Former Adelaide Crow Bernie Vince tells Jake Lever that Sunday’s Desert Storm will be anything but just another game
HE ranks behind one other as Adelaide fans’ most unforgivable defector. And Bernie Vince has told fellow former Crow turned Demon Jake Lever that Sunday’s clash against his old side is not just another game and to prepare to come under attack.
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FORMER Crow turned Demon Bernie Vince has told teammate Jake Lever that Sunday’s clash against his old side is not just another game and to prepare to come under attack, but embrace it.
Vince was a fan favourite at Adelaide when the club controversially traded him to Melbourne in 2013 and his Dees upset the Crows by three points in his first return bout at Adelaide Oval the following season.
As Lever prepares to play Adelaide in Alice Springs this weekend, Vince has told him it will be a different experience.
“I’ve spoken to him this week and said every player who comes up against their old side comes out and says ‘it’s just another game and when the siren sounds we’ll forget about it’,” Vince told radio FIVEaa.
“But honestly it’s not, it’s different, and especially the first time for him I’m sure they’ll get stuck into him a little bit just to test him out more than anything to see if they can throw him off his game because he’s such an important player for us.
“He had eight intercept marks last week and 27 possessions, he’s a key player in our side so if you can find a chink in anyone’s armour you certainly test it out.
“So I’m certainly expecting something from Adelaide.
“The first time I played Adelaide was pretty memorable for me too, but it’s certainly a different experience and what I look forward to, so Jakey will be fine.”
If Lever can take any comfort from the angst he endured at leaving Adelaide last year, it’s that Crows supporters still can’t get over Kurt Tippett’s defection in 2012.
More than 50 per cent of 2000 respondents to an advertiser.com.au poll this week said Tippett was the one player they could not forgive for walking out.
Tippett said publicly he wanted to return home to the Gold Coast before requesting a trade to Sydney and leaving amid a salary cap storm.
Lever polled the second most votes with 17 per cent followed by Patrick Dangerfield (15 per cent), Jack Gunston (13 per cent), Charlie Cameron and Phil Davis (2 per cent) and Nathan Bock (1 per cent).
Adelaide is without key forwards Taylor Walker and Mitch McGovern for Sunday’s game, meaning there’s a good chance Lever will line up on Darcy Fogarty who the Crows took with their first-round draft pick last year.
Melbourne gave Adelaide Pick 10 for Lever which it gave to Carlton to secure Bryce Gibbs, and used Pick 12 to draft South Australian lad Fogarty who has been playing across half-forward in his first five games.
Despite the storm that engulfed him when he asked to be traded after last year’s grand final loss, Lever doesn’t think there is any bad blood between him and his old side.
“I don’t think there is any bad blood anywhere,” he said.
“At the start it was always going to be pretty hasty in terms of leaving the club especially after the disappointment of last year but we’ve all moved on and we’re in an industry where players move all the time.
“I’m still really good friends with Hugh Greenwood, Rory Atkins, Kyle Hartigan, I’m sure there will be a bit of banter but it’s all in good fun.”
Asked whether he was relieved the game was being played in the NT and not at Adelaide Oval, Lever said it didn’t matter.
“We go over there (Adelaide) in Round 19 anyway so it’s just pushing it back a bit further, I guess it will be interesting up in Alice Springs and there won’t be the whole crowd booing me but Round 19 that will come,” he said.
And he has no regrets about walking way from the club that drafted him with Pick No.14 in 2014 and where he was touted as a future captain.
“Absolutely not, I’ve loved every minute I’ve been back here at the footy club and the city of Melbourne, closer to family, and the good thing is my friends and family get to come and watch me every week.
“I’m super excited to come up against the old side, it’s obviously been circled in the calendar for a while now and it’s going to be a huge challenge.
“For me it’s sticking to what I’ve been doing the past month in terms of my preparation and trying not to listen to any outside noise, just try to play good footy and contribute to the team.”
reece.homfray@news.com.au
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