Jake Lever is out of contract so Melbourne has upper hand in bid to land Adelaide defender
THERE is little doubt now that young Crow Jake Lever wants to come home to Victoria. And JAY CLARK writes that Melbourne is in prime position to deal with Adelaide.
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MELBOURNE will take a leaf from Adelaide’s playbook when it gets to the nitty gritty of the battle for star Crow Jake Lever.
Right now, the two clubs stand opposed, with the Crows demanding two first-round draft picks for the gun key defender.
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They are right in saying Lever is an Alex Rance or Jeremy McGovern in the making, and a potential future club captain.
And it remains an industry-wide mystery why so many players have sought to leave the Crows in recent years as they prepare to secure a Grand Final berth with a win over Geelong tonight.
It’s an extraordinary effort, really, without a single top-10 draft pick on their list and why their recruiting chief Hamish Ogilvie is arguably the best in the business.
But there is little doubt now Lever wants to come home to Victoria to be closer to family and all indications are the Dees are his preferred destination.
The deal will be five years at least on about $750,000 a year, instantly making him one of the top three of four paid players at Melbourne, and he’s exactly what Simon Goodwin’s men need to help jump into the top four.
But they aren’t parting with two-first round choices without something else coming back and need only look back one year ago when the Crows refused to part with a pair of aces for Carlton’s Bryce Gibbs for some affirmation.
A furious Adelaide believed they would have been “irresponsible” to give up so much for the top-line ball-winner, believing such a high price did not represent “fair value” for the star midfielder who this year has taken his game to another level.
“We do not believe that (fair deal) would’ve been the case if we were to hand over at least two first-round draft picks or a combination of players, who are crucial to our short and long term success, as was requested,” Crows’ list chief Justin Reid said.
“Taking into account a large number of factors, we decided that proceeding with such an arrangement would have been irresponsible list management.”
You can see Melbourne football manager Josh Mahoney or list boss Todd Viney trotting out exactly the same lines at the start of the trade period as the Dees instead look to find some middle ground.
And what gives the Dees the upper hand here is that, unlike Gibbs, Lever is uncontracted for next season.
Melbourne is prepared to give its first-round pick (No.10 this year) and a later selection (No.27), or even swap their first-round pick for Adelaide’s in this year’s draft as part of a selection swap.
An almost identical deal was struck when Port Adelaide secured Charlie Dixon from Gold Coast in 2015, when traded pick No.10 plus a future second-round pick.
Collingwood forked out two first round picks (No.7 in 2016 and 2017) for Adam Treloar and got a second-round pick (No. 28) back but it is yet to be seen whether that deal stacks up in the Pies’ favour.
The jury is out, as it stands. Treloar is not yet a complete midfielder and not all of his possessions impact the game. Not yet, anyway.
Adelaide will say Lever, 21, is younger than Gibbs (27) was last year and therefore commands a higher premium. But Gibbs was also contracted for three more seasons and that’s why Carlton stood on its heels.
In the game of trade period bluff, Lever can put a price on his head, and most likely to get to Melbourne (at pick No. 10) in the national draft.
That would leave the Crows empty-handed right in the middle of their premiership window. But no one wants it to get to that point.
It might take until the 11th hour of trade period, but this deal will surely get done. Melbourne, like Adelaide, has a right to act responsibly.
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