Jack Viney relishing being part of Melbourne’s pre-season under Darren Burgess after years of injury troubles
After years of battling injury through pre-season, Jack Viney is making the most of every minute under new Melbourne fitness boss Darren Burgess. Here’s why the tough on-baller is confident the Demons can recover after a year from hell.
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It took just one Ollie Wines text message for Jack Viney to get excited about the arrival of Melbourne’s new fitness boss.
Actually, it took just one word. “Jealous” was Wines’ reply when close mate Viney asked what the Demons were in for under Darren Burgess.
“From that moment on I was rapt,” Viney told the Sunday Herald Sun.
“From all the dealings I’ve had with Burgo he works you hard, but you can tell it’s all for a reason.
“He used to take (Wines’ Port Adelaide) up to Dubai and do some crazy camps like that, so I’m sure he’s got something along the track for us.”
As a rule, AFL coaches don’t like surprises. But Burgess – who quit Port in 2017 to join English Premier League giant Arsenal – seems to love them.
“He doesn’t necessarily tell us how many sets we’ve got,” Viney said.
“Normally players want to know how many repetitions or how many sets of something we’re doing, but he’s keeping us on edge. It keeps it interesting.”
It’s been a pleasant surprise for Viney to simply be a part of pre-season.
Rewind 12 months and the co-captain was recovering from ankle surgery, among the 17 Demons booked for post-season operations.
“I’m not sure how much of last pre-season I completed percentage-wise, but from memory I started around our pre-season camp in Maroochydore at the end of January,” Viney said.
“That doesn’t leave you long before JLT and the season kicks off. Now that I’ve missed a few pre-seasons I understand how critical they are to setting up a good season.
“Missing out on the hard work you do get a bit lonely and lose a bit of that relationship with the group. It’s just good to be out there all suffering together.”
It’s been a bumpy ride for the ball hunter. Early in Viney’s career he had surgery on “a bung hip”, then he broke his fibula and then there was a stress fracture in his foot.
Since suffering a plantar fascia injury three years ago it’s been setback after setback on that part of his body.
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But after playing an equal career-best 21 games in 2019, Viney is confident he has given those niggles the boot.
“I’ve actually been hanging out to be healthy at this time of year so I can get training,” he said.
With Viney cured it is time for the rest of the Demons to banish their season from hell.
Step one has seemingly been to give the club a facelift. Viney said that with so many fresh eyes around, the Demons were “enthusiastic” to get to work each day.
“There’s a lot of changes. It’s not so much in the coaching area – we’ve got Richo (Alan Richardson) in, obviously – but there’s a lot of new faces in the sports science department,” he said.
“There’s Burgo and then Burgo’s brought in bits and pieces here and we’ve got some really good new physios in.
“There’s heaps of new faces around the footy club, but in terms of the coaching, that’s all pretty similar.”
Sports science boss David Regan has joined after stints at the Miami Dolphins and New York Mets while performance data scientist Robert Younger has crossed from Port Adelaide.
The revolving door has also seen Viney’s father, Todd, depart the club.
“When he left I thought it was going to be a big deal, because I’m so close with him and I always went out of my way to say G’day to him,” Viney said.
“But I actually haven’t even thought about it until you mentioned it. It’s been a smooth transition.”
Todd Viney has grown a beard and shifted to a property near Lancefield to enjoy the fresh country air and the life of a farmer.
“He’s always had a passion for the country,” Jack said.
“He moved us all there when he retired (from playing), up Echucha way, and he’s loving it.”
Viney was due to head up after sweating through Saturday’s running session, which Burgess hopes translates to an improvement in fourth quarters next season.
“Last year we were Monday to Friday and weekends were free, whereas this year Thursday is one of our days off,” Viney said.
“The Saturday morning running session is a bit of a top-up. It’s no footballs on the Saturday, purely running-based.
“It’s a different program and that motivates guys.”
So, what happened in 2019 – when the pre-season premiership fancy nosedived all the way to 17th?
“We just couldn’t get rolling,” Viney said.
“We understood that pressure and expectation and people getting complacent were traps for a young team in our position, so the whole off-season and pre-season we were trying to make sure none of those things happened.
“But for whatever reasons we didn’t get it done.”
The Demons’ territory game didn’t stack up either as they became the worst team in history at converting inside 50s to goals.
“The coaches did a massive review post-season and they’re rolling out some stuff to help that,” Viney said.
“That’ll come with better chemistry up the field as well. We feel like that’s going to lead to better inside 50s and efficiency.”
The Dees have turned to Greg Stafford for part of the solution, with the ruck coach transitioning to become the goalkicking coach.
“Stafford blew the coaches away with how passionate he was in that field and the boys that have had a lot to do with him so far they’ve been extremely impressed,” Viney said.
“It’s all in an effort to help us when we do get it inside 50m converting.
“He works more intimately with forwards but also some selected players – whether that be midfielders or defenders – that tend to have shots on goal.”
Richardson has begun as a director of coaching, signed to offer support to senior man Simon Goodwin.
“I’ve had a little bit to do with Richo and been really impressed with him,” Viney said.
“He’s a huge pick up, just in helping Goody and helping develop the other coaches. He’s been in footy a long time, a really experienced cat and just a good operator too.
“He’s so cool, calm and collected.”
And then there’s the top-up of on-field talent.
Viney bumped into Harley Bennell on Friday, with the former Gold Coast jet set to start training with the Dees on December 3.
“He’s really close with ‘Maysy’ (Steven May) from their Gold Coast days and speaking with Maysy he’s rapt to have him training,” Viney said.
“If we can get him here, his body holds up and he’s training to his potential then it’s going to be an enormous win for us.
“I’d love for him to be part of the Demon family, along with (delisted Essendon forward) Mitch Brown as well.”
Viney played TAC Cup with free agent signing Adam Tomlinson in 2011 with Tomlinson and fellow wingman Ed Langdon – a running machine – joining Viney in Melbourne’s midfield meetings.
As for the November standouts?
“Bailey Fritsch has really come back and knocked the door down and Alex Neal-Bullen took out our 3km,” Viney said.
“People probably expected him to because he’s one of our better runners, but he’s still got to actually come out and do it and he’s flying.
“(Christian) Petracca’s looking really good and (Clayton) Oliver and Maxy Gawn, those guys that rock up every year looking fit.
“The whole list is in a really good spot.”
And that’s more than what could be said this time last year.