Jack Viney

Jack Viney (born 13 April 1994) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

A midfielder, 1.78 m tall and weighing 86 kg, Viney is capable of contributing as both an inside and outside midfielder.

He played top-level football at a young age playing in the first XVIII at Prince Alfred College at fifteen and was a bottom-aged player in the TAC Cup for the Oakleigh Chargers.

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.

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 Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) as part of 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.

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 Fame member, a part of Melbourne's Team of the Century and a one-time caretaker coach for five matches in 2011.

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".

He played alongside future AFL stars Toby Greene and Tom Mitchell.

He also spent part of his childhood in Echuca, where he befriended future Brownlow Medal winner Ollie Wines.

Returning to the city of 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, in which 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 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 2012, after recording sixteen disposals, including ten contested, six tackles and six clearances.

His father, Todd Viney, is a former Melbourne captain and Jack followed in his footsteps when he was drafted by Melbourne with the twenty-sixth pick in the 2012 AFL draft under the father–son rule.

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- 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.

Viney was rated by recruiters 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 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.

He made his debut in 2013, receiving a nomination for the AFL Rising Star and was awarded the Harold Ball Memorial Trophy.

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 by the media for his performance in the match and his leadership on and off the field.

After the ninety-five point loss against in round twenty-one 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.

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 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 Fame member, 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 chief executive officer at the time, Andrew Demetriou, weighed into the debate by stating Viney was very unlucky to be suspended.

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.

He was named as Melbourne's best and fairest player in 2016, winning the Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Trophy.

He was praised by then-Melbourne caretaker 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.

In 2017, he became Melbourne co-captain alongside Nathan Jones, captaining the club for three seasons.