When Adelaide defender Jake Lever wanted to increase his versatility, he only had to look as far as his own forward line to provide the solution.
Lever went toe to toe with key forwards Taylor Walker and Josh Jenkins during pre-season intra-club games before shifting his attention to combating the pace and speed of Eddie Betts and Charlie Cameron.
Being able to take on smaller forwards was a weakness the 194cm Lever was desperate to correct after being left out of Adelaide’s team for last season's two finals games.
"With the Bulldogs' small forward line, the match committee went with Kyle Cheney, which was the right decision, but it gave me a big driving force throughout the off-season to work harder and come back this year and make sure it doesn't happen again,'' Lever told AFL Media.
"At the moment, I'm a third tall, so I need to be able to play on that tall bloke or the resting ruckman who might come down, but also being able to play on that medium-sized small forward.
''In the pre-season, I played a little bit on Eddie and Charlie, and then I was playing on blokes like Tex and JJ as well.
"It was a great learning curve throughout the pre-season to know you're never going to play on the exact same player every week.
"Adelaide's probably got the best forward line (in the competition) so to be able to train against them gives us so much confidence.''
Lever's work has paid off. The impressive 20-year-old has played all nine games this season to become a regular in Adelaide's back six.
A shrewd selection with the 14th pick in the 2014 draft, the Crows have locked in Lever until the end of 2017.
Lever's versatility will be needed when the Crows attempt to contain a red-hot Greater Western Sydney side at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.
The Giants boast a dangerous forward line featuring Jeremy Cameron, Jonathon Patton and Rory Lobb, along with small options such as Steve Johnson and Toby Greene.
"(Cheney) will probably get first crack at Stevie J, he's played really well on those sort of players like (Patrick Dangerfield) and (Jake) Stringer in the past couple weeks,'' Lever said.
"As well as team defence, we pride ourselves as a back six to be able to play on anyone.
"We've got the three talls in myself, Kyle Hartigan, who has been playing some great football, and Daniel Talia, so we've got a variety.''
The Crows will need to find a way to limit Cameron's contribution after the gun forward tore apart the Bulldogs last week.
"He works so hard, just runs and runs, I think he's in the mould of Nick Riewoldt,'' Lever said.
"When the ball is coming in like it has for the Giants the past couple of weeks, it's pretty hard to stop him.
"(Talia) will get first crack at him, he loves the challenge and I'm backing him in to get the job done.''
