Jack Viney

Early life

Viney was born to Todd and Meg Viney in Melbourne, Victoria; his father played 233 games with the Melbourne Football Club and is a former captain, two-time Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medallist, Melbourne Hall of Famer, and a part of Melbourne's Team of the Century. He played his junior football with the Ashburton Redbacks, and would often play in the grade above his age group due to being "too rough".

Viney moved to Adelaide, South Australia in 2009 after his father became an assistant coach at the Adelaide Football Club and he attended Prince Alfred College for years nine and ten. In his first year at Prince Alfred he was invited to train with the first XVIII football team and he became only the second year-nine student to play with the first XVIII in the school's 147-year history. He received state-honours in the 2010 under-16 championships by representing South Australia and captained the side to the winning title, he was also named the state's most valuable player. Through the AFL elite talent junior pathways, he received a scholarship with the AIS-AFL Academy in the 2010 intake and travelled to Europe in April 2011 as part of 30-man squad. In November 2010, he signed a five-year contract with Melbourne ensuring he would be drafted by them in the 2012 AFL draft under the father–son rule.

Returning to Melbourne in 2011, Viney attended Carey Baptist Grammar School and played for the Oakleigh Chargers in the TAC Cup as a bottom-aged player. He represented Victoria Metro in the 2011 AFL Under 18 Championships and despite being one of the youngest players, he was lauded for his leadership on and off the field. He played eight matches for Oakleigh in 2011 including the losing grand final to the Sandringham Dragons where he was named best-on-ground; his coach, Greg Doyle, praised Viney for his physicality and readiness to play senior football at seventeen years of age. He was named in the level two squad for the 2011 intake in the AIS-AFL Academy, and was commended for his performance in the Academy match against the Box Hill Hawks at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 2012, after recording sixteen disposals, including ten contested, six tackles, and six clearances.

Viney received permission to play in the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 2012 for Melbourne's affiliate team, the Casey Scorpions; he suffered a broken jaw in two places during his debut match after a high-bump from then-Geelong player, David Wojcinski; in a separate incident, Wojcinski was charged with striking Viney, which resulted in an overall four-match suspension. Viney received mid-year state honours and represented Victoria Metro in the 2012 AFL Under 18 Championships, he missed the start of the championships through his jaw injury and played in the final two rounds of the championships, including the winning final against Western Australia.

2013–2014: Early career

Viney was rated as the "sixth to eight best player" heading into the 2012 AFL draft, however, under the father–son bidding system, speculation grew that the Gold Coast Football Club would bid their first round pick in the draft, the second overall, forcing Melbourne to match the bid with the third overall selection. Gold Coast ultimately chose not to bid pick two on Viney, and after the Port Adelaide Football Club bid their first round selection on him, Melbourne matched the bid with their second round pick, and recruited him with their second selection and twenty-sixth overall in the 2012 national draft. Viney made his debut in the first round of 2013 against Port Adelaide at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, despite losing the match by seventy-nine points and the team being labelled as "embarrassing", Viney was praised for his performance in the match and his leadership on and off the field. After the ninety-five point loss against Fremantle in round 21 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, he received the round nomination for the Rising Star where he recorded twenty-eight disposals, five tackles, five marks, four clearances and a goal. He was praised by then-Melbourne caretake coach Neil Craig for his competitive mindset, and Craig drew comparisons between Viney's mindset and 2016 Brownlow Medallist, Patrick Dangerfield's. He managed thirteen matches in his debut season after missing eight matches in the middle of the season through a toe injury. His season was rewarded with the Harold Ball Memorial Trophy as Melbourne's best young player and he finished fourteenth overall in the best and fairest count.

