List Mgmt. Weak Flog Jake Lever Requests Trade to Melbourne, Causes Player Revolt

Where will Jake Lever end up?


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Scorpus

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The first thing I would do is address the list and cap management. I'd get rid of unnecessary depth players, stop trading in unnecessary depth players, and stop giving inflated contracts to mediocre senior players. I'd also be much more rutheless about moving on guys who aren't good enough, even if they've played 150+ games. This would help free up salary cap space to either a) retain gun players; or b) trade in gun players from other teams. The goal here is to ensure we can compensate for the "Adelaide factor" which hurts both retention and acquisition. If we have to pay some local players less to achieve this, so be it.

I'd be much more aggressive at giving long term contracts to developing guns early on in their career. It didn't take long to realize Lever was a gun. I'd have signed him up to a 4-5 year deal after his first year, with performance clauses. Instead we gave him a 1-year extension. Teams like Sydney have given healthy extensions to players like Heeney and Mills before they can be tempted away by godfather offers. We should do the same.

Then I'd focus on the draft. We should be trading up (and only up) in the draft order to position ourselves such that if a gun SA youngster is available, we have the pick to acquire him. For example, if we believe Forgarty will be drafted around pick 7, we should attempt to trade up such that we have a pick in that range. If Fogarty is taken earlier, we still have a great pick to get an interstate player. If a player we rate 1 or 2 slides to 7, sure, grab them instead. But I'd prioritize our draft positioning around SA players within reason and trade up to get there.
 

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oriXon

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Guys, no chance we're getting Petracca.. Wouldn't mind seeing Jack Trengove + Melbourne's 1st.
Adelaide boy. Not getting much of a go at Melbourne. The talent is there, just needs consistency..
 

cm_perfect

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We must play hard ball with any trade and make it a process that players thinking of leaving are scared to go through.
Due to the DangerFlog departure and the ridiculous ups and downs on the BF thread 2 years ago I have been in the gorrrn camp since mid year. (For any unsigned player)If they want out they can tell their story walking as far as I am concerned.

But your above quote nails it for me, we need to stop being so nice in accommodating these millennial whims. We need to start being Caring Understanding Nice TypeS at the trade table to make it as unsavoury as possible to get to their nominated dung hole. Unfortunately this may involve cutting our nose off to spite our face at some stage but we have to send a message at some point.

It's not losing players that irks me, it's the shit sandwich we gobble down at the trade table..
 
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Lets not lose sight of this... There are men who want to play AFL. There are men who want to play for a winning club like Adelaide. They decide to leave this opens the door of opportunity to another guy who wants to play. Alex Keath wants to play... you can see it in his persona...

There will be others who can fill the space... no one or two players are bigger than the club (call it the dangerfield effect).

We are better off.. and if they dont want to stay.. thanks for your service.. give someone else a chance to grow and develop.
 
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Your original post was a broad statement of opinion, nothing more.

A good example of comparison might be Buddy Franklin. All Hawthorn received as compensation was pick 19 when Hawthorn chose not match the offer he received from Sydney. Buddy was taken at pick 5, who signed a multi million dollar contract with Sydney for 9 years.
I'm talking about trades, not free agent compensation mate so get your facts right.......are you a Collingwood or Melbourne supporter by any chance???
 

Big Gazoongas

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That's one of two lines that is rolled out every time.

Bock - "Godfather offer" to join Gold Coast
Davis - "Godfather offer" to join GWS
Tippett - "Godfather offer" to leave and "didn't want to live in Adelaide"
Gunston - "Wanted to go home"
Dangerfield - "Wanted to go home"
Lever - "Godfather offer"

Every single one of these excuses is blame shifting from the club to the players because it's easy. Oh how convenient, we couldn't retain Lever because he got a "godfather offer". We did nothing wrong. It's all Lever's fault. What a campaigner. And that Gunston bloke, what a flog, couldn't retain him if we tried because he couldn't bare the thought of living in Adelaide.

We are not going to fix the issue until we accept some of the blame and work out genuinely effective strategies to retain players.
Are you prepared to pay Lever $850k, yes or no?
 

feenix67

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Switched on post that.

Would we be top without Lever and Gov? Without Gov we wouldn't have lost at home by only 3 points against Sydney.

Also we might not be top after this weekend?
Doing alright without Danger...

Look I'd rather keep them, but this talk of the club losing players hand over fist is silly. We have a top 10 mid and a premier CHB, both Victorian, both ignored major offers to commit long term. We have a young gun forward about to sign despite major pull from his home state.

We can't keep them all.
 

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feenix67

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That's one of two lines that is rolled out every time.

