AFL: Melbourne’s All-Australian defender Jake Lever struggling to match his 2021 premiership heroics
Consecutive defeats have dramatically changed Melbourne’s once-cosy existence, with a star defender still searching for his best football.
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There’s no denying it.
Melbourne’s All-Australian defender Jake Lever has slipped from being a record-breaker last year to just a rank-and-file contributor – and even below average on some metrics.
Everything is down: disposals, marks, intercept marks, intercept possessions, spoils. The list goes on.
The Demons dealt with a series of off-field distractions in the past week, but unlocking the Lever of 2021 must occupy plenty of their planning for on it.
Lever snatched double-digit intercept possessions each week last season, including more than four intercept marks, as his club marched to a drought-busting premiership.
Those numbers made him the greatest thief in VFL/AFL history and were always going to be tough to replicate, but the drop off has been alarming.
A plantar fascia injury delayed Lever’s season start until round 4, then a fortnight later he missed another game while in the AFL’s health and safety protocols.
Perhaps, those interruptions go some way to explaining why the 26-year-old – in the prime of his football life and part of the best side in the competition – is struggling to make the same impact.
Lever is averaging a pedestrian 1.6 intercept marks in his eight games this season, which is worse than the average key defender.
Making that more troublesome is Melbourne isn’t paying him big bucks to shut down the AFL’s best forwards, at least directly.
In fact, only four of his match-ups this year qualify under Champion Data’s minimum 40-minute criterion: Hawk Jack Gunston (42), St Kilda’s Tim Membrey (47), Docker Matt Taberner (44) and Sydney’s Logan McDonald (41).
Lever conceded multiple goals to both Taberner and McDonald in those brief shifts, with the young Swan proving particularly problematic.
He remains mostly a third-man-in specialist, and those lack of match-ups also tell us that opposition coaches aren’t sending defensive forwards to him to dull his influence. There goes that theory.
Lever’s also defending fewer one-on-one contests in 2022 (2.5 per game, compared to 3.2 a year ago), but is winning slightly more of them and losing almost half as many.
He’s had more responsibility in the past two weeks, with fellow All-Australian Steven May playing not even a quarter in that period because of a concussion and Harry Petty dealing with knee, shoulder and shin issues.
May will be out again – this time serving a club-imposed ban for his role in a fight with teammate Jake Melksham – for Monday’s Queen’s Birthday clash with Collingwood that carries great significance after back-to-back defeats and a week from hell.
If ever there was a time for Lever to rise again, this is it.
Former Demon Jordan Lewis, now a Fox Footy commentator, believes his ex-teammate’s issues are many and varied.
“What I’ve seen over the last two weeks is the opposition creating good separation,” Lewis told News Corp.
“They’re understanding where Lever is setting up and they’re kicking it away from there, or the player who is opposing him is leading him out of the direction where they know the ball might go.
“It’s also a by-product of what’s happening further afield. If you’re a zone-off defender and you understand that your No.1 weapon is to zone off and impact in the air, you need delay on the ball.
“If you don’t have that, you’re stuffed.”
Lewis is less concerned with Lever’s form as he is with how Melbourne’s “safe” ball movement from the back half, especially compared to its premiership season, is hurting the star defender’s ability to be at his best.
The Dees used the corridor out of their defensive 50 the 10th-most in the AFL last year and that has dropped to 15th this season, which backs what the 319-gamer is seeing.
“They’re going down the line a lot, so with that actually comes a bit of risk, because they’re being beaten aerially at the moment,” he said.
“But also, everything is really skinny, so when the opposition gets it, they’ve got more room to actually attack and I think sometimes the ball movement is too fast for Lever to be able to get back and impact.
“He’s probably worried about his own man, because he’s had those other key defenders sort of in and out of the side and he’s gone more man conscious.”
Lever will have a new defender by his side against the Magpies, with 2021 mid-season draftee Daniel Turner promoted for his debut at the expense of Adam Tomlinson, who struggled badly a week ago.
Melbourne needs Lever to perform, but, as Lewis points out, Lever needs his teammates’ help just as much.
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Originally published as AFL: Melbourne’s All-Australian defender Jake Lever struggling to match his 2021 premiership heroics
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