On 01/02/2026 at 11:24, Lil_red_fire_engine said:

On May I think the truth is somewhere between the two opinions. There was a sizeable gap between his best and worst games where historically he has been ultra consistent. His worst games came when he was manned on mid-sized leading forwards, something he has excelled at in the past but age has caught up with him. He now also struggles to bend and therefore his ground ball game which used to be serviceable has deserted him. May on the right match ups in 2026 will be a benefit but this might be a week to week proposition. If King is looking for the future and not the now then having others ahead of him in best 23 is likely.

May was BOG playing on Billy Elliot KB

On 01/02/2026 at 11:24, Lil_red_fire_engine said:

On May I think the truth is somewhere between the two opinions. There was a sizeable gap between his best and worst games where historically he has been ultra consistent. His worst games came when he was manned on mid-sized leading forwards, something he has excelled at in the past but age has caught up with him.

He also struggled on the oppo's premier forward last year. Ben King kicked a combined 7 on him across two games, Mitch Georgiadis destroyed him at the Adelaide Oval and I doubt he lasted a quarter on Jack Gunston. Even a grossly out of form Curnow had 2 goals on May before the spectators at the G had even taken their seats.

May very rarely had bags kicked on him prior to 2025 which probably indicates that he's a few metres from his career finish line.

If the HS article is a legitimate framing of Lever's mindset he is completely delusional. He clearly feels that he is entitled to a spot in the team because he is Jake Lever; never mind that other players are performing better, are better suited to modern day football, and are a better fit for the game plan and the structure of the team.

Lever has barely played a decent game since 2021, he is always injured or underdone and he is an absolute liability when it comes to being accountable for his opponent. We can't play him and Turner in the same team, and Turner deserves first crack at the role based on his efforts last year.

And yes, May should spend the entire year at Casey unless we have multiple injuries to key defenders.

On 30/01/2026 at 18:55, BW511 said:

Lever must have had some very soft post-match reviews if he was shocked at being dropped.

He really must have. Or he was just ignoring what he was being told.

Or, much worse, someone was being disingenuous. The only thing worse than pulling punches during reviews would be pulling punches and then stopping suddenly.

"You're going well. You're going well. You're going well. You're playing at Casey." That would be so much worse than: "You're going OK. Not your best game. You really need to work on X and Y. Sorry, you need to work on stuff at Casey."

On 30/01/2026 at 15:40, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Did anyone lazily read the bit about Simon Goodwin and thought it read "Lever still doesn't agree with the Simon Goodwin decision" (sacking)

A fit and firing Lever will make our defence far better this year. An outstanding reader of the play at his best.

And if May can start moving like a professional athlete on the field again (as opposed to the version we saw at times last year) then I can see the "old firm" leading our backline again for round 1. They only played 5 games together last year - one of them being the impressive Sydney win.

I sense that there is a bit of animosity there. I don’t think it’s about the dropping, but I expected to read, ,”didn’t agree but no harm done and we are still in touch, will always respect him etc etc” it was pretty much next question.

Professional sportsman should be borderline delusional.

At the point he no longer believes in his body/ability is when he should retire.

New coach, plenty of new faces, yet the guy is still labouring the pain of being dropped last year? In an awful year from the team as a whole.

When I read the title I thought 'pain' was relating to his frustrations with injury. I'm glad it's spurred him on to a good pre season, it's a big year coming up for Lever because another year like the last few will see him gone.