Bock - "Godfather offer" to join Gold Coast
Davis - "Godfather offer" to join GWS
Tippett - "Godfather offer" to leave and "didn't want to live in Adelaide"
Gunston - "Wanted to go home"
Dangerfield - "Wanted to go home"
Lever - "Godfather offer"

Every single one of these excuses is blame shifting from the club to the players because it's easy. Oh how convenient, we couldn't retain Lever because he got a "godfather offer". We did nothing wrong. It's all Lever's fault. What a campaigner. And that Gunston bloke, what a flog, couldn't retain him if we tried because he couldn't bare the thought of living in Adelaide.

We are not going to fix the issue until we accept some of the blame and work out genuinely effective strategies to retain players.
You call it blame shifting, I call it reality.

You could list the ones who've ignored big offers to stay too.

Shit.

Happens.
 

Geoffa32

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That's one of two lines that is rolled out every time.

Bock - "Godfather offer" to join Gold Coast
Davis - "Godfather offer" to join GWS
Tippett - "Godfather offer" to leave and "didn't want to live in Adelaide"
Gunston - "Wanted to go home"
Dangerfield - "Wanted to go home"
Lever - "Godfather offer"

Every single one of these excuses is blame shifting from the club to the players because it's easy. Oh how convenient, we couldn't retain Lever because he got a "godfather offer". We did nothing wrong. It's all Lever's fault. What a campaigner. And that Gunston bloke, what a flog, couldn't retain him if we tried because he couldn't bare the thought of living in Adelaide.

We are not going to fix the issue until we accept some of the blame and work out genuinely effective strategies to retain players.
We corrected a big issue that was exposed with Gunston leaving with getting our own Reserves team.

He hated being aligned with Centrals. Concerned about playing there again the following year if not selected in AFL.
It was a ridiculous set up in hindsight.


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Vikingblood

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Guys, no chance we're getting Petracca.. Wouldn't mind seeing Jack Trengove + Melbourne's 1st.
Adelaide boy. Not getting much of a go at Melbourne. The talent is there, just needs consistency..
Trengove is cooked unfortunately. I wouldn't even take him as steak knives.
 
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Without injury it was expected he could have been drafted as high as top 5. From the year he was drafted he is ranked alongside Isaac Heeney in hindsight as either 1 or 2. He is 21 years old and shown leadership to point of being considered a future captain. He is rumoured to be

Either way, your statement was broad. How about you pony up a few facts to support your "sweeping" statement?
You didn't answer my question, are you a Collingwood or Melbourne supporter?
 

Scorpus

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You could list the ones who've ignored big offers to stay too.
But this isn't unusual. Any player who is half decent will receive big offers to switch clubs. We are not the only club where some players miraculously turn down large offers and resign against all odds.

However, most clubs tend to have more "miraculous resignings" than "godfather offer defections". There is no other club in the league that has lost talent like we have, with perhaps the exception of 20-top-10-draft-pick-GWS. It's these losses that are the unusual and concerning factor, not the retentions, which are standard fare.

Which is why the attitude of "shit happens" irritates me. It would make sense if players leaving clubs in droves was the norm, but it flat out isn't. The reality is shit happens, but only to the Adelaide Crows. This indicates to me that we are the outlier with a problem that needs resolving.

And even so, if shit really does happen, why is our strategy so abysmal at dealing with it? Why don't we use defections to our advantage and start gaining quality players with the cap and trade resources we should have?
 

AmericanCrow

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Doing alright without Danger...

Look I'd rather keep them, but this talk of the club losing players hand over fist is silly. We have a top 10 mid and a premier CHB, both Victorian, both ignored major offers to commit long term. We have a young gun forward about to sign despite major pull from his home state.

We can't keep them all.
Okay..where is the real Feenix?
 
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Outstanding, now you've deflected completely away from the topic and drifted into paranoid accusations? Go away ..
Ok you want facts? Should we compare what Gold Coast got for an omeara who can't get onto the park compared to what Adelaide got for the best player in the game, both got a first and second rounder. Plenty more as well if you want more.
 
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Scorpus

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Are you prepared to pay Lever $850k, yes or no?
This is an irrelevant question. No club has to directly match competing offers, they only have to get close enough. If an $850k offer was "getting close enough" then Lever would be receiving offers in the $1m+ range. If that was the case, I wouldn't do it.

But if Lever receiving an $850k offer from another club means $700-750k is close enough, I think we should at least have the ability to match that. I think his fair value is in the $600k range. Looking at our list profile, I'd happily drop a depth player like Hampton or Mackay if it meant freeing up the extra $100k p/a that would see the deal get done.
 
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Ok you want facts? Should we compare what Gold Coast got for an omeara who can't get onto the park compared to what Adelaide got for the best player in the game, both got a first and second rounder. Plenty more as well if you want more. Go away troll, nobody likes you :thumbsu:
Ouch .. that was brutal .. pretty sure my mum still likes me. Plenty of stories of hits and misses in trades. Be nice to see a bit more balance sometimes.
 
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