Crows defender Jake Lever is one of five players tracked by writer Emma Quayle through their draft year in her new book, The Draftees.
The stories of Peter Wright, Isaac Heeney, Tom Lamb and Clem Smith are also told in The Draftees, Quayle’s follow-up to her 2008 book The Draft. Quayle was also given exclusive access to St Kilda’s recruiting team and strategies throughout the year.
The Draftees, published by Penguin, RRP $32.99
Here’s an excerpt from the book, where Lever’s name is called by the Crows on Draft night:
Pick 14
Jake knew by the time he sat down at his family’s table that he was probably not going to be a top 10 pick. Hurry . . . he thought as the telecast started and the commentators spoke for more than 25 minutes. Please hurry . . . he thought, as the AFL lawyer read out the draft rules and the first ten clubs started making their selections.
The last few days hadn’t dragged nearly as much as Jake had expected they would: the Levers had spent the week on the Gold Coast and the sun, beach and theme parks had taken his mind off what was about to happen, how different his life was about to become, how long he had been waiting for it. It was only when he started seeing recruiters around the hotel on Wednesday afternoon that he realised there wasn’t long left to go, and by the time Jess flew in that night he was nervous, jittery and ready for it to be over. Sitting there he started to feel more agitated, more anxious, a little emotional and overwhelmed already. Why were they taking so long?
Time seemed to speed up as soon as the top 10 was done. After Gold Coast chose Pete (Wright) at pick 8, Collingwood confirmed its selection of Darcy Moore and Geelong pulled the first surprise of the night, calling Nakia Cockatoo’s name with the club’s first top 10 pick since it had chosen Joel Selwood in 2006. The Cats had been interested in Nakia all year, but after watching him tear around the MCG on grand final day, recruiting manager Stephen Wells had started to worry that pick 14 might not be enough to get him, prompting the Cats to go to Adelaide late in the trade period, offering to swap 14 and 35 for 10 and 47.
West Coast had pick 11 and chose another onballer, Liam Duggan. Richmond had pick 12, and took Corey Ellis. Fremantle was next, and Jake started to breathe even deeper. ‘This could be it,’ he whispered to Jess, but then the Dockers called Lachie Weller’s name. This will be it, he thought then, certain that the Crows would pick him. He was right. ‘Player number 214981,’ said Hamish Ogilvie. ‘Jake Lever. Calder Cannons, Romsey Football Club.’
Jake had been high on Adelaide’s list all year. Ogilvie and the rest of his recruiting team had loved his 2013 season − kids didn’t get picked to captain the Vic Metro team as seventeen-year-olds unless they had a lot going for them − and would have chosen him with a top 10 pick that year had it been at all possible. He had never tested quick, but they thought he played quickly. Their club doctor had been satisfied with the state of his knee eleven months after surgery.
Ogilvie had got to know him well in London on the academy trip, watching him almost run the rehab group on his own, and knew he would have no trouble moving interstate. ‘He never went up our list and he never went down,’ he said. ‘We didn’t let ourselves get too attached to what he did last year, but we never let ourselves forget it, either.’
The Crows had made it clear to other clubs when trading started that they were keen to improve their draft position, and willing to look at trading their pick 10 for the right deal. The club’s grand plan – to get four picks inside 50 − didn’t quite come off, but the Geelong deal meant moving only four spots down the first-round order, and the draft pool was so even that they believed they would still get a player they rated in their top 10 if they did the deal, while gaining a much improved second-round pick.
They weren’t overly worried Fremantle would choose Jake: the Dockers hadn’t spoken to him in a long time, and they were known for their thoroughness. They were somewhat concerned that Melbourne might take him at pick 3. But had that happened, there was nothing they could have done about it. The trade saw Adelaide come under pressure from the local media, which wondered whether the club had handed away the rights to Sam Durdin, and why. Widely considered the best South Australian in the draft, Durdin was a top-five prospect in some recruiters’ minds, and the Crows rated him highly, too – they simply considered Jake to be a bit more mature, a bit more attacking, a desperate competitor and a compelling leader. He also played in a position they were looking to fill in a way they felt would complement their All Australian full-back, Daniel Talia, nicely.
In an interview the day before the draft, Paddy McCartin told them Jake had been his hardest opponent. ‘Last year he was the best of all the key defenders. So what we think is that if he hadn’t missed the year, he’d still be the best,’ said Ogilvie. ‘He ran the ball out of defence, his marking was outstanding and he went for the ball unconditionally, all the time.
History shows you that the best players are the best players at every level they play at, and Jake beat everyone he played on last year. He hates getting beaten so he doesn’t let it happen. We went through it, we went through it again, we lined everything up and we loved him from start to finish.’
To Jake, it was funny how instantly he felt like an Adelaide player. He was wearing a red, blue and yellow polo shirt within minutes. He was out in a back room talking to an Adelaide radio station not long after that. Phil Walsh, the Crows’ new coach, sat next to him at dinner, asking him all about where he had grown up, telling him what training would be like.
He had phone call after phone call: from Rory Sloane, Taylor Walker, Nathan van Berlo, Scott Thompson, his new teammates all of a sudden. He was due to fly over on Sunday, to move in with Patrick Dangerfield and get started the next day. He wished it could happen sooner. ‘It’s been fourteen months since I’ve played a game of footy and I really want to play a game of footy. The sooner I’m over there, the closer I am. I can’t wait. I’d fly there tonight if I could.’