Viney had a delayed start to the 2014 season after having an injury-interrupted pre-season due to foot and hip issues. He played his first match for the season in the thirty-two point loss against Greater Western Sydney in round three at Spotless Stadium. He received widespread news coverage during the season after an incident in round seven where he collided with Adelaide player, Tom Lynch, resulting in a broken jaw to Lynch, Viney was referred directly to the AFL Tribunal, bypassing the match review panel and the opportunity of an early plea. He was initially suspended for two-weeks with the rationale given by AFL legal counsel, Jeff Gleeson, that he could have "spun out" of the impending collision, rather than brace for contact. The outcome sparked backlash among past and present players and fans, including Australian football hall of famer, Dermott Brereton, who protested he would boycott the Hall of Fame events that year due to the "fundamentally wrong" direction the game was taking. The AFL CEO at the time, Andrew Demetriou, weighed into the debate by stating Viney was very unlucky to be suspended. Melbourne announced their intention to appeal the ban and successfully had the suspension overturned, becoming only the second time an appeal was successful under the 2005–2014 AFL Tribunal system. The AFL released a statement two-weeks after the appeal stating the reason behind the overturned suspension was "because he didn’t bump Adelaide’s Tom Lynch but instead braced for contact." He played twenty matches for the season and finished eleventh in Melbourne's best and fairest count.

2015–present: Key midfielder and Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Trophy

Viney played in the first two matches for 2015 before fracturing his fibula in the round two loss to Greater Western Sydney at StarTrack Oval. He returned in round nine against Port Adelaide at TIO Traeger Park and played the remainder of the season. The season saw him move into a loose-tagging role and he was lauded for restricting the impact of Gary Ablett in the round one win against Gold Coast, and Joel Selwood in the round twelve win against Geelong, with the latter drawing praise from Gerard Healy who labelled Viney as the "new Brett Kirk". His season was rewarded with a second-place finish in the Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medal, finishing one vote behind the winner, Bernie Vince, despite playing six less matches, he also received the Norm Smith Memorial Trophy (coaches award) and James McDonald Trophy (heart and spirit award) and it was labelled as his breakout season by Fox Sports Australia journalist, Adam Baldwin.

Heading into the 2016 season, Viney was added into Melbourne's leadership group and he stated his leadership style was to "lead by actions". In the opening round match against Greater Western Sydney, he played his fiftieth AFL match in which he was named the best player on the ground by then-Melbourne coach Paul Roos, AFL Media and the Herald Sun, where he recorded thirty-two disposals (fourteen contested), six tackles, five marks and four clearances in a two-point win. His first half of the season saw him in strong form where he was placed fourth in the AFL Coaches Association champion player of the year leader board after round eight, he had featured in the AFL Media's team of the week in three out of four weeks between rounds four and seven, he had one of the largest rises in the league in the official AFL player ratings, he was named in The Age journalist, Rohan Connolly's mid year All-Australian team, and he was highly praised within the industry for his form. His performances in the first half of the season saw him sign a contract extension in May, linking him to the club until the end of 2020. In the forty-five point loss in round ten against Port Adelaide at Traeger Park, he was suspended for one match for striking Port Adelaide midfielder, Brad Ebert, and in a separate incident, he fractured a knuckle bone which initially ruled him out for one month. After missing just the one week, he returned to the team in the forty-six point win against Collingwood in the annual Queen's Birthday clash in round twelve, where he recorded thirty disposals, six marks, four tackles and a goal. He finished the season playing in twenty-one out of a possible twenty-two matches and averaged a career high 26.1 disposals, six clearances and seven tackles and ranked fourth in the AFL for tackles, sixth in centre clearances and eleventh in overall clearances. His season was rewarded with the Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medal as the club best and fairest, finishing eight votes ahead of club captain, Nathan Jones and he was the recipient of the Ron Barassi Jnr Trophy (leadership award). In addition, he was named as one of the ruck rovers in the 22under22 team, he was selected in AFL Media's team of the week five times, he was labelled as a "premium midfielder" by ESPN journalists, Niall Seewang and Jake Michaels, and Nathan Jones, noted he was the "obvious choice" to be his successor as Melbourne captain.

In February 2017, Viney was announced as the co-captain of Melbourne alongside Nathan Jones.

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