Only Jake Lever, Adelaide Crows know how his exit went down
CONSPIRACY theories abound with Jake Lever. There were enough during the 21-year-old defender’s difficult last season with Adelaide – and even more on his messy exit in search of a trade to Melbourne.
Michelangelo Rucci
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CONSPIRACY theories abound with Jake Lever.
There were enough during the 21-year-old defender’s difficult last season with Adelaide – and even more on his messy exit in search of a trade to Melbourne.
There is Lever’s ranking in the Crows’ club champion count for the Malcolm Blight Medal, appropriately won by All-Australian midfielder Matt Crouch.
Lever ranked 11th with 168 votes, raising eyebrows that a player who earned a league-wide top-40 All-Australian nomination did not make the top-10 of his club’s rankings.
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It should be remembered Lever played 20 of a possible 25 AFL games in the premiership season, missing by injury (either ankle and hamstring) in Rounds 1, 2, 8, 18 and 19.
On a pro-rate scale, Lever polled 8.4 votes a match – equal with the ninth-ranked Brodie Smith (20 games, 8.4 votes) and better than 10th-placed forward Eddie Betts (24 games, 7.8 votes).
The notion Adelaide would “rework” Lever’s votes to avert a top-10 ranking makes no sense when the Crows are emphasising to Melbourne the top-shelf value of the 56-game defender.
More so when the Crows want two first-round draft picks in a go-home trade.
Any conspiracy theory on knocking down Lever’s votes is a throwback to the 1990s when AFL clubs were caught out doing such to avoid paying bonuses based on club champion results.
But such silliness is not in Adelaide’s best interests when it wants a hot bidding war on Lever’s trade.
Lever’s absence from the dinner at the Adelaide Convention Centre on Friday night will create debate for some time.
The double-Dutch explanation that the Crows invited Lever but then encouraged him not to attend the function translates to the invitation being revoked.
Why? Clearly, relationships between Lever and key Adelaide players is beyond repair – and was fraying during the final series when Lever made it known to key Crows officials of his intent to leave the club.
The image of captain Taylor Walker surprising all by having a cast on his right hand – when he had carried a strapped left hand late in the season – leaves for mischievous suggestions Walker and Lever had more than a heated telephone call last week.
Walker’s black left eye was carried out of the grand final loss to Richmond.
Another interesting conspiracy theory develops from Lever making his announcement to leave Adelaide in an interview with Channel Seven football commentator Brian Taylor – a process that appears to have annoyed the Crows, who would had a preference on how to control the way last Tuesday played out.
They appear to have had an “understanding” – a trust - with Lever on how that trade request should have been presented.
Taylor, a long-standing family friend to the Levers, has been part of conspiracy theories all season for his enthusiastic remarks on Lever and his seemingly perceptive assessments on his future during his commentary this year.
But then, who really thought Lever was staying at Adelaide beyond 2017?
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