AFL finals 2022: The inside story behind Melbourne trades that landed Jake Lever, Steven May
It wasn’t without hiccups along the way, but in Jake Lever and Steven May, the Demons went out to recruit defenders who would secure them a premiership.
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Adelaide put it on Jake Lever for an early answer on his future.
In the build-up to the 2017 finals series, the Crows eyeballed the gun defender for a steer on his likely decision, and were told he was keen to head to Melbourne.
While Lever thought he was doing the right thing being honest with his club, the Crows were furious at the time, saying the “financially motivated” backman had chosen “money over success”.
Remarkably, Adelaide people questioned whether it was better to dump Lever – one of the best intercepting defenders in the game in only his third season – for the ’17 finals series, considering he was on the way out.
It was a ridiculous proposition considering it would guarantee no player would ever be honest with their club again late in contract talks if it sealed their finals fate out of the team.
Melbourne’s offer to Lever was a five-year deal worth up to $800,000 a season for the then 21-year-old. Handy coin, definitely. But in the five years since, haven’t the tables turned.
On Friday night, All-Australian Lever, 26, will attempt to keep the Demons’ back-to-back premiership hopes alive with a semi-final win over Brisbane at the MCG.
Meanwhile, after missing the finals for the fifth-straight year, the Crows have dangled an $800,000-a-year carrot in front of Suns’ livewire Izak Rankine in a bid to bring him back home to South Australia.
That is a jackpot offer for a third-year forward with enormous potential, as the Crows and Suns prepare for tense trade talks around Adelaide’s No.5 draft pick.
In a sense, history has repeated itself, but the shoe is now clearly on the other foot for Adelaide, as the club attempts to bring a top-line local product back home to SA with a gangbuster contract.
Back in 2017, the Demons had won 12 games, and conjured a premiership plan to try and land Lever and Steven May, from Gold Coast, to help build the best defensive unit in the game.
For the Demons, who had already drafted dazzling midfielders Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Angus Brayshaw, the prized defenders were the missing piece of the flag puzzle.
As Richmond showed that year, the intercept game was king. Teams were scoring heavily on the counter-attack from half-back. And Lever would become, in part, Melbourne’s Alex Rance.
Demons’ gun recruiting boss Jason Taylor had loved Lever’s intercept mark game since his bottom age draft year (the year before Lever tore his ACL the first time), and had kept close tabs on his contract status.
And when the Demons broke through for a drought-breaking premiership last season, it was May and Lever who had the best defensive record in the competition, as they lifted the cup after trouncing the Western Bulldogs in Perth.
But back in ’17, it was Adelaide which looked like the best team in the competition as Don Pyke’s men smashed Geelong by 61 points in the preliminary final to go in favourite against Richmond in the premiership decider.
THE PHONE CALL
By then, emotions were already running high on one of the most acrimonious trade deals of recent times after Adelaide asked Lever bluntly for an early decision on his contract.
But the tension skyrocketed once more on the back of the grand final loss to the Tigers, when it was pointedly suggested that Lever give the best-and-fairest night a miss.
While Adelaide people were clearly filthy Lever wanted out, both parties were keen to avoid any heated confrontations after a couple of beverages when a big year ended with a painful loss.
“I wanted to be there with my mates, but after everything that happened that week, it was probably for the best,“ Lever said.
So, instead of saying goodbye in person that night, Lever admirably rang his teammates to explain his decision.
Many were understanding, but passionate captain Taylor Walker gave him both barrels over the phone. That is when things got more personal around Lever’s perceived “cash grab”.
“I said, ‘Mate, if that’s the decision you want to make – we’re two days out from losing a grand final and I think our footy club’s going in the right direction,” Walker said.
“For Jake, I think the difference in money was a lot. So if you’re driven by money or if you’re driven by success, it’s a decision you need to make.
In hindsight, Walker said he made a blue being so “blunt”.
And, somewhat ironically, Melbourne was one of the clubs linked to Walker earlier this year when the red-hot goalkicker looked for a contract extension.
“I’ve learnt from that,” Walker said. “The industry is that people are going to come and go, that’s just the way it is.
“Hopefully, he understands it probably didn’t come across the way it should have.”
But to Lever the spray cut deep, according to his father Alan.
Jake Lever’s mother, Narelle, had been seriously unwell, while he had also lost his grandparents, June and Brian, in the previous 18 months.
The young defender, then aged 21, wanted to be closer to his family and was hurt by the treatment he copped from the Crows on the way out, his dad said.
“I was probably the first one he rang (after the Walker call) and he (Jake) was devastated by it, he really was,” Alan Lever said.
“So it’s been pretty rough. It’s frustrating.
“He has given his heart and soul to the footy club over the past three seasons.
“It would mean the world to all of us to have him back (in Melbourne) together as a close-knit family.”
The following year, the club began to implode entirely on the back of the disastrous preseason camp which Eddie Betts and Josh Jenkins have described in horrific detail.
