Melbourne mismanaged Lever signing: Watson

Tim Watson has criticised Melbourne for a lack of foresight when trumpeting the signing of Jake Lever from Adelaide.

He says not having Lever dressed up in a Melbourne jumper before he went overseas was a faux pas and battered their reputation, particularly when Essendon had a back page spread of their new signing Devon Smith in Essendon colours.

“I reckon Melbourne took a battering last week. Last Friday there’s a big back page photo of Devon Smith in his new Essendon gear,” Watson said on SEN Breakfast.

“Forget the fact that this is Essendon, the player that everybody was talking about last week was Jake Lever, and have been for over a month now, about whether or not he was going to end up at Melbourne.

“On the day that it gets announced that he’s going to Melbourne, (they) end up with this tiny little photo on the back page of The Age. It was like a little passport photo of Jake Lever that he had taken, it was a selfie he had taken on holidays.

“Surely somebody at Melbourne would have the nous to dress him up in a Melbourne jumper before his little trip, so that the Melbourne Football Club when they announced that Jake Lever was going there was going to get maximum exposure for it?”

Watson said if he was a Melbourne sponsor he would be far from happy with the way club handled the situation.

“If I’m a Melbourne sponsor, and I pick up The Age last Friday morning and I see that tiny little photo of Jake Lever and the big one of Devon Smith, I’m ringing up Peter Jackson and saying ‘what the hell are you doing?’” he said.

“They could’ve handled it better.”