Melbourne secures star defender Jake Lever in trade with Adelaide

MELBOURNE paid a premium price for a premium player but Jake Lever could be the difference between finals contender and premiership contender.

Jake Lever has joined Melbourne. Picture: Getty Images

MELBOURNE paid a premium price for a premium player.

Was relinquishing two first-round draft picks for Jake Lever and change too much? Maybe.

Do we over-estimate draft picks at this time of year? Probably.

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They are unknown commodities and no club has painfully learned that prized selections can wind up as big busts more than the Demons.

Will spending $3 million over four years prove a wise investment? Yes. Lever could launch the Demons from September hopefuls to premiership hopefuls.

He may just take Melbourne to the promised land. The game’s intercept king could be the missing link. Why not?

Jake Lever in action during the Grand Final. Picture: Sarah Reed

After shock flags to the Western Bulldogs and Richmond it is time to aim with ambition.

Melbourne added to its track record of getting good deals done early as Lever followed Michael Hibberd, Bernie Vince, Dom Tyson and Jake Melksham into the club and into its best 22.

The Demons will end up parting with pick No.10 this year and roughly pick No.14 next year.

It is a bounty, but also less than the No.7 and 8 selections Collingwood parted with over consecutive years to secure Adam Treloar.

Melbourne holds picks No.27 and 35 and will get another pick for Jack Watts and now has Lever. Here is the case for Jake.

At just 21 he is the AFL’s No.1 intercept player with his aerial ability to kill opposition entries his one-wood.

Lever averaged 9.5 intercept possessions per game this season, shading four-time All-Australian Alex Rance (9.4).

Then there was a big gap to fellow All-Australian Michael Hurley (8.5) in third place.

The Romsey boy wins it in the air as well as on the ground.

Lever is the AFL’s No.2 intercept marker, his 3.6 clunks per game ahead of Jeremy Howe and just behind another All-Australian in Jeremy McGovern.

Champion Data rated Lever the third-best key defender this year, behind Rance and McGovern.

That is stellar company.

Why else do you think Adelaide kicked up such a stink when he told the Crows he wanted out?

Tex Walker didn’t go haywire when Jarryd Lyons left last year.

Comparisons to Rance have flowed all season. The Grand Final was just Lever’s 56th game and at the same stage of the decorated Tiger’s career he is well in front.

Over Lever’s career he averages 7.8 intercept possessions and 2.7 intercept marks. After 56 games Rance averaged 6.9 and 1.0

The critical question is this. Can Lever actual line up as a key defender?

He had a dream run this season as Daniel Talia and Kyle Hartigan toiled away in lockdown roles.

Jake Lever gets stuck into Harrison Himmelberg.

Lever’s one-on-one numbers aren’t great. From 49 contests this year he lost 37 per cent, worse than the AFL’s 29 per cent average.

Can brothers Tom and Oscar McDonald — and perhaps even Sam Frost — allow Jake to replicate those Adelaide antics?

Lever hasn’t really been exposed to gruelling match-ups.

The only forwards he spent more than 50 minutes on this year were Peter Wright (zero goals), Charlie Curnow (one goal), Harrison Himmelberg (one goal) and, in the Grand Final, Jacob Townsend (two goals).

Hardly a star-studded quartet.

But he is in.

And with Jesse Hogan staying and a bunch of elite midfield talent — headlined by rock star Christian Petracca and hard nut Clayton Oliver — rounded out by ruckman Max Gawn this is a juicy list.

The time for early draft picks at Melbourne is long gone. They need success, and Lever is ready to help deliver that.

Originally published as Melbourne secures star defender Jake Lever in trade with Adelaide