MANY Crows fans wondered what life in Adelaide’s defence would be like without Jake Lever this year.
Five games into 2018 and it’s as if Lever never left the Crows, because his clone is doing just as good a job — at an eighth of the price.
With Lever struggling to make an impact at Melbourne, Tom Doedee is looming as a 2018 revelation for the Crows.
After being taken with Pick 17 in the 2015 draft, Doedee spent a couple of seasons playing with the Crows’ SANFL team, where he was the league’s No. 1 intercept player in 2017.
In fact, Doedee is averaging more disposals, marks and intercept marks at Adelaide than Lever is at Melbourne.
The Crows weren’t prepared to match Lever’s financial demands, hence why he was traded to the Dees during the off-season. In exchange, the Crows got a couple of first-round picks, but knew they had a ready-made replacement in Doedee waiting in the wings.
On Friday night against Sydney, the AFL world got a true glimpse of Doedee’s potential, with the 21-year-old with 25 disposals and 11 marks — of which six were plucked from opposition kicks.
Dual premiership Kangaroo David King said Doedee produced an “awesome” performance in Adelaide’s mighty win — and showed the Crows might’ve scored another draft bargain
“We all wondered what life after Jake Lever was going to be. This is probably why they didn’t want to pay the big money and they secured those first two rounds picks, because they knew they had this guy, who was the No. 1 interceptor in the SANFL last year, ready to go,” King told Fox Footy.
Brownlow Medallist Gerard Healy said Doedee was a born interceptor.
“He had to cut his teeth. He had to put in a couple of years at SANFL level — and he’s hungry,” Healy said.
The other aspect premiership coach Paul Roos pointed out was how long Doedee had to bide his time in the SANFL before being rewarded with AFL experience.
Roos highlighted the likes of key-position players Jacob Weitering and Josh Schache, who are struggling for form at the moment after being thrown in the deep end during the early stages of their career by Carlton and Brisbane respectively.
“It’s a great example of how you can develop talent,” Roos told Fox Footy.
“Put them in the seconds, let them develop their habits … it has paid off.
“He looks like a really sound, good defender that’s just going to keep going upwards.”