Player Watch #8: Jake Lever – Signed until 2028

[Demon bhoy]

His career isn't over.

The part where our clubs been paying him superstar money is 3 quarters over

 

[Demon bhoy]

‘Two first round picks’ one of them was pick 18 lmao, anyone would think we gave up pick 3 for him the way everyone goes on about it. The dude was on an AA track and then did his ACL and lost two years, and is now a crucial organising cog in one of the best back 6s in the comp. Of all the mistakes we’ve made recently this isn’t one of them. Take Lever out and our defence would have been substantially leakier this year, I guarantee it. He’s a victim of his own early success.

The title of the tread is was he worth it not I hope he’ll be worth it in the next 6 years, so far he hasn’t lived up to what the club gave up or what he makes per year, fingers crossed that changes, some positive signs this year

 

[Toump Ass]

TBH it's odd trying to quantify "value" while Jake is still in his nappies. Could run our backline for the next 15 years still.
If we end up with half a dozen flags by the time he's finished, I'd say he was "worth it".

 

[Crusty Demon]

Is he our highest paid player?

 

[Topkent]

The title of the tread is was he worth it not I hope he’ll be worth it in the next 6 years, so far he hasn’t lived up to what the club gave up or what he makes per year, fingers crossed that changes, some positive signs this year

That's all of your posts.
Pick 6 and we would be the greatest ever because draft picks....

 

[Demon bhoy]

That's all of your posts.
Pick 6 and we would be the greatest ever because draft picks....

If that were the case you would of been able to put up an easy agreement to contradict me and yet all I ever get is fan boy s**t and straw man arguments and confused rambling last about hindsight heroes with out any evidence to back it up.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

The title of the tread is was he worth it not I hope he’ll be worth it in the next 6 years, so far he hasn’t lived up to what the club gave up or what he makes per year, fingers crossed that changes, some positive signs this year

Then he’s already been worth it because the players taken around the picks we have up have been s**t and without him we’d have conceded probably another 30+ goals this year

 

[Demon bhoy]

Then he’s already been worth it because the players taken around the picks we have up have been sh*t and without him we’d have conceded probably another 30+ goals this year

30+ to say that’s stretching it would be an understatement, and to be fair others clubs poor drafting hardly justifies Levers lack of return on investment, but fingers crossed the best is yet to come and he can get to a level he was at while playing for the crows but has yet to get near with us.

His next contract negotiations are going to be very interesting, a big pay cut would be on the cards at this point unless he has a huge season in 2021

 

[schmuttt]

30+ to say that’s stretching it would be an understatement, and to be fair others clubs poor drafting hardly justifies Levers lack of return on investment, but fingers crossed the best is yet to come and he can get to a level he was at while playing for the crows but has yet to get near with us.

His next contract negotiations are going to be very interesting, a big pay cut would be on the cards at this point unless he has a huge season in 2021

Lever is OOC end of 2022 I believe so he has till then to have an AA level season to keep his pricetag.

 

[Demon bhoy]

Lever is OOC end of 2022 I believe so he has till then to have an AA level season to keep his pricetag.

You’d think he’d want to put a couple of high end seasons together, love to see him get back to that AA level, got 2 more years of him being paid like a star nice to see him play like one for us

 

[mrmonkey]

He looked good in 2018 before he got injured hasn't looked near it since but started to look better this year.

 

[Sonny Bonds]

Is a gun.

AA2020 based on stats.

 

[Daemon]

Just watched this video on YouTube with Lever mic`d up. This and listening to him live in a game is why I think he is a future captain of Melbourne. He has a real presence and leadership about him.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

I rate Lever pretty highly. Very talented player. I think his quality justfies 2 first rounders. You could argue hes overpaid but only on the basis that injury has stifled his ability to string games together. Nobodies fault. Just bad luck. He's young though so plenty of time to get his body right.

 

[00Stinger]

Just watched this video on YouTube with Lever mic`d up. This and listening to him live in a game is why I think he is a future captain of Melbourne. He has a real presence and leadership about him.

