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"Not easy": Former Carlton coach reflects on omitting club champion
Jaiden Sciberras • July 10th, 2025 4:00 pm
The difficulty of nailing team selection as a head coach seems far easier said than done.
In Round 16, Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin made a notable call to omit star key defender Jake Lever ahead of their clash with the Suns, following a relatively underwhelming run of form.
Off the back of three straight losses, including a disappointing 25-point loss to Port Adelaide the week prior, a statement at selection was required at the Demons as they looked to turn over their poor form. Lever, who collected just 12 touches and six marks the week prior, fell victim to the axe.
A leader at the club, the 29-year-old was omitted for the first time since joining the club, with the Dees falling 19 points short in the defender’s absence.
Reflecting on his own tenure at the Carlton Football Club, former coach David Teague identified the immense difficulty in making major calls surrounding club leaders, citing his decision to drop club legend Marc Murphy during the 2021 season.
At the time, the Blues had won just four of their first 12 games, sitting 14th on the table – not far from season expectations - and falling three games behind the top eight following back-to-back losses and the bye in Round 13.
After Murphy was reduced to the substitute role in Round 11 of 2021 and managing just 16 disposals in Round 12 prior to their scheduled bye, Teague opted to pull the trigger, omitting the veteran for the first time in his AFL career.
The Blues lost to the Giants by 36 points in Murphy’s absence, returning to the side the following week in what would be his final AFL season.
Speaking on the swinging of the axe, Teague explored the difficulty of that decision and at selection as a whole, putting emotions aside for the benefit of the team.
“It’s always difficult,” Teague told SEN Mornings.
“One of the best joys of football is giving someone their first game. The hardest is at the other end, when you’re ending a career. But dropping someone is quite tough.
“You care about them, I think this is the thing with coaches, you spend so much time, and you care so much about these individuals, but at the end of the day you have got to do what’s right for the team.
“The hardest one I had was Marc Murphy. Obviously, a former captain, very influential particularly with (Patrick) Cripps and (Sam) Docherty.
“That was a hard one. His form, we felt, wasn’t quite at the level. We were in a position where we wanted to go forward and probably go past him, but obviously his history in the game and what he’d done (was hard to ignore).
“That was my hardest one to navigate. (I’m) not sure if I got it quite right, we ended up losing the game where we did drop him and I think as much as anything, it was probably more taking the other leaders on the journey with it, and the ‘why’ was as hard as anything.
“It’s never easy. It’s one of those ones where at the end of the day you’ve got to do what’s best for the team.
“If you’re clear on what your vision is and where you’re going and what’s going to get you there, and you can take those players on the journey, and they are clear on what that vision is then it becomes a little bit easier.
“At the end of the day, there’s people’s emotions, people that have never been dropped before in their life and experiences that they haven’t ever had to deal with before and taking them through that is not always easy.”
Speaking on Lever’s recent omission, Teague believes the star defender will use it as fuel to spark his form back to life in the back-end of the season.
“It looks like Goodwin and Lever have a good relationship,” he said.
“I know Jake, have spent some time with him and he’s got a real fight in him. He will prove them wrong; he’ll use it as energy.”
