Jack Viney finished last year with a run of monster fantasy scores, lifting his accumulation to levels not before seen from this quality inside midfielder. As such he was one of the trade-in targets of the 2023 fantasy campaign, and still had a lot of admirers going into 2024. However, if you paid top dollar for him as a midfield keeper, you have been sorely disappointed as his numbers have reverted back to the mean of a defensive role. Sage advice is normally to never trade your premiums, but is Viney actually a premium at this point? Recent evidence points to no.
Jack Viney finished last year with a run of monster fantasy scores, lifting his accumulation to levels not before seen from this quality inside midfielder. As such he was one of the trade-in targets of the 2023 fantasy campaign, and still had a lot of admirers going into 2024. However, if you paid top dollar for him as a midfield keeper, you have been sorely disappointed as his numbers have reverted back to the mean of a defensive role. Sage advice is normally to never trade your premiums, but is Viney actually a premium at this point? Recent evidence points to no.
Jack Viney had one of his best games in quite a while last week against Hawthorn with 32 disposals and 11 tackles, but his team could only manage to draw a game that they would have pencilled in as a win, and perhaps the fact that Tom Mitchell got 41 on the other side underlines a role change back to a more traditional tagging role for the son of a gun. Every side needs a defensive mid even if they are not tagging as such, and that player is not normally the one leading the disposal count. A reversion to the fantasy mean is on the cards for Viney.
Viney creeps onwards
Plagued by foot injuries over the previous two seasons, Jack Viney was able to play all but one senior game last year but was unable to match previous statistical feats with a five year low in disposal average. He dropped outside the top 10 for contested possession to outside the top 70, and his third placing in club champion voting was a measure of how badly the team was going. Viney will be hopeful to rediscover his dominant form for the upcoming season, still well within his prime football years. Entering his eighth season, coach Simon Goodwin will expect his captain to lead from the front and hope he gains the fitness to be able to do so. A strong fantasy asset who performed well below previous highs, snag him if available in the latter mid-rounds
Jack Viney is one of a large number of Melbourne midfielders who spent a lot of time in the rehab group over summer, which is some explanation for why the team has underperformed so badly in 2019 compared to expectations. Their run to the preliminary final last year was highlighted by a late return to fitness by Viney, and though he has been playing this year he has not shown much of the form that dragged the club deep into September. He will have to repeat that trick to escape the Dees' current hole, which makes him a faith-based start for fantasy.
Slightly withered Viney
Foot injuries have interrupted Jack Viney's preparation and continuity for the past two seasons, in both playing out a series of games at reduced capacity. It is a measure of how important he is to team pressure KPIs that the coaches will pick him even when not firing on all cylinders, evidenced by his 11 tackles in the September victory over Geelong despite only four kicks. He tagged Jack Steven in round 15 but was beaten, as was his team, and he was tagged himself by Mark Hutchings in the prelim. It's a well-worn footy cliche to say that a player wills himself to get to a contest, and for Viney it fits better than most given his injury history. What sort of player would he be with a perfect preseason? He'd probably kick more, as his ratio of 8:15 and 10:15 the past two years is worse than his previous balance. The main advantage would be in running a season out at full speed, which he hasn't been able to do since 2016 when he averaged ten points higher. That upside makes him an early pick.
Tangled up in Red & Blue
The foot injury to Jack Viney in round 15 that ruined his season went a long way to also derailing the Demon train, and his fantasy average lost 17 points in the four other games he limped through before succumbing again. His numbers before that were also down on his 2016 peak as he suffered plantar fasciitis all season before the injury, dropping three kicks, a mark and two score involvements per game. Viney does not lay a hard tag any more, which for many midfielders would mean good things for his ability to accumulate. One might look at the rise of Clayton Oliver and conclude that Viney has been sidelined a bit. The more likely explanation is that the plantar fasciitis prevented him from hitting top gear, which should hopefully have been cured in the off season. He has upside based on that bounce back potential.
