ONE THING Jake Lever has come to expect is a hostile environment at the Adelaide Oval.
To say Crows fans like to make life tough for visiting sides would be an understatement, and they take their jeers to the next level when a former player returns.
Melbourne’s No.8 fits both categories.
“Someone asked me this morning if they were going to boo me, I thought they might’ve forgotten – obviously not,” Lever told Melbourne Media post-game.
Lever played 56 games for Adelaide in his first three years in the AFL system before seeking a trade home to the Dees.
There was no doubting the Round 16 clash was going to be a challenge, but the premiership defender was pleased with how his side handled the conditions on the road.
“It was great to be able to come out here and play the way that we did,” he said.
“We spoke about it before the game, that we needed to take the crowd out of it a little bit, and I thought we did that in the second half really well.
“We kind of fuelled their game in the first half, definitely.
“We knew that in the second half we had to come out and play the Demons way and hopefully take the crowd out of it.”
While the noise was one sided for most of the outing, it’s something the playing group doesn’t take for granted given the past two years of COVID-19 implications.
“It’s just great to be able to have fans back at the footy,” Lever said.
“Even though they were booing me, I think that it’s just a great atmosphere and I’ve got 21 other guys out there supporting me.
“There were a lot of Demons fans there today.
“For us to come over here and win was really good.”
The Crows, who are the best pressure side in the competition, hung with Melbourne for most of the evening, but the Demons held firm in defence to walk away with a 29-point victory.
“When you keep a team that are a really high offensive team to 10 goals, 15 scoring shots … it was a really good defensive performance,” Lever said.
“There were some things maybe in the first half that we would’ve liked to clean up, but definitely in the second half I thought it looked a lot better.”
To hear more from Lever, watch the full post-match interview below.
