Bernie Vince’s advice for Jake Lever ahead of grudge match against his former club

JAKE Lever is about to play his first game against his old side following a bitter breakup after last year’s Grand Final loss. Some of the angst is likely to resurface and Bernie Vince for one is envious. He’s offered some advice for his teammate.

IT says a lot about Bernie Vince’s competitive juices and combative spirit that he wishes he was Jake Lever leading into Melbourne’s clash with Adelaide.

Lever is about to play his first game against his old side following a bitter breakup after last year’s Grand Final loss. Some of that angst is likely to resurface — at least in a verbal sense — in the picturesque setting of Alice Springs.

Vince, who left the Crows for the Demons in more orderly circumstances in a trade in late 2013, will take on his former club for the sixth time. There isn’t any bad blood, but the 32-year-old defender is honest enough to admit he still gets fired up wherever and whenever he crosses paths with his former teammates.

“I would love to be Jake Lever,” Vince told the Sunday Herald Sun. “I love (playing on the edge).

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“If people are coming for me, I actually embrace that. I am sure Jake will be fine with it. What are they going to say to you ... there is a bit of physicality, there is a bit of huff and puff, but there is not much more you can do these days and get away with it.

“My advice to him would be to just focus on his game and his role. If they want to play (mind) games and huff and puff, then let them do it because it is just wasting their energy.”

Vince is thankful to be playing alongside Lever in the Demons’ backline, having been cleared of his bump on Carlton’s Dale Thomas last week, after more than a few restless moments.

One of those came when his good mate, best man in his wedding, and injured Adelaide skipper Taylor Walker rang him after the Demons’ 109-point flogging of the Blues, saying: “Oh well, at least we both won’t be playing this week.”

Melbourne training at Gosh's Paddock. Melbourne's Jake Lever . Pic: Michael Klein

Vince joked Walker suggested that he would be banned for two weeks, but he always felt as if he was in clear, saying he has been doing everything in his power to steer clear of match review assessments after a number of issues in recent years including a one-game ban and three separate fines last year.

“I thought I was all right, but whenever I do something like that, I always think I am right, and I have often proved myself wrong,” he said with a laugh.

“It was bloody good of Daisy to jump straight back up, even though he was pretty wounded.

“If I had’ve got him anywhere near the head, it would have been a week or maybe two.”

Vince still pushes the envelope on occasions, and won’t change his physical approach to the game. But the affable and easygoing footballer off the field remains as determined and desperate for success as anyone in the game.

“I tend to walk a pretty fine line,” he conceded. “I have gone high a few times and missed games when I have used my forearm. That’s not really tough, or within the rules, so that’s a silly thing to do.

“I have really pulled that back, but I still want to play a hard, physical brand of football.”

Adding extra spice to today’s game is the fact that Melbourne sits only 1.5 per cent above Adelaide on a congested ladder.

Bernie Vince has offered level some advice about playing a former club

“I guess there is extra feeling and extra significance this year,” he said of the pairing of teams sitting third and fourth respectively. “(Melbourne) is in the best position it has been in for a long time, but it is only Round 10. There is a long way to go in the season.”

“We have set ourselves up for a crack at the second half of the season. But we need to keep our focus, and keep doing the little things.”

That longing to be a part of the September is twofold.

Firstly, Melbourne last year came within 0.49 per cent of playing their first final since 2006, after losing to Collingwood in the final round, and watching helplessly as West Coast defeated Adelaide by 29 points to elevated themselves into September action.

Secondly, he hasn’t played in a final himself since the Crows’ heartbreaking five-point loss to Hawthorn in the 2012 preliminary final.

“We’ve spoken this year that if we can all the little things right, then they are going to take shape on the bigger things,” he said. “Last year proved that point.”

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“We missed out on the finals by the smallest margin anyone has missed out on. It still hurts, but in the long run, it proves that you have to be up for every match.

“I want to play finals at Melbourne and I want to do it this year,” he stressed.

Vince is preparing for life after football as co-director of Pride Real Estate in Prahran, but don’t take that for meaning he isn’t throwing everything into the game.

He is in the final year of his current deal with Melbourne, and hasn’t given hope of playing on in 2019, given his form is strong in his new near-permanent role at half-back, and his good physical condition.

He and Demons coach Simon Goodwin, a former teammate and mentor at the Crows, have agreed to wait until later in the year to make a decision on his future.

“Touch wood, I haven’t missed a session since we started in November,” he said. “I love being around the boys, they keep me young.

“I have had some pretty honest conversations with ‘Goody’ and he just said ‘I am not going to put a limit on how long you can play for’. There is a long way to go this season, so we will see what happens.

“It will purely be on form, which suits me. I want to keep contributing, I don’t want to be picked if it isn’t on form.”

For the moment, Vince’s form isn’t a problem. Neither is motivation, especially when playing against his old club, with a finals berth on the line in the coming months.

Originally published as Bernie Vince’s advice for Jake Lever ahead of grudge match against his former club