But first, Lever needed Adelaide and Melbourne to agree on a trade deal.
UNPACKING THE PICKS
While the negotiations were testy at times and slow to get moving, list boss Justin Reid achieved the Crows’ mission to receive two first-round draft picks for Lever.
The dominoes in the deal fell for three years and essentially helped pave way for Bryce Gibbs to cross from Carlton to Adelaide, clinched the Liam Stocker deal at Carlton, and secured Fisher McAsey and Luke Pedlar for the Crows.
How did it all work? In exchange for Lever, Adelaide netted picks No.10 in 2017 and No.19 in 2018, plus a future fourth-round selection after tough talks with former Melbourne footy boss Josh Mahoney.
Pick 10 (along with Adelaide’s No.16) went to Carlton as part of the Gibbs deal, while No.19 (from 2018) was also handed to the Blues as part of the Stocker live draft night swap.
Carlton had its eye on Stocker and rated him the sixth-best player in the draft.
When it came to the Crows’ pick 19 on the night, Blues’ list boss Stephen Silvagni pounced on the man who this week was delisted after 28 matches in four years.
In the Stocker swap, the Crows and Blues traded future picks for the following year’s draft (2019) in a bombshell move which stole the headlines on the night.
It meant that after the following season Carlton (which finished third-last) handed over pick 4 to Adelaide (which finished 11th).
The Crows then on-traded pick 4 (Lachie Ash) to GWS in return for pick 6 (McAsey) and a 2020 first-round pick (Pedlar) as part of a two-for-one move from Adelaide which was lauded at the time.
But McAsey has largely struggled to make an impact at Adelaide, and has not played seniors since he cracked through for 10 games in 2020.
Pedlar has played five AFL games and averaged 14 touches in the SANFL as a general forward this year, and despite some injury issues, looked good a fortnight ago bagging a pair of powerful long-range goals.
Clubs like him a forward-midfielder.
Gibbs finished fourth in the best-and-fairest in his first season at Adelaide in 2018, but fell out of favour the next year and played in total 37 games in his three seasons at his second club.
Meanwhile, Lever has delivered for the Demons, and is still in the prime of his career.
According to Champion Data, Lever ranks third for intercept possessions and spoils across the competition since he joined Melbourne and was last year crowned All-Australian in the premiership campaign.
But there was an added bonus. The Demons also drafted key backman Harrison Petty with the second-round pick (35) it received back from Adelaide in the Lever deal.
Petty was the No.1 rated key defender at the 2017 under-18 national championships.
Four years on, Lever, Petty and May were the three key defensive prongs in the premiership win over the Dogs.
MAY DAY
One year after the Lever deal went down, Melbourne zeroed in on May. The difference this time was the Demons faced a fight from Collingwood for the gun full-back.
Gold Coast had to rip off a big Band-aid.
The Suns had lost captain Gary Ablett in 2017, knew co-captain Tom Lynch was headed out as well in 2018, and then saw the writing on the wall when May also baulked at the Suns’ attempts to lock him away long term.
The Suns knew there was every chance May would leave, too, as a free agent in 2019. So they made the difficult call to trade him for an early pick at the same time as Lynch.
Collingwood had strong interest in Lynch and May, but were at a disadvantage as the Magpies did not have an early draft pick in 2018 after playing off in the grand final.
The Demons were in a far stronger position as they had pick 6 (after trading out Jesse Hogan) and happily parted with that choice for May and Kade Kolodjashnij.
The Suns used the draft bounty to reset, nabbing Jack Lukosius at pick 2, Rankine at pick 3, and Ben King with pick 6 from Melbourne.
TLA management boss Tom Petroro was the kingmaker in the mega-trade, helping save the swap involving as many as eight clubs after Fremantle’s Peter Bell threatened to pull out on the Hogan deal.
But Hogan and Rory Lobb went to Fremantle, Neale went to Brisbane Lions and is on his way to winning a second Brownlow Medal in three years, Chad Wingard became a Hawk, Port Adelaide landed Ryan Burton and drafted Connor Rozee, and Melbourne got its man May.
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TOUGH START
The Demons’ patience was tested early as the full-back arrived for pre-season training out of shape, hurt his hamstring, and was caught drinking while out injured.
They were perhaps only minor slip-ups at the time, but it amounted to a big headache in totality, as he played only eight games in his first season.
But the move paid rich dividends in 2021 as May led Melbourne to its first flag since 1964. He has been All-Australian in each of the past two seasons as the premier full-back in the game.
Of all key defenders, May ranks first for metres gained (average 438 metres a game), second for disposals (18.3), ninth for intercept marks (2.7) and 15th for intercept possessions over the past two years, according to Champion Data.
He was suspended for one match and left embarrassed earlier this year after he was punched by teammate Jake Melksham outside a restaurant following a heated argument.
May took responsibility for the incident and has apologised for his actions at Entrecote.
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