seasons and he is still finding his role.

    It worked for him at crows and it worked for swannees in 2005. Goosy, ask Roosy.

     

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    Jake suffers from the fact our Senior coach has no idea regarding selections and is forcing him to play a role he isn't capable of playing, doesn't suit him. 

    Jake is a gun third up intercept defender who leaves his man and takes marks and sets up rebounding plays. 

    He's currently playing as our third lock down defender, despite being an average 1v1 player. 

    I don't rate Oscar but we need another tall out there if we want to see anything like the best of Jake Lever. 

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    Our defence, and the players in it, are the least of our worries right now.

    Look at the other end.  You'll find plenty to pick apart there.

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    28 minutes ago, Grimes Times said:

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-25/how-adelaide-crows-went-from-afl-top-to-bottom-in-three-years/12387620

    Some people might want to look at the table in this article about Lever and have a think about some of their comments they have made. NFI

    Would love to see the number of 1 on 1s as opposed to a percentage. I think we can all trust our eyes and know that Lever is not a great one on on player and rarely takes the quality of players someone making that kind of money does. 

    Can you tell me a game where he has shutdown a dangerous player? I genuinely can't think of one. Even when he had a  decent patch for us in 2018 he was playing on very average players.

    Intercepts and spoils are a ridiculous stat to combine, I have no interest in a third man coming up and hitting a ball out of bounds, that is neutralizing a two on one.

    What is Lever? A key back or an oversized, under skilled flanker? 

     

     

     

    Edited by Watts the matter

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