Would want to cut out the consistent brainfarts and regular costly turnovers to even be considered

Sent from my SM-G981B using Tapatalk

 

[Tulip]

Would want to cut out the consistent brainfarts and regular costly turnovers to even be considered

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That will come with experience. Hopefully this is the year. We just paid a lot so we expect him to accelerate that stuff out of his game quicker.

 

[00Stinger]

That will come with experience. Hopefully this is the year. We just paid a lot so we expect him to accelerate that stuff out of his game quicker.

He will be 25 this year so he will ant to go on leaps and bounds to justify his salary and trade value

 

[stEdy]

What I like about Lever is that even when he does fluff up, he continues to play aggresively/proactively and tries to make the play from the back half.

Not many defenders have that mindset and when his confidence and form grows (hopefully off the back of having more confidence in his body/knee) I think he will make an excellent trio with May and Tomlinson.

He should model his game on Dylan Grimes

2

Dylan Grimes

Age

32

Ht

194cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.6

3star

K

6.3

2star

HB

5.3

4star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.4

4star

MG

136.0

2star

D

12.2

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

4.8

3star

M

4.7

4star

T

1.4

2star

MG

136.0

2star

D

9.4

3star

K

3.8

2star

HB

5.6

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

1.0

3star

, can play small or tall, can intercept, can lockdown. We need Lever to have that flexibility in his game to create a top 4 defence.

 

[Topkent]

What I like about Lever is that even when he does fluff up, he continues to play aggresively/proactively and tries to make the play from the back half.

Not many defenders have that mindset and when his confidence and form grows (hopefully off the back of having more confidence in his body/knee) I think he will make an excellent trio with May and Tomlinson.

He should model his game on Dylan Grimes, can play small or tall, can intercept, can lockdown. We need Lever to have that flexibility in his game to create a top 4 defence.

Grimes is a great example too because he's a bit unco, would probably test horribly in the draft but just made himself a gun by playing 100% every contest every week

 

[Proper Gander]

He’s not dead or something, is he?

 

[Dory_77]

Grimes is a great example too because he's a bit unco, would probably test horribly in the draft but just made himself a gun by playing 100% every contest every week

Yeah, nothing about him screams superstar defender but he gets the job done every week and is crucial to the Tigers setup.

 

[Imet Hassa]

This will probably be unpopular and I precede it by saying I reckon he will be a very good player for us and I am excited about him in our backline but ... listening to him mic’d up I couldn’t help wondering if some other players might think him a bit of a w***er. I’m just a cynical old bastard but it seems that he has this leader rep and is trying hard to live up to it with his chatter - doesn’t feel natural.

 

[Proper Gander]

This will probably be unpopular and I precede it by saying I reckon he will be a very good player for us and I am excited about him in our backline but ... listening to him mic’d up I couldn’t help wondering if some other players might think him a bit of a w***er. I’m just a cynical old bastard but it seems that he has this leader rep and is trying hard to live up to it with his chatter - doesn’t feel natural.

I think he is a bit odd. I met him when he was our sponsored player. He is nice enough but doesn’t seem as though he connects with people effortlessly - I’ve wondered if this might impact a bit on his leadership capacity.

 

[Imet Hassa]

I think he is a bit odd. I met him when he was our sponsored player. He is nice enough but doesn’t seem as though he connects with people effortlessly - I’ve wondered if this might impact a bit on his leadership capacity.

That’s kind of what I was trying to get at but expressed in a nicer way, bit of a strange vibe but hey, mark the ball, intercept, hit targets and who cares!

 

[Grimesy87]

It's got to be hard on him personally, being injured for that year and a bit, coming back and playing in a dogshit team at years end of 2019, knowing you were paid highly but not being able to justify it through injury... Then finally getting on the field and being fit just in time for covid to disrupt the season and spend 3 months at home waiting for the maybe call that the season is going ahead, then pissing off to hub life for 3 months with a young kid.

So far on output he's not worth it on field. But if you bought shares for a 10 year plan and measured output after 3 years and judged the 10 year plan off that, you'd be a fool. Shitty analogy but writing him off after third year knowing he's still got 7 or 8 years left is ridiculously short sighted. I think he was pretty decent in 2020 but had some brain farts, so needs to improve on them and his confidence will probably grow on the back of that.