"It was hard. It was hard," Lever told The Age. "It was a big couple of months." However he knew such a hectic period would be necessary if he was to achieve the return to Victoria he wanted. "You just have to live through that stuff if you are going to make hard decisions," Lever said. Lever's hard edge was developed on the playing fields of Romsey – a small community 50 kilometres out of Melbourne – where he worked his way into draft contention with a competitive nature that drove him to work hard.

He loved football but he was also a good boxer, walking to a local gym every night after school to spar. On his parents' farm in Lancefield, which they sold recently, he would join his brothers, Connor and Tyson in the property's old shed to do weights. "It was always good fun [and] almost like you escaped everything when you went to the shed," Lever said. On weekends he played for Romsey, competing in three junior premierships and being the runner for the seniors in 2011 when they won the flag. The next year, as a 16-year-old, he played at centre half-back in the seniors grand final as Romsey gave up a 15-point lead in the final four minutes to lose to Sunbury, which kicked a goal on the siren following a debatable free kick to win the match.

The memory still rankles. "[The loss] was obviously super disappointing. It was a unique circumstance," Lever recalled. "It was all a bit of a whirlwind for the next day or so but you move on and they [such losses] make you stronger, I guess." Any strength derived from that loss was needed less than two years later when Lever did his knee while training with the AIS/AFL academy on the Gold Coast. It kept him sidelined for what was to be his final year of under-age football before being drafted.

Although shattered at the setback, Lever attempted to prove his worth in other ways, never taking for granted the fact he was considered a top five pick before the injury. He assisted Vic Metro's back-line coach Ben Bailey during the under-18 championships, trained twice as hard with Calder Cannons conditioning coach Steve Forcone and pledged to at least one Cannons' teammate who was on the fringes of being drafted that he would help him in any way possible to achieve that outcome and then went about being a mentor to teammates. He then showed his steel when he finished the arduous season by competing in the Noosa triathlon in November 2014, just 25 days before the Crows used selection 14 to pick him in the AFL draft. "My knee rehab was specific to my knee and getting that knee better and ready for an AFL pre-season but that triathlon training on the side almost kept me sane," Lever said. It's that drive which defines Lever most in the eyes of his new teammates and made his departure so hard for Adelaide to bear, even though Lever only finished 11th in the club's best and fairest.

Melbourne watched Lever return to training ahead of time, his intensity on the track causing him to stand out. For the former Crow, the equation is simple. Work harder and everyone improves. "I learned pretty early on in Adelaide that the only way you are going to get better is by training as hard as you are going to play because the instincts and the habit you create at training are always going to come out on game day," Lever said. "Also, if I was trying 100 per cent, then I was going to make the bloke that I was playing on better as well, so therefore it was best for the team."

Matching up on Demon forwards Jesse Hogan, Sam Weideman and Tom McDonald at training is not only improving Lever, he hopes his refusal to get beaten is having a positive effect on their game. It's that competitive instinct that has seen him play more games than anyone else taken with the first 15 picks in his draft year (he is also one of six of the top 15 picks from 2014 to change clubs). Those who know him best also understand that Lever never shook his connection to Romsey. Even after he was drafted to Adelaide, he would return to Romsey to train in the off-season, catch up with family (he also has a sister Mikeely) and reconnect with where it all started for him. One of the aspects of returning to Victoria that excites him most is the chance to watch Romsey play on Saturdays when the Demons play a Friday